For this assignment I decided to give second life a try. I had heard of the program before and knew that many people were addicted to the program so I figured it would be fun to see what it is all about.
I first created my account and made my avtar “the girl next door.” The other avtar images seemed to be very odd and the “girl next door” was the most basic and looked like a character in real life. After creating my avtar I entered the second life site in search of someone to talk to. I was approached by another avtar from Sweden who clearly had altered her physical features because she was wearing a very stylish outfit, different from the basic options. Being a newbie and still looking like the basic “girl next door” I felt strange initiating conversation and did not know what to say. Usually in an instant message you know the other person you are talking to but with Second Life it took me a while to understand there are real people behind the characters.
Speaking to the Swedish avtar made me realize that I could alter my appearance too. I change my outfit and moved away from the basic “girl next door “ option. Reading through the different features I felt that I had a better understanding of what I was doing. I went back in search of other avtars more confident about using second life. I was able to talk to several people and kept initiating conversation. I even found myself lost at one point and some other guy avtar in a car offered to drive me. Although I was able to become a more active participant in the end, I do not think I would ever be able to play and chat to strangers for hours on end. I would much rather talk to people in person.
Yee & Bailenson hypothesize that “an individual’s behavior conforms to their digital self-representation independent of how other perceive them.” This process is the Proteus Effect. In their first experiment they measure attractiveness of avtars in relation to self-disclosure. In their second experiment, they found taller avtars were more confident.
My experience in second life aligns with the work of Yee & Bailenson in experiment 1. As I explained earlier, when I was new to the program and was the basic “girl next door,” I did not have much to say to the Swedish avtar that approached me. After looking at her stylish outfit, I thought I was definitely behind as a Second Life player and after my simple question of “Whats up?” I did not have much else to disclose. However, once I altered my appearance and changed my avtar from the basic girl, I talked to more people and felt more comfortable about making conversation in this online space. Whereas Yee & Bailenson predict that an individual that has a more attractive avtar will act more friendly toward others, I found that the reason I became more friendly is because I looked as if I fit in. As the basic “girl next door” it was evident that I was new to program but after altering my clothes, I appeared as a second life vetern. I think that my action can be attributed to deindividuation. Yee & Ballenson explain in their paper “factors that lead to deinidivudation, such as anonymity, might thus reinforce group salience and conformity to group norms.” By changing to a more advanced avtar, I felt that I stood out less and therefore fit in better as a second life player. I was more anonymous by changing my appearance and conforming to the world of second life.
Their second experiment about taller avtars behaving more confidently did not apply to my avtar. Almost all people that I interacted with in second life were the same height. If anything, my confidence increased as I began to understand the game more. I think the reason that my interaction in second life was not as aligned to the studies of Yee & Bailenson is because I was so new to the program. Second Life has so many features that the first half hour I spent trying to understand all that I could do on the site. Also, as far as attractiveness is concerned, besides clothing difference all of the avtars are attractive in shape and facial features. I think that their studies would prove affective on people that play the game more often and also I think that observing people’s self- concept in real life is important to consider. If a person is short/unattractive and has a tall/attractive avtar does that make a difference in their interaction FTF compared to in the CMC space? Observing offline behavior would make the CMC studies more interesting.
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3 comments:
Hi Kateyln. I think that your gaming experience in Second Life illustrates well the concepts put forth by Yee and Bailenson in their 2007 study, “the Proteus Effect,” as well as the more general concepts concerning gender in CMC. As you say in your blog, after you modified your avatar you felt more comfortable in the game setting, and subsequently became more outgoing. Also, you comment that Yee and Bailenson’s study may more appropriately apply to individuals with veteran experience in playing Second Life. Though you discuss how you became more confident both after playing the game for a little while, and after changing your avatar’s appearance, I feel that you should have made a greater distinction between the two. Though it makes sense that you became more outgoing after speaking to another gamer, and after playing for half an hour, I am curious if your gaming experience truly supports Yee and Bailenson’s study. As they hypothesize that “an individual’s behavior conforms to their digital self-representation indepenent of how others perceive them,” it appears that you do not conform to your digital self-representation as much as you become outgoing as a result of your playing the game for a period of time.
Hi Katelyn,
I think you have written an excellent blog. I definitely agree with your comments about how Second Life takes a long time to get used to. I was on ‘Orientation Island’ for about 45 minutes until I figured out that I had to complete a bunch of tasks to get out of there. I also agree with your point on how you need to spend more time in the game to experience the effects concluded by the Yee and Bailenson study. Your point about deindividuation leading to more self disclosure could also be attributed to the hypothesis that attractive individual were more likely to self disclose. When you felt that you fit in and were attractive, you talked and self disclosed more. Furthermore, I really like your idea about how making offline Ftf observations would be interesting since it would give the experimenters a baseline to work from. Again, good job on the blog!
Hey Katelyn. I totally agree with you that I'd much rather speak with people face to face than strangers with avatars online. I think your experience definitely showed Yee's and Bailensen's Proteus Effect, but also showed that the level of comfort increases with experience, not just physical attractiveness. I have to agree with Paul here, that it doesn't seem your digital self representation influenced your comfort level so much as your increased level of experience did. It happened to coincide with your changing your avatar's appearance, therefore confirming Yee and Bailenson's Proteus effect.
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