I entered the online-space of Second Life, for the first time. Recalling Dwight Schrute’s decision, to make his Second Life character an exact replica of himself down to his job as a paper salesman (in the TV show, “The Office”), I decided to go in a different direction, and make my character look nothing like myself in real life. I thought this would make my Second Life experience feel more like an actual second life, but at first I felt more confused than anything else.
Second Life is a world online between gamers who create and interact with each other using self-created avatars. This online game sparks interesting social behavior online, and is becoming an interesting area of topic in the social psychology of the internet.
As for being confused, at first when signing up I had my first name starting with a lowercase letter, until a message popped up asking me if I was sure I wanted to do that. This made me step back and realize I should be careful about my name choice, as it would be another aspect of my online persona to be judged upon. I went with EarlMonroe and built off the boy-next door avatar. I figured some people would recognize me as a basketball fan because my name was intended to identify me as a fan of Earl “The Pearl” Monroe, however nobody made any such comments. So, it was a seemingly convincing that EarlMonroe was my real name.
Next, I felt I needed to explore a Second Life dance-party that people have been telling about in real-life. I ended up in one long conversation with a female avatar that approached me. When the character approached me, I did feel satisfied that I created a character someone wanted to approach, and I became so engaged in the conversation that I did not really think about starting conversations with any other gamers.
With regard to Yee and Bailenson’s (2007) paper, I did notice some aspects of the “Proteus Effect”, even after about a 30 minute conversation with one other character. The Proteus Effect applies to the online-world because it suggests that the strongest indicator of how people will act in the online-world is the avatar that that person creates for him or herself. My character was tall, distinct, and good-looking. I almost immediately revealed to my counterpart that I was new to the game. My decision to reveal I was new to the game is consistent with Yee and Bailenson’s assessment that attractive players would be more likely to disclose personal information. In this regard, I agreed with the paper.
However, I am unsure about the paper’s statement that tall players are more confident, as the female character I conversed with was short, but very confident. She was confident enough to approach a male character, when it appeared the dance-party consisted mostly of men seeking out females. My character was tall, but I am not sure I felt more confident because of my height. My character was tall, distinct, and good-looking, but these attributes only contributed to my self-confidence one the female took notice of them. I took the invitation to a conversation to be an assessment of my avatar’s likeable and attractive appearance. I was not sure I had the confidence to approach other’s until after this first conversation in which the female approached my character.
Essentially my study mirrored similar results to Yee and Bailenson’s with regard to the Proteus Effect. I am unsure that being tall made me act more dominant, but I was tall and I ended up being confident. My avatar was attractive, according to at least one outside source, and I do think this helped me self-disclose more, because I was under the impression someone was interested in what I had to say and was looking simply for conversation. This is consistent with SIP that would say over-time people can get to know each other quite well in cmc interactions. Further, my personality online was not necessarily how I act in real-life, but I did not intend for my avatar to be an exact replica of myself in the first place. My actions online however did appear to be a result of some of the characteristics and “skins” I chose to assume in my avatar. Lastly, a limitation of my study is that I only spent one hour on the Second Life in which I was engaged in only one conversation that lasted for more than 20 minutes. Nonetheless, I feel Yee and Bailenson’s study, especially when looked at with ideas such as Problematic Internet Use in mind, is very applicable to online-worlds such as Second Life.
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3 comments:
Your analysis of your experience on Second Life points out the limitations of trying to replicate Yee and Bailenson's experiment. In their experiment, they tested specifically for the Proteus Effect leaving out the effect of behavioral confirmation. As you have pointed out, your actions depended on the behavior of the female counterpart who saw that you were an attractive avatar. If the female counterpart did not approach you at first, I wonder if your behavior would have been the same. Although there are limitations, your experience does seem to be consistent with their findings. You were friendly and self-disclosed, knowing that you had an attractive avatar. Although you say that your height did not affect your confidence I wonder if you would have thought the same if your avatar was short. Overall, your experience was very interesting!
Youe exoerience seemed to be the usual for people on Second Life for the first time. Your experience seemed to fit well with Yee and Bailenson's model. My question is do you think that you would have acted the same in ways such as self disclosure if you had not previously read Yee and Bailenson's paper? Did you act in ways such as self disclosing because you thought that you were supposed to? Interesting post.
Your overall experience seems to be consistent with Yee and Bailenson's findings but also point out some flaws in their model. I mentioned in my post the that the very fact we were able to choose our avatars changes the situation entirely, but I didn't consider the role of naming. A name in all lowercase might convey a sense of childishness that would make other characters reluctant to approach you, whereas a name in all caps might just be annoying. I think it would be an interesting theory to test.
Nice post!
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