Assignment 10: Second Life

Since this assignment was to be based on Yee & Bailenson’s theory, I thought what better way to judge this than to use the same source that they did for their research: Second Life. While on Second Life I joined onto the Ben and Jerry’s community – one could chose from several different communities which had different goals for each. From there I got to chose whom I wanted to be (create my avatar). I chose an attractive female character that had blonde hair, tall, and slim. It took me a little while to adjust to site and figure out how things worked.

Once I got a hang on things I went up to numerous people and talked to them – it seemed fairly natural. I also had a handful of people coming up to me and talking (primarily males). In real life I would not have gone up to that many people or just walk away from a person mid-conversation because the conversation was extremely dull. I feel being in CMC mode and being anonymous, not necessarily having the appearance that I had on there, was the main grounds for my behaviour; which goes against Yee and Bailenson’s theory about “Proteus Effect”. For instance I did not feel more confident or powerful because I was taller in this “world”. I knew no one would ever meet me or know who I was. I do not believe being this specific character made me act in a specific way – although I can see how if I wanted to I could have easily goofed around and picked a silly character (like the animals) and could have portrayed myself in whichever way I wanted to just for the sake of it, with ease. I also believe that if people wanted to I could see how these online people could to lead to PIU where a person could become infatuated with Second Life and it consumes their life and they feel more comfortable within it than in person. This space most definitely allows people to change their character with ease and comfort since the space is in CMC, which goes along with Yee and Bailenson’s theory.

Although, I did not have any changes in my personality based on my avatar’s looks, rather it was due to being anonymous, I do believe more people spoke to me and approached me because of how my avatar looked in this space. If my avatar was not attractive, I would not have been approached at all, or seldomly. And people may not have responded to me with such patience while I was learning how to function in Second Life if my avatar was not attractive.