I found this read to be very interesting, mostly because programs like Second Life or even The Sims have been covered before and I like to read contrasting ideas.
A few years ago MTV aired a True Life episode about people expressing themselves through virtual identities, using Second Life as one example. The girl who uses Second Life does so to play her music for her virtual friends. She explains that she performs on Second Life because she has extreme stage fright and can’t get up in front of real people. Her avatar was created to look almost identical to her contrasting with some other avatars dressed as vampires or other fantasy characters.
A few years ago MTV aired a True Life episode about people expressing themselves through virtual identities, using Second Life as one example. The girl who uses Second Life does so to play her music for her virtual friends. She explains that she performs on Second Life because she has extreme stage fright and can’t get up in front of real people. Her avatar was created to look almost identical to her contrasting with some other avatars dressed as vampires or other fantasy characters.
It is also possible to create an avatar that you wished you looked like, for example, “Whilst still in the basic tutorial, the users (‘residents’) learn how to change a set of characteristics of their avatars, including height, body proportions, hair, skin and eye colour, the size, format and distribution of facial features etc.” Since there is no rule that you must create the avatar to look exactly like yourself in order to not deceive people, there is room for creativity. “For the expert users, customization of Second Life avatars have practically no limits: it is possible to look like an animal, a geometric form or even to become invisible.” The longer you use Second Life and become accustomed to it, the further away your avatar can become from your real self. This proves these two points made in the article: “In this function, the avatar is a form of social representation of the self. It is, however, a different form, due to its immaterial nature, which frees the subject from his physical body, time and space, and due to the need for it to be explicitly created.”
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=THM16t5Cm_4&playnext=1&list=PLE3A37A9915D07C26
Hey there-
ReplyDeleteI enjoyed reading your blog because I think I saw a True Life episode that was similar or the same one as yours. I remember seeing one where a couple met by creating their own online life through avatars and that is how they met. They spent all of their free time on their online avatars and that was their way of being social because they were very shy and did not have a lot of friends. That is when I start to think the whole avatar thing is very unhealthy. I think it is great that shy people feel comfortable and that helps them be social but I don't think that it is healthy to portray yourself to be someone else.
Good job making this article relatable! I have never made an avatar or seen anything about them, other than the obvious Avatar movie. I did hear that people now use avatars for sexual relationships, and thought that was so weird and creepy. It is as if someone very shy would need to use it to feel free or something. The simms game seems like another great reference in your article. I found it very interesting how no matter what culture the maker came from, the women usually always made their avatars thinner and with longer hair than they actually had. It is strange there really is a global view of beauty... thx for your blog it was a great connection you made to true life!
ReplyDeleteI have seen that episode of MTV’s True Life as well! And because of watching that it made the article a bit more interesting read for me. I think for the girl who was featured on MTV’s special was in a way using the Avatar as an alternate identity as she used the Avatar to perform to audiences online because she was so unbelievably shy in person. I think it’s safe to say that many people use second life to live out what they are afraid to or cannot in reality. And the alternate you in second life can be seen as the “imagined self” that was discussed in the article.
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