10: Second Life: can you truly change who you are online?

I was introduced to the online multi-player virtual reality known as Second Life through the television show CSI: NY. On the show, the different dimensions of Second Life are explored and I was excited to start on my own.

The first thing I had to do was choose the community I would start off at. Since I am new to the online gaming community, I decided to go easy on myself and start off on a community called "Linden Lab's Orientation Island".

The first choice you get on choosing how you shall be represented in your name. You are allowed to type in anything for your first name (2-31 characters with numbers or letters only) and can choose from a variety of last names. My first few choices were taken so I decided to go with one of the options the computer offered: Amore Checchinato.

I knew that the name I chose would have as much of an impact as the physical appearance of avatar I choose. The name I choose would be the first step in attracting other players. I was then brought to the avatar screen. I decided to go away from what I look like in real life and chose the avatar "Harajuku-Female".

After registering, I was eager to start exploring my world as well as changing my avatar to make it as appealing as possible. I knew that I wanted to spend a lot of time making sure my avatar was extremely attractive since as Yee & Bailenson (2007) mention "And in online environments,
the avatar is not simply a uniform that is worn, the avatar is our entire selfrepresentation.
Although the uniform is one of many identity cues in the studies mentioned earlier, the avatar is the primary identity cue in online environments" (274) .

In order to make my avatar more appealing, I decided to change not only her clothes but add other physical characteristics as well. In the end my avatar had black hair in pigtails, two tattoos, brown eyes, short skirt and a tank top. She was in perfect shape (36-24-36). She wasn't tall, but rather a little bit shorter than average (5"3').

According to Yee & Bailenson, the way an online user acts in such an environment is named the Proteus effect. The Proteus effect basically states that "users who are deindividuated in online environments may adhere to a new identitythat is inferred from their avatars. And in the same way that subjects in black uniforms conform to a more aggressive identity, users in online environments may conform to the expectations and stereotypes of the identity of their avatars. Or more precisely, in line with self-perception theory, they conform to the behavior that
they believe others would expect them to have" (245). So in other words, since my avatar is someone who is attractive, I will act in the way a stereotypical attractive person acts (i.e. outgoing, flirtatious, and social). I may not be this way in real life, but in this online environment, I am one with my avatar, so therefore the "real-world" me does not exist.

This was shown to be true soon enough when I encountered other beings. I was the first to approach a random stranger (Maxy Delight) and strike up a conversation. Soon enough, we were chatting amicably and about everything under the sun. After approximately 20 minutes of chatting, another person (Venus Ember) entered the conversation. Both avatars were extremely attractive, and we all were exhibiting characteristics of attractive people (confirming each others "attractive" behavior in a cyclic manner). The longer we talked, the more intense our characteristics were shown. The conversation that had started off light and friendly soon grew sexual and extremely flirty.

I soon left the conversation and decided to just wander around. At first I was still exhibiting the characteristics that were in line with my avatar, so people still approached me. I was smiling and waving hi to random people. However, after a while, I grew tired of being so social and retreated into myself, becoming short tempered and quite rude. This made many people wary of approaching me and the Proteus effect disappeared.

Since I was new to the whole gaming community, it was hard for me to want to stay in character all the time. I feel that the Proteus effect is more constant when people want to stay in character and escape their outside lives rather then with someone like me who grew tired of playing after a short time. My experience was also different than those mentioned in the reading for the main reason that I was allowed to change my avatars looks and those who participated in the experiments were not.