Session 6

Wow, what a distraction Second Life can be when you’re trying to finish an assignment. I hadn’t logged in for three months when I went back to one of my favorite music clubs and became mesmerized by all the bursting electronic confetti they added:

Defining online identity in Second Life

As is standard for virtual worlds, you choose a 3-dimensional avatar. First-time users usually have a small array of premade avatars to choose from, then you “wear” your avatar and start exploring (I’ve heard secondhand that most first-timers to a VW choose the avatar that closely resembles themselves). 

From my experiences in Second Life, I believe that an online identity is first and foremost defined by your appearance, which is tied to how much you’re willing to spend on it. Here’s a snapshot a virtual mall where you can buy clothes to outfit your avatar:

Avatars are not only limited to human-like figures, however. You can buy “skins” that will transform you into a robot or grizzly bear or anything that freelance developers come up with.

Goths seem to be everywhere in SL, and this is great for people who are mostly into the look and fashion, before the music and poetry. It’s easy to dismiss a subculture as nonsense just because the fashion disagrees with your own aesthetics, but in any subculture you just have to scratch the surface and find something fascinating or unexpectedly intellectual about it. Unfortunately, most of the people who randomly pass through goth clubs never get to see this depth in SL.

In comparison to Hodkin’s article on goth online identity in the UK, I feel that with long-distance networked goths, the self-presentation through blogs seems to be the most genuine out of all the other alternatives. I kept thinking to myself that they fled the mailing lists precisely because the comparatively smaller size of the emails limited them from fully expressing themselves. It would be egregious to fill up pages and pages of an email with personal photos and musings. To me, the goth movement always seemed to have a strong element of self-absorption and self-loathing and it can be difficult to reach that dark place within yourself if you don’t have the actual space in which to chart and catalog that journey, which is what the structure of blog posts facilitate. 

Wellman’s definition of networked individualism

According to Wellman, the phenomenon of networked individualism can be attributed “to the move from densely-knit and tightly-bounded groups to sparsely-knit and loosely-bounded networks” happening at the “organizational, interorganizational and even the world-systems levels.” I can’t say that his definition of networked individualism applies to my own experience with Second Life. Despite all the time that I have spent on it, I just can’t seem to reasonably expand my network. My only SL friends are the classmates from last semester who I worked with on required SL projects. I have one or two long-distance friends who I met at library-related events, but nothing beyond that. I have a difficult time myself trusting unknown avatars, and I'm sure there are others who feel the same about mines.

Trust is definitely established by the level of fame you acquire within your groups. If your avatar name consistently appears with notable events, others are more likely to trust and want to establish a friendship with you. 

Three informal use scenarios

“Sunny day” scenarios

1. Typical need: Learn how to animate the avatar

Location: 80s dance club

Steps:

1. Observe other dancing avatars and their movements
2. Attempt to imitate with available, known affordances (motion arrows, buttons, menu options)
3. Fail.
4. Ask other avatars how they are dancing, and get your answer.
5. Click on the disco ball and start dancing!

2. Typical need: Finding activities to do in SL, like surfing

Location: Beach

Steps:

1. Find out where beaches in the immediate vicinity are
2. If no beaches can be found nearby, look in a search engine for teleports to suitable spots. These are usually concentrated in blogs, sometimes with ratings and comments from other users.
3. Teleport to spot, look for waves.
4. Find surfboards, or purchase a free one in the Marketplace.
5. Struggle with getting the board off the rack and onto the water (sounds easier than it actually is).
6. Finally, surf!

“Rainy day” scenario

3. Typical need: Find employment in SL, particularly as a DJ

Location: Any music club

Steps:

1. Attend a musical event.
2. Ask the host/other guests how you can become a DJ.
3. They will not offer a job on the spot, just because you have an awesome MP3 collection. Instead you find out becoming a DJ is a lengthy process of audition, with an avatar that might not give you one.

How is online identity shaped and expressed through interactions in this community?

I think it’s interesting that bodybuilders find online communities to be less isolating than the gym (Ploderer). It’s even more interesting that although the spirit of competitiveness can lead to isolation in real life, it greatly fosters online participation, as the bodybuilders find motivation to update their profiles with photos and commentary. 

In contrast to SL, your online identity and routine behavior can be tied to your profession. If you are a host, you are expected to be cheerful always and greet everyone that comes by.

I think it’s pretty sad that a bodybuilder’s reputation was hurt by accusations of steroid use. Because SL is still somewhat anonymous and private, the chances that your real-life profession and reputation would be hurt are minimal. 

Donath doubts that people of hugely differing behavioral patterns would be friends with each other. He says “An aggressive, rebellious profile linked to similar ones reinforces the writer's claims, but if linked to many mild and conservative profiles, the viewer may interpret it as a fictionalized performance or question the circumstances that led to these seemingly anomalous connections.” As I mentioned earlier, since online identity is defined primarily through appearance and clothing in SL, this might be of lesser concern there. Unlike Facebook or other such sites, it is not as simple to view another user’s friends. There are no activity feeds to look at, almost zero personal photos, and no comments. I can’t be entirely sure that Donath’s assertion would apply universally, because I have seen cases in real life where rebellious folk surrounded themselves with very conservative people, and vice versa. This is most likely true in Second Life as well.