For this assignment, I decided to venture for the first time into Second Life. After waiting for about four hours (okay, maybe ten minutes) for it to download, I was pretty curious to see what all the hype was about. I chose an avatar and a name, although I'm stuck with a pretty strange name, and my first name is in all caps because I somehow didn't realize I had caps lock on. My avatar is appropriately dubbed "girl next door" by Second Life. In that way, I chose an avatar that seemed to be more or less like myself -- both female and, well, normal.
I would say that my avatar was attractive, so I was interested to see if my experience would correspond with Yee and Bailenson's three hypotheses. More specifically, I was interested to see if the Proteus Effect took place. After spending some time getting used to Second Life, I came to a few conclusions of my own. Firstly, I think that how an individual represents him or herself in the first place is the most important factor in whether or not they experience behavioral confirmation of any kind. For instance, I chose an avatar that I thought most closely represented myself in real life. For someone who was wanting to change his or herself in real life, a more attractive avatar would probably be appealing. However, I didn't see any real draw to becoming someone else solely for the purpose of interacting online. Yee and Bailenson would say that as a result of the Proteus Effect, I would act differently online because people would have different expectations of me (or, my avatar) online than in a face-to-face setting. However I don't believe that this concept was proved because I acted more or less the same way, despite people asking questions or treating me differently than in real life. This might have been partly because I wasn't so engaged in the game as I might have been were I not there with an ulterior motive. Despite my personal lack of connection to the Proteus Effect and Yee and Bailenson's three hypotheses, I can definitely see how people would feel inclined to conform to a more idealized view of themselves.
What I mean by the latter statement is that it has been my experience that the people who are most insecure about themselves in real life are those who are most likely to change on the internet. Thus, people might be more likely to self-disclose on the internet, but that information being disclosed may or may not be the truth. In this way, I feel that Second Life proved how Yee and Bailenson's second and third hypotheses could potentially be true, but in a way that is most likely different than the intended meaning. As for the idea that more attractive people walk closer to others than those who are deemed unattractive, I think that this first hypothesis is really just an extension on the idea that more attractive people (avatars) feel more confident and less self-inhibited than they might feel in real life.
In light of my observations and experiences in the online world, I'm pretty sure I won't be returning to Second Life. My First Life is crazy enough, thank you very much :)
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3 comments:
This is a really interesting post. I was also a little unsure of how applicable Yee & Bailenson's study was to my experience on Second Life because I didn't think my avatar was incredibly different from myself. Thus, however close or confidently I communicated with others was only indicative of how I am in real life, not how I felt my avatar should behave. I agree that there may be a correlation between real life insecurities and changing your self online through your avatar, however I don't think that's the only explanation. I'm sure there's a number of very secure Second Lifers who are just bored and think having an avatar with wings would really spice things up.
Nice post, very thorough in discussing how the results of the study compared to your experiences. You mention the avatar you chose was normal. But I think since your avatar was pre-made, it was extremely normal, even bland, since SL users probably see a couple of "girls next door" walking around from time to time, signaling that you are also probably a newbie. What would have happened if you chose a unique avatar or even switched genders. Such an experiment may hold support for Yee and Bailenson, because then you would be able to see the true differences in your normal FtF behavior.
Good analysis. It was interesting to see an avatar that was chosen to be exactly like the subject. Yee and Bailenson did not really address this in their paper. They only talked about representations that were either more attractive or less attractive, not neutral. This is probably why you got the results you did. I have to agree with you in that people who are insecure with themselves would choose to change their self-representation. It was a good point when you suggested that how a person chooses to represent himself/herself tells a lot about the individual.
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