It's Everywhere
The day before yesterday, the latest issue of the Stanford Alumni Association magazine arrived in my real life mailbox.
Mixed in with the bills and a bunch of voter information related to the upcoming California primary, the cover of Stanford Magazine grabbed my attention: Reality Check: Can a Virtual Identity Change You for Good?
I didn't get a chance to sit down to read the magazine until this morning. Though I'm not surprised, the folks at Stanford University have thought a lot about many of the issues that I've wondered about in my Second Life. At Stanford, they've been able to do more than wonder - they have the time and resources to actually study these issues. The articles focus on the work being done by Assistant Professor of Communication and Director of the Virtual Human Interaction Lab, Jeremy Bailenson.
It's fascinating stuff. I want to know more, and, in fact, am in the process of trying to get in touch with some folks at Stanford to try to do just that. I'll let you know what I find.
In the meantime, my virtual friends, I refer you to three excellent real life articles on the topics of virtual realities and avatars:
Virtual Lessons, Real Productivity
And finally, I leave you to ponder a real life quote, from Zilpha Keatley Snyder, in her (children's) book, The Changeling:
The answers aren't important really ... What's important is - knowing all the questions.
No matter what life you are in, it's a lot about knowing what questions to ask and having the courage to ask them.
Pattie,
I've communicated this to you in email, but thought it worth appending to your entry here...in the spirit of looking at this phenomenon.
I found an essay from about 10 years ago that referred to MUDs, but would apply even better to SL. One passage I thought would be of particular interest to you given your psych background. From Sherry Turkle, "Rethinking Identity Through Virtual Community":
"For many people, particularly of college age, 'life on the screen' provides what the psychoanalyst Erik Erikson would have called a 'psychosocial moratorium', a central element in how Erikson thought about identity development in adolescence. Although the term 'moratorium' implies a 'time out' what Erikson had in mind was not withdrawal. On the contrary, the adolescent moratorium is a time of intense interaction with people and ideas. It is a time of passionate friendships and experimentation. The moratorium is not on significant experiences but on their consequences....Freed from consequence, experimentation becomes the norm rather than a brave departure. Consequence-free experimentation facilitates the development of a personal sense of what gives life meaning that Erikson called 'identity'."
I am not sure that anyone in 2008 would say that the experimentation in SL is "consequence-free" (maybe consequence-lite compared to FL actions), but the emphasis on experimentation and exploration of identity seems accurate.
Posted by Jeff Gardiner on January 22, 2008 at 03:49 PM PST #
So what have you got back from Stanford? I'm still trying to understand what an avatar can do and what mine might even look like.
Posted by Richard Greene on January 24, 2008 at 06:43 PM PST #