Cyberspace or the "virtual world" itself can serve as a "field" site for anthropologists, allowing the observation, analysis, and interpretation of the sociocultural phenomena springing up and taking place in any interactive space.
National and transnational communities, enabled by digital technology, establish a set of social norms, practices, traditions, storied history and associated collective memory,[4] migration periods, internal and external conflicts, potentially subconscious language features[5][6] and memetic dialects comparable to those of traditional, geographically confined communities.
This includes the various communities built around free and open-source software, online platforms such as Facebook, Twitter/X, Instagram, 4chan and Reddit and their respective sub-sites, and politically motivated groups like Anonymous, WikiLeaks, or the Occupy movement.
[16] Eve M. Zucker and colleagues study the shift to digital memorialization of mass atrocities and the emergent role of artificial intelligence in these processes.
[4][17] Victoria Bernal conducted ethnographic research on the themes of nationalism and citizenship among Eritreans participating in online political engagement with their homeland.
They participate in online communities in order to learn about their customs and worldviews, and back their observations with private interviews, historical research, and quantitative data.
Tom Boellstorff, who conducted a three-year research as an avatar in the virtual world Second Life, defends the first approach, stating that it is not just possible, but necessary to engage with subjects “in their own terms”.