Virtual communities provide people with an alternative life in which to take part, without leaving the comfort of their computers. Through self-created avatars, individuals are able to, essentially, recreate themselves. Through this medium, people can take on any identity they choose, and even have multiple identities. This raises questions about the nature of the ‘real self’. Increasingly, it appears that virtual selves and real selves are overlapping.
Second Life is one example of an online platform where people can create their own alternative life; they can buy property, find employment and even maintain relationships. Once logged in to Second Life, the player is able to create his own avatar, to look exactly how he wishes. He can interact with other avatars, also owned by real people from all over the world. Players are free to behave as they wish and, at times, such behaviours can be very different to the ones that the player would display in real life.
Standford University has set up a Virtual Human Interaction Lab, or VHIL in order to study the ways in which-perception can affect a person’s behaviour. Jeremy Bailenson, who is professor of communication at the university, has revealed that players with an attractive avatar are likely to display more confidence and be more outgoing in the virtual world than those with less attractive avatars (Dell). This is interesting, but not necessarily surprising; after all, it is well known that, in real life, a person’s behaviour directly relates to how they feel about themselves.
However, Bailenson has also discovered that the qualities that a person develops online, such as increased confidence, can begin to affect the person’s behaviour in real life, without them being conscience of it. For example, if an individual uses an avatar who is significantly less attractive than their real self, even for a short time, they can develop insecurities when playing online, and then take these insecurities with them back into the real world when they leave their computer (Dell).
The concept of real life and online life overlapping and merging certainly has supporting evidence. For example, in 2008 a British couple divorced following an affair carried started on Second Life. Real life Amy Taylor has an avatar called Laura Skye, who was married to her husband’s avatar in Second Life. However, Laura Skye discovered that her husband was having an affair and, likewise, Taylor believed that her husband was having a real life affair with the woman as well (Morris).
As Steven Morris from The Guardian (2008) reports, Taylor says: “It may have started on-line but it existed entirely in the real world and it hurts just as much,” she said. “His was the ultimate betrayal. He had been lying to me.”
Relate, a British charity set up to help people with their personal relationships was interviewed at around the same time. The Relate spokesperson claimed that the counsellors were dealing with a rising number of people who were having problems in their real-life relationships as a result of the happenings in their online worlds (Morris). Many would think this preposterous as, after all, the online life is not real; it is little more than a game. However, increasingly, people are perceiving their online lives as if they are as significant as their real lives.
Virtual communities such as Second Life can provide players with an opportunity to live out a different life with, if they choose, different appearances and personalities. While, on the one hand, such platforms can appear like harmless fun, it seems that the lines between real and virtual life are becoming increasingly blurred.
Works Cited
Dell, K. “How Second Life Affects Real Life.” Time Science. 12 May 2008. Web. 6 July
2011. http://www.time.com/time/health/article/0,8599,1739601,00.html
Morris, S. “Second Life Affair Leads to Real Life Divorce.” The Guardian. 13 November
2008. Web. 6 July 2011. http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2008/nov/13/second-
life-divorce
Second Life. Web. 6 July 2011. http://secondlife.com/
