Cyberhero Archetype

While a great deal of research and media attention has been paid to cyberbullying and cyber crime, very little has been paid to the ways people are using the Internet to benefit the world.  Dr. Klisanin has suggested that individuals actively using the Internet and digital technology to help other people, animals, and the environment represent a new incarnation of the hero archetype, the “cyberhero”. She coined the term “cyberheroing” to reference on-line activity that benefits others.

Cyberheroing involves acts of digital goodness particularly acts of digital altruism.  Digital altruism  includes activities such as 1) clicking on “click-to-donate” websites, such as found at Bhookh.com and Care2.com; 2) adding content to educational and informational websites such as Project Gutenberg and Wikipedia; 3) searching the web through websites such as Ripple and Goodsearch; 4) shopping through websites such as Goodshop and Product Red and 5) gaming at sites such as Games that Give,  Conspiracy for Good,  TheBigTest.org and FreePoverty.com. For additional links, go to cyberheroes.com. To join build a community of cyberheroes, considering joining the newly forming Cyberhero League.

Dr. Klisanin presented her theoretical research on digital altruism in 2009, and her research on the cyberhero archetype at the annual convention of the American Psychological Association (APA) in August of 2010.  Further research on the cyberhero archetype was conducted in 2011; the results were presented at the APA convention in August  2011 and published in Media Psychology Review in February of 2012.

The 21st century needs new archetypal forms in order to address global challenges. The cyberhero archetype serves as a catalyst for positive change through empowering people to recognize their ability to use information and communication technologies to make a difference in the world.

What are cyberheroes?

“As an ideal form, or archetype, the cyberhero represents individuals motivated to act on behalf of other people, animals, and the environment, using digital technology in the peaceful service of achieving humanity’s highest ideals and aspirations, i.e., world peace, social justice, environmental protection and planetary stewardship. The archetype is a transmodern synergy of two extant archetypes: the hero and the superhero (Klisanin, 2012).

Why do we need the cyberhero?

“If we lose the ability to imagine ourselves as heroes, and to understand the meaning of true heroism, our society will be poorer for it. But if we can reconnect with these ancient ideals, and make them fresh again, we can create a connection with the hero in ourselves. It is this vital, internal conduit between the modern work- a-day world and the mythic world that can prepare an ordinary person to be an everyday hero” (Franco & Zimbardo, 2006).

How can we make ancient ideals of heroism fresh again?

“The cyberhero is a 21st century archetype arising from an emergent “transmodern heroism”. In the 21st century it isn’t enough to wait for life to provide us with an opportunity to become a “hero” — Having inherited a world of mass graves and mass extinctions, transmodern heroism is about using the tools at hand, i.e., our digital technologies, to act NOW. It is about having the courage and fortitude to use the power of our own voices to speak on behalf of all living beings, particularly those with little or no voices of their own. Digital technologies are the “peace-sabers” of our century. They allow us to amplify our voices and to connect with humanitarians and environmentalists active in the field, enabling them to carry out their end of a common goal. Cyberheroing means using Internet technologies to benefit others. Ultimately, transmodern heroism has less to do with risking one’s life for another and everything to do with the ability to exchange oneself with the “other”; it is the death of selfishness and greed and the radical embrace of empathy, compassion, and simplicity. It is, above all, an archetype whose time has come.” (Klisanin, 2010).