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FINAL PROJECT!!

Page history last edited by Caroline R 14 years, 3 months ago

Letter to My Audience 

 

When I was first trying to think of a topic, I could not even think of one.  I laugh because I feel I have become complacent when it comes to writing.  I am always known as the girl with always a huge list of things to talk about. It is odd that the girl that is never at a loss for words, actually had no words.  My teacher, Dr. Awesome E., talked to us in class about ethics in class and would Second Life be better if we knew the names of all the avatars on Second Life.  This discussion in class got me thinking.  What is too much when we are putting things on the Internet?  Why do we put the things we do on the Internet?

 

I started researching this topic and found many articles that talked about the ethics issues that are all over Second Life.  Not only did I find many psychology studies that explained the reasons why we put the things we do on the Internet, but also why we portray ourselves the way we do on the Internet. 

 

I had a lot of fun researching this project because I have always been interested in ethics. Being an avid social network site user, I have always been interested in the reasons why people say and do the things that they do on the Internet. 

  

Introduction 

 

Many people go to these virtual worlds to have a "Physical Transcendence"(Levy 7).  They want to "escape from the confines of the physical world. (Levy 7)" Linden Lab's Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Mark Kingdon had similar views in the creation of Second Life.  "Second Life is a platform for expression, communication, creativity and commerce. Our [Linden Lab] job is to provide that platform and tools to make this magic happen. (Nino)" The debate over ethical issues on the Internet has increased as the  popularity of the virtual worlds has exploded.  Ethics are something that everyone talks about.  Even though there are people that try to steal our identity and do other things to hurt us, the majority of humankind tries to be more ethical in the things they choose to do.  "Traditional ethical norms that dictate how one should share information and long-standing rules about communications etiquette are being redefined by many of the new on line social activities.(The Ethics Challenge 1)"   The question becomes, are there ethical values that need to be included in what everyone discloses on the Internet?  Disclosure is a matter of personal ethics.  Only the person that chooses what they disclose on the Internet is the person posting the information. 

 

Someone I know disclosing their true feelings about the people they go to school with.

 

The Psychology Behind Why We Disclose the Things We Disclose on the Internet

 

The Proteus Effect is a psychological term which describes why we act in a certain manner when hidden behind a screen of the Internet.  Stanford professors Nick Yee and Jeremy Bailenson came up with an hypothesis explaining the Proteus Effect: "an individual's behavior conforms to their digital self-representation independent of how others perceive them.(271)"   More simply, we create this image of ourselves that is different than what actually exists in the real world. 

  

Proteus Effect is prevalent across cultures, genders, and age groups.  "The notion of transforming our appearances permeates our culture. (Yee and Bailenson 271)" Computer users often change physical features as they enter the Internet.  With today's medical advancements, a small birth mark to gender can be changed at will.  (Yee and Bailenson 271).  These surgeries, however, often come with a hefty price tag and are permanent transformations.  Used in online games and online communities, an avatar is a three-dimensional computer model which is a representation of the computer user, or  his or her alter ego.   With just a click of the mouse, an avatar can be altered at no expense, limited only by imagination.  For instance, with a few clicks of my mouse during a recent college class project, my avatar went from a Caucasian, brown-haired, woman to a African-American, bald male.    

 

One of the Main Things We Choose to or not to Disclose: Our Identity 

 

The desire to withhold one's identity goes back as far as Biblical times, when Sarah claimed to be Abraham's sister, not his wife.  In today's society, many people consider our personal identity one of the most precious things we can protect.  Today, we are cautioned to protect any personally identifiable information, especially over the Internet.  Even my teacher, Dr. Awesome E., only stores the first name and last initial of his students to prevent Internet searches of our name.  In online chat rooms, people use self-created screen names to withhold their identities from the other people in the chat room. 

 

In Second Life, people choose interesting names to withhold their identity.  For instance, my avatar's name was Jennings Soulstar.  My avatar's name had no correlation with my real name; however, it sounded interesting, fun and slightly mysterious.  Beyond using an avatar for its entertainment value, many people often use Second Life to escape to an alternate world because they are having identity crises.  Botterbusch and Talab describe a female avatar and a male avatar who had started a courtship in Second Life and the male avatar ultimately left Second Life (10).  When the female avatar finally contacted the male avatar, she discovered the true reason why he left her (Botterbusch and Talab 10).  "Mr. Avatar told Miss Avatar that he was hiding a real life identity issue and that he used Second Life to escape the difficulties of that life. (Botterbusch and Talab 10)"  This confession indicates that the truth is sometimes shrouded in the avatar's online experience.   

 

Interesting research has also been completed on the scrambled gender identity online.  Do we really know what the sex of the avatar really is?  A study conducted by Dr. Alex Gordon proves that the gender of the avatar is probably not representational of the gender of the person behind the avatar.  "Dr. Alex Gordon discovered that 80% of female avatars are actually men and 75% of male avatars are actually women. (Botterbusch and Talab 10)"  Dr. Gordon concludes that  "many people are in virtual environments to experiment with their identity. (Botterbusch and Talab 10)" 

 

My college class actually had experience with the alteration of gender identity.  The assignment was to modify the gender of our avatars in Second Life and observe the ensuing  reactions of others.  According to a fellow avatar named Pepper, (I have permission to use her first name in Second Life), she believed that I was a man.  She told me how to meet the ladies in Second Life.  How would she have addressed me if I told her I was actually a woman talking through a male avatar?  She probably would have stopped talking to me or hopefully been inquisitive and asked why I was a male avatar.  She could have actually been a male on the other end of the avatar.  

Another avatar Riley (I have permission from Riley to use her Second Life first name) not only changed her gender to a man, but also had given herself, now himself, fairy wings.  Riley received negative reviews from many people in Second Life.  The people she received negative reviews from probably thought there was a man trying to flirt and create a different kind of sexual relationship in Second Life.  In reality, the real person behind the avatar was actually a female who was trying to elicit a reaction from other persons or avatars in Second Life.  People withhold some aspect of their identity, whether gender, name or age, to prevent disclosure of their true persona.

 

 

My orginal avatar.                                                My African-American Male Avatar after the Gender Switch.

  

The Ethical Issues with Representing Ourselves on the Internet or in Virtual Worlds 

 

There have been many arguments posed about personal representations in virtual worlds on the Internet.  Some studies suggest that a person's treatment of animals are indicative of the way others would be treated There are people that have put the conclusion together that the way we treat other animals coincides with the way we treat or will treat other avatars in virtual worlds.  "If disrespectful treatment of animals causes disrespectful treatment of virtual characters, which may be even more similar to such treatment of real humans, will have the same consequence. (Brey 9)" If the people are cruel to other animals, it is probably safe to say that they demonstrate cruel behaviors to other avatars. 

 

It is generally accepted that the love of a pet for its master is unconditional.  Pets also often show a person's mannerism to other people.  Cruelty to pets is often indicative of character flaws in If the person is cruel to their pet, they are probably not the nicest person to other people. For example, a person was convicted of being cruel to other animals in my neighborhood, and he was very rude to other neighbors.  Even though I do not have experience with other avatars being cruel to me, I can hypothesize that this man would have probably been quite cruel to other avatars if he was to enter Second Life. 

 

Another argument that has arisen with the ethical issues of representing ourselves on the Internet is the psychological argument.  My parents always drowned my sister and I with the phrase, "computers and video games rot your brain, go do something educational, read a book!"  They did not want my sister and I to be enveloped by the video games and believe that they are real.  Doctors in the Department of Clinical Psychiatry at the University of Basal, Kuntze, Stoermer, Mueller-Spahn, and Bullinger articulate "Virtual Environment can impoverish those aspects of life that are essential to social development, interpersonal relations, and emotional growth. (1)"  Had my parents not taken the video games from me, I probably would have not been as talkative and over the top as I am today.  Philip Brey talks about the same point.  He says, "people should learn not to identify with such representations, and should recognize that any action performed on representations is irrelevent to events in the real world. (9)" Even though Brey's comment would be perfect in a perfect world, we do not live in a perfect world.  People are sucked into these worlds and they do not know how to get themselves out of these worlds.  When they are sucked in, their minds are turned to the way of the virtual world.  The virtual world becomes the real world. 

  

Businesses on the Internet and Disclosure

 

Many business have become really excited about using Virtual Worlds.  This is because computers are less and less expensive, resulting in the influx more computer users (USA Today).  Businesses are having less and less human contact and more and more avatar to avatar contact.  As a result, there is  greater demand for screen names of avatars. 

 

If there are this many issues with people and disclosure, then why do so many people put their businesses on Second Life?  Corporate name recognition and marketing are a primary consideration.  The issue is arises about disclosure and the ability to work and be away from the recreational side of Second Life.  Mark Kingdon created a "behind-the-firewall (Linden 3)" solution.  "The extra layers of security and administrative control in a stand-alone product would allow these organizations to explore virtual as a powerful and effective collaboration tool. (Linden 3)"  By creating this place just for businesses, the worry about safety and security of one's name goes away.

 

 

Photo from Amanda Linden's Article,  "Introducing Second Life Enterprise, Now in Beta, and Second Life Work Marketplace"

 

When blogs first became popular and when Second Life was in its infancy, IBM created a memo that talked about what was acceptable according to IBM.  It had the obvious of protect all clients names, but it had some unexpected spins to it (IBM 1).  It talked about how IBM was best represented by the people and how we should all be blogging and using wiki pages to talk about IBM (IBM1).  IBM wants everyone to go and talk about everything that is to know about IBM.  Also, a IBM worker was quoted on using virtual worlds being more economical (Noyes). "We saved hundreds of thousands of dollars in travel, food and accommodation expenses. (Noyes)"  Granted this losing money for the airlines and hotels, but the gain for the businesses using virtual worlds is so great.  Being able to meet in these virtual worlds allows for meetings that might be impossible due to travel allows for greater productivity. 

 

 

IBM in Second Life.  Photo Courtesy of BBC News.

 

There is an example of how productivity had increased because of the usage of Second Life.  My teacher Dr. Awesome E., uses Second Life once a week for a huge meeting.  He meets with a bunch of other educators and they discuss how to further enhance the student's learning experiences in the classroom by adding Second Life.  These educators live all over the United States.  If they did not have Second Life they would have to fly to a central location, which would become very expensive.  They could do a conference call, but conference calls can be confusing as to which speaker is speaking.  Without Second Life, these meetings would probably not be as productive and my college class would have not been as enhanced as it was because of Second Life.

 

A meeting in Second Life.

 

There are some things that could go wrong for businesses by using things like Second Life and LinkedIn (LinkedIn is a site for business people to post their resume to the business world.)  The reason is because there are no legal experts guarding what the activities of the business owner on the Internet (The SL Revolution).  Problems businesses face include "Contract enforcement, insufficient tax documentation, copyright issues, and non-disclosure exposure. (The SL Revolution)"  These are scary things because these things are essential aspects of someone's business.  If even one of these things were to get stolen or messed up the business would definitely have a lot of issues.  

 

Conclusion

  

From the socialite to the business person, Virtual Worlds have become very popular among all types of people.  They are effective places for meetings.  Even with the ethical issues they pose, virtual worlds are effective ways to communicate with people around the world that otherwise would be very difficult to communicate with. 

 

Works Cited

  

Botterbusch, Hope R., and R. S. Talab. "Ethical Issues in Second Life." Academic Search Complete. EBSCO, Jan. 2009. Web. 9 Dec. 2009. 

http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=a9h&AN=36520215&site=ehost-live. 

 

Brey, Phillip. "The ethics of representation and action invirtual reality." The Guide to Computing Literature. Association for Computing Machinery, 1998. Web. 9 Dec. 2009. <The ethics of representation and action invirtual reality>.

 

"Exclusive interview with Linden Lab CEO Mark Kingdon."  Interview by Tateru Nino.Massively. 5 Nov. 2009. Web. 10 Nov. 2009.   

http://www.massively.com/2009/11/05/exclusive-interview-with-linden-lab-ceo-mark-kingdon-part-two/

 

"IBM Social Computing Guidelines." IBM - United States. IBM. Web. 11 Dec. 2009. 

"THE ETHICS CHALLENGE." Academic Search Complete. EBSCO, Sept. 2009. Web. 9 Dec. 2009.

http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=a9h&AN=45433525&site=ehost-live

 

 "The Importance of Identity when Doing Business in Virtual Worlds." Web log post. The SL Revolution. Web. 11 Dec. 2009.     <http://theslrevolution.wordpress.com/2009/02/04/identity-in-virtual-worlds/>. 

  

Levy, Mark R. Communication in the Age of VIrtual Reality. Ed. Frank Biocca. Hillsdale: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, Inc., 1995. Print. 

 

Linden, Amanda. "Introducing Second Life Enterprise, Now in Beta, and Second Life Work Marketplace." Second Life. 4 Nov. 2009. Web. 19 Nov. 2009. 

Noyes, Katherine. "Linux News: Virtual Worlds: The Business Case for Virtual Business, Part 2." LinuxInsider: Linux News & Information from Around the World. ECT News Network, 30 June 2009. Web. 11 Dec. 2009.

 

 Photograph. Doing Business in the Virtual World. Web. 11 Dec. 2009. <http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/in_pictures/6184183.stm>.

 

Photograph. Word to Your mother. Web. 11 Dec. 2009. <mothere.worldpress.com>.

 

"Use of virtual reality spreading in business world - USATODAY.com." News, Travel, Weather, Entertainment, Sports, Technology, U.S. & World - USATODAY.com. Associated Press, 13 Jan. 2007. Web. 11 Dec. 2009. <http://www.usatoday.com/tech/news/2007-01-13-virtualreality_x.htm>.

 

Woolley, Benjamin. Virtual worlds : a journey in hype and hyperreality. Cambridge: Blackwell, 1992. Print. 

 

Yee, Nick, and Jeremy Bailenson. "The Proteus Effect: The Effect of Transformed Self-Representation on Behavior." Academic Search Complete. EBSCO, July 2007. Web. 9 Dec. 2009. http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=a9h&AN=25335438&site=ehost-live.

 

 

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Comments (3)

Joe Essid said

at 12:08 pm on Dec 9, 2009

"There are certain ethics that everyone needs to abide by when choosing what they disclose on the internet" seems an unsupportable claim.

If disclosure is a personal matter--how much personal information I choose to reveal--why do I *need* to abide by the same ethics as everyone else? For instance, I could post my credit-card numbers and lurid photos on a site, if I wished. That's my choice, and I must live with the consequences.

Qualify what you mean by "everyone needs to abide by" please. Or are you thinking of how I should respect others' rights NOT to disclose information? That's a different matter and probably easier to support.

emily.schworer@richmond.edu said

at 1:49 pm on Dec 10, 2009

Caroline,
You have a good start and I really like the idea you chose. As far as your photo problem goes, you could easily put some photos of your change from female to male to show how different avatars can look when they are really the same person.

I like how well you share your own experience and explain research that was done on the same topic. Your titles also help to organize the paper

Can't wait to read more : )

Joe Essid said

at 3:48 pm on Dec 10, 2009

Caroline,

Use the screen capture utility "Grab" on your Mac. Get some snaps of parts of Facebook profiles that illustrate good or bad uses of disclosure (or any number of "first life" tabs in SL.

Just be sure your crop out anyone's name, be it an avatar or real-life name.

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