Relationships in Second Life and How They Can Affect Real Life - Essay Example

Relationships in Second Life and How They Can Affect Real Life Introduction The information age has spurned the creation of 3D virtual societies in which users can log on and create avatars, virtual representations of themselves. Since its release in 2003 by Linden Lab, Second Life has become a very popular Web-based multi-user virtual reality tool and is used by educators all over the world to support opportunities for interaction, a sense of community, and self-building capabilities within their students (Zhang). These immersive 3D environments, also known as Multi User Virtual Environments (MUVE) (Mennecke et al. 373) or Massively Multiplayer Online Games (MMOGs), allow large numbers of users from diverse backgrounds and locales to interact via the Internet (Ducheneaut, Wen, Yee, and Wadley 1151). However, for many inhabitants of Second Life, it is not just a 3D online game, but another world that “…has its own economy and millions of residents who own and create property, make friends and even get married” (CNN Living, 2008). These virtual worlds (VWs) have become conduits for socialization, collaboration, entertainment, social networking, and business development (Mennecke et al. 371). Second Life vs. Real Life In VWs like Second Life, users must build virtual representations of themselves through creation of customizable avatars, which gives them a 3D body that they control and provides a “tangible embodiment of their identity” (Ducheneaut, Wen, Yee, and Wadley 1151). Through the avatars, users can discover an ever-growing assortment of virtual sites, fabricate all sorts of items, from clothing to buildings, and create businesses to sell their goods or services, forge relationships with other players through their interactions with their avatars, and buy virtual property (Hayes 154). According to Dell, as many as 13 million people have logged on to Second Life at least one time and about 450,000 subscribers are from more than 50 countries are online in any given week, ranging in age from 18 – 72, 27% of which are female (Hayes 154). Researchers have begun to conduct studies to analyze the way self-perception formed through interactions in VWs affects behaviors in the real world (Dell). According to Ducheneaut, Wen, Yee, and Wadley, "the choices users make when creating and customizing their avatar will have repercussions on their interactions with other users” (1151), which can cause users to create online personas that are sometimes the complete opposite of who they are in real life. The ability to “…do, create or become just about anything you can imagine” (Hayes 154) in the VW can result in people adapting qualities that spill over and change their demeanor in the real world (Dell). This reaction frequently occurs without the person being aware of the shift and research has determined that as little as 90 seconds spent interacting with avatars online is sufficient to bring forth behavioral changes offline due to augmentation to the individual’s self-perception and self-confidence (Dell). Additionally, researchers have determined that physical characteristics, like height and appearance, can have significant effects on the online behavior of the person as well as how they interact with others offline (Dell). Studies conducted regarding behaviors determined that individuals that used avatars considered to be physically attractive tended to display a higher degree of self-assurance than they normally did after inhabiting the avatar (Dell). This was also true for people that used tall avatars, with these individuals displaying behaviors more aggressive than their usual demeanor and the converse being true for people using short avatars (Dell). VWs can potentially be used to improve health for some adults by allowing them to watch avatars that closely resemble their own likeness exercise, which, in studies, resulted in the individuals also exercising within 24-hours of the interaction (Dell). More recently, researchers have been populating VWs with self-governing, virtual humans and using them to induce realistic responses in their patients as part of a newly pioneered treatment method designed to help people suffering from a wide array of phobias and disorders, like fear of heights or of public spaces, social anxiety, alcoholism, and gambling addiction (Carey). The use of VWs for cyber-therapy is allowing therapists to counsel patients at the very moment they feel the urge to succumb to their malady and this permits the clinician to gain insight into how people are affected by interactions through the use of virtual humans (Carey). The online forum enables users to experiment with different aspects of their personality, creating “laboratories for the construction of identities” (Ducheneaut, Wen, Yee, and Wadley 1151). Users can infuse their avatars with “aspects of their ideal selves”, and engage in gender and ethnicity swapping, which can have positive connotations for those that have low self-esteem (Ducheneaut, Wen, Yee, and Wadley 1151). These experiences have positive outcomes for the user in real life because they internalize these virtual experiences and their responses to them with effects that transcend into reality (Carey). Therapists have also been using virtual technology to reproduce threatening situations and use the facades to guide patients through them, gradually increasing the intensity of the situation (Carey) according to the patient’s ability to cope. Within these virtual environments, psychoanalysts can create these detrimental environments in the safety of their office and treat the patient with gradual virtual exposure, which can be helpful for those suffering from post-traumatic stress or agoraphobia, among other anxieties (Carey). Effective cyber-therapy can replace the unhealthy association between reminders of an upsetting experience and the patient’s reaction with positive reinforcement the patient can draw upon to cope, creating a new, healthy reaction (Carey). Researchers are trying to use similar methods to help “progress high-functioning autistic children’s ability to think and talk about themselves while paying attention to multiple peers” (Carey). There is also optimism that practice interacting with a virtual boss, strangers, or virtual partygoers will be able to help people suffering from social anxiety learn to interact with others in this situation with increased comfort (Carey). For millions of people, belonging to a virtual community is liberating, equitable and empowering, allowing them to be the person and do the things they wish they could in the real world (Bakardjieva 293). However, opponents of VWs have vigorously defended their idealized definition of what a ‘real’ community is, stating that it is singularly symbolic of the “immediacy and locality of human relationships that resists technological mediation” (Bakardjieva 293) and insist that these virtual spaces do not have this quality, which disqualifies them from being “communities”. Users disagree, and, to them, the virtual environment and the connections their avatars form with others is quite real. With their digital bodies, they can convey opinions or feelings, play, greet others, signal group affiliation, and create closeness (Taylor 41). Avatars root their users within the virtual space the same way our corporeal bodies enmesh us in physical space and, in MUVEs, immersion is experienced “through the use of a body as material in the dynamic performance of identity and social life not just through the inclusion of a representation of self” (Taylor 41). A distinctive characteristic the Second Life VW is that it is built to work like a realistic economic zone, which permits users to barter services and virtual objects created and maintained entirely within the virtual environment (Mennecke et al. 375). Second Life supports forms of commercial activity, like the trade of "virtual" realty, either within the game or through external brokers (Mennecke et al. 375). Since Second Life was designed with the intent of allowing members to build their own environments, generate social networks, and engage in a virtual economy using their artificial but convertible currency, the “Linden Dollar”, the economic and social activities in these environments create exclusive opportunities for users to achieve economic, social, fantasy, and real activities (Mennecke et al. 375). While these environments might be thought of as “games,” there are real-world consequences to activities that occur in MUVEs, like generating or losing income (Mennecke et al. 375) and this requires levels of trust to be established and maintained between users operating or exchanging goods and services in this environment. The virtual world of Second Life surmounts the known hurdle of creating trust with their users by providing a staff of “live” concierges in heir IBM Virtual Business Center to help patrons find the information they may be searching for, personalizing their experience (Mennecke et al. 375). The design of Second Life allows for the virtual experience to be linked with real world goods and services, which too closely paralleled real life when a virtual “bank” where residents had deposited Linden dollars, which is the virtual money used in Second Life, changed its guidelines to limit withdrawals and ultimately disappeared from the virtual world (Mennecke et al. 375). This resulted in affected Second Life users being ‘scammed’ out of a considerable sum of Linden dollars, producing cumulative losses of about $700,000 in real money and, since Linden currency is considered an element of the service provided by Linden Research, the legal consequences of this unfortunate incident remain uncertain (Mennecke et al. 375). If this same scenario were to actually happen in real life, it would be subject to class action legal recovery of damages (Mennecke et al. 375), but this is not possible in VWs. Immersive 3D environments allow large numbers of users from diverse backgrounds and locales to interact via the Internet. These VWs have become conduits for socialization, collaboration, entertainment, social networking, and business development, creating ways for people to develop social skills without the same restrictions as real life. Works Cited 1. Carey, Benedict. “In Cybertherapy, Avatars Assist With Healing.” New York Times on the Web 22 Nov. 2010. 23 Nov. 2011 . 2. Dell, Kristina. “How Second Life Affects Real Life.” New York Times on the Web. 12 May 2008. 23 Nov. 2011 . 3. Ducheneaut, Nicolas, Ming-Hui “Don” Wen, Nicholas Yee, and Greg Wadley. “Body and Mind: A Study of Avatar Personalization in Three Virtual Worlds.” New Media Experiences, (2009): pp. 1151-1160. 4. Hayes, Elisabeth R. “Situated Learning in Virtual Worlds: The Learning Ecology of Second Life. University of Wisconsin-Madison 23 Nov. 2011 . 5. Mennecke, Brian E. et al. "Second Life and Other Virtual Worlds: A Roadmap for Research." Communications of the Association for Information Systems (CAIS), 22.20: (2008): pp. 371-388. 6. Taylor, T.L. “Chapter 3: Living Digitally: Embodiment in Virtual Worlds.” The Social Life of Avatars: Presence and Interaction in Shared Virtual Environments. Ed. R. Schroeder. London: Springer-Verlag, 2002. 40-62 7. Zhang, Joanna Xuan. “Second Life: Hype or Reality? Higher Education in the Virtual World.” DE Oracle @ UMC 2007. 23 Nov. 2011 . Read More