The Desktop as a Virtual Space

The desktop metaphor provides users with the illusion that they are working in a two-dimensional or even three-dimensional environment. Objects can be moved from the left to the right, from the bottom to the top and vice versa. In addition, they can be moved to levels under the surface. The language used in order to describe the work with a desktop metaphor gives us a hint as to how far the metaphor has invaded our thoughts. One "enters" and "quits" a program as if it was a room which is different from the initial room, the desktop. If the desktop is regarded as an initial point, an information space as Johnson calls it, and a program is something a user has to "enter", a movement can clearly be recognized. Although programs do not seem to fit to the metaphor of a desktop since there is no real-world counterpart, the connection between these metaphors seems to be coherent, albeit not consistent. Thus, the metaphor OBJECTS HAVE PROPERTIES, AND THERE ARE OPERATIONS WHICH CAN BE APPLIED TO THESE OBJECTS and the metaphor USER CAN ENTER AND LEAVE PROGRAMS can be regarded as subcategories of the major category THE COMPUTER DESKTOP IS A VIRTUAL SPACE. What is more, according to Lakoff and Johnson's third point, it is assumable that the notion of a program is something one can get into as a consequence of a created reality.
Finally, presumably other actions will be perceived in terms of the major category metaphor. The internet, for example, is often referred to as cyberspace. While this term was coined by William Gibson in his novel Neuromancer, it would probably not have been adopted by the majority of computer users if it did not fit into the metaphor of a virtual space. In fact, one of Gibson's inspirations were kids playing with video games; he realized that everyone who works with computers seems to develop an intuitive faith that there's some kind of actual space behind the screen (Turkle Life on the Screen 264-265, original emphasis). Mention should also be made of the fact that this metaphor is spread wherever the computer "touches" our real world; people are on the information highway, they are visiting sites, and they are on the web. Boris Becker, in the America Online campaign, simply said Ich bin drin, and even Microsoft's slogan Where do you want to go today? could be understood as referring to the metaphor. However, with regard to what has been said in section 4.1, users might experience the desktop metaphor differently. While some users may belong to Turkle's ideal types, other users might have a different understanding of the metaphor.