Living with Virtual Worlds

As a member of Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest and several other online words I found these articles to be interesting. The questions posed for this week are relevant to everybody living in this digital age: why should we care about online worlds and what do online worlds mean for our society?

In the Andrejevic article there was a point made that resonated with me and reminded me of what I have experienced often while online. “… producers have more information about consumers than ever before, and consumers have less knowledge about and control over how this information is being used” (p. 27). I am a self-proclaimed online shopping addict. I give myself this title and my family, as well as my friends are very aware that shopping online is my drug of choice. Sometimes I’ll just go to online stores and put everything I desire in my cart, while other times I will self indulge and purchase the items. About a year ago, I was on Facebook just looking through my newsfeed and responding to comments when I realized that exactly what I had been shopping for was being advertised to me in a column on Facbook. The advertisement was for a pair of shoes that I had clicked on at a site I frequently go to when online shopping. This was no coincidence, because ever since I have seen numerous advertisements on my Facebook for items that I have clicked on at various online stores. The fact that the Internet has the power to track my online interactions and then specifically advertise to me on another site is something that I find to be both intriguing and invasive.

In the Catronova article there was an analogy that caught my intention immediately. He writes that the Internet is “a synthetic world that grows together with the outer world like two vines on a tree, each one imposing more and more influence on the other’s development year by year” (p. 250). I have noticed that my offline world and my online world are not separate, but instead they are constantly interacting and developing into one world.  The most relevant example of this is our class: Self and Society in Virtual Contexts. I come to class Tuesday and interact with our classroom environment. On Thursday I attend our class online where I find myself interacting with my classmates more than I do in the offline world. On Saturday and Sunday I read articles for this class online, post my thoughts on our WordPress and then we discuss our online posts in our offline Tuesday class. My offline experience and online experience with this class has completely converged, intertwined and imposed on each another.

With the rapid growth of online worlds and the capabilities to intersect the online with the offline I think that we have only begun to understand why we should care about this virtual environment. It is only the tip of the iceberg regarding the positive outcomes and negative consequences that this world will bring forth. Thus far, I know that I’m appreciative for all the abilities, reach, vastness, and swiftness of online, as well as the communities I have built using the Internet. However, I think that the way the Internet is being used is also a bit terrifying. Knowing that my credit card number is out there in cyberspace, that what I am doing is being tracked, and that Google caters to what I have clicked on previously is all a little frightening.

*This picture just shows that our offline and our online our hand in hand, literally. We cannot think that  these two worlds are separate and I think that questions raised this week are important to consider in this new media age.

WEEK 12: ROMANCE AND SEX

In class we have talked about online communities in Second Life and how for users this is not just a game, but another reality. This week’s readings talked about romance and sex online. In today’s society we still encounter and hear about racism, prejudices, gender stereotyping and homophobic slurs in regards to romance and gender. Therefore, it is not at all surprising to me that this intolerance and discrimination exists in Second life as well.

One would think that because users of Second Life have the ability to construct their own society, cultures, communities and social norms that they would not follow in the footsteps of our real world inequalities and issues. However, the following article  affirms  that gender discrimination, objectification, homophobia and racism are present in the online world of Second Life.

The Brookey and Cannon article explained that there is a lot of online play that objectifies women and discriminates against LGBT members. This article reminded me of real life interactions and prejudice regarding men/women, LGBT, and differences in general. The article says that in Second Life it is not uncommon for women to be objectified, LGBT to be marginalized and different races, like Furries, to be discriminated against. I personally have not spent enough time in the virtual world to notice everything that this article discussed, however, I did notice that when I was shopping for new clothes most of my options were provocative, revealing and scanty. The “Post 6 Grrls” that Brookey and Cannon talk about are overly sexualized and are selling themselves more than the little bit of clothing they are displaying. This was the first time I realized that Second Life is like the real world and the video game industry in which women are known to be objectified.

On a more positive note, Gross’ article is a reminder that the online world can be used to bring people together to form communities. Whereas the LGBT community might not feel comfortable outing themselves publicly, the Internet has provided multiple communities via chat rooms, games, sites, etc. where they can gather and interact online. Gross’ article explains that the Internet allows LGBT members to get information and gather as a community with a sense of privacy. For people who might feel more vulnerable to prejudices and don’t feel a sense of community in their real life, the Internet has provided a community and a sense of belonging for many LGBT members.

While Brookey and Cannon’s article shows that a virtual world can mirror the real word in regards to gender discrimination and prejudices, the Gross article gave light to the fact that the Internet has the ability and the reach to create communities that combat the social norms that exist offline.

 

 

*This is an example of the Post 6 Grrls. When I went shopping for my avatar many of my options for clothing looked exactly like what this avatar model is showing — skimpy outfits on a woman that is overly sexualized. This is similar to how magazines display models and how video games portray women.

Week 11: Online Economics and Work

I have never really given much consideration to how business and money work online. I am aware of the fact that most businesses have an online presence and that social media/virtual worlds have changed the way businesses interact and how money exchanges “hands.” However, it’s not something I have considered in great length.

Castranova’s article discussed the market for virtual worlds, which immediately made me think of Second Life and what I have seen and interacted with during my time in this online world. Castranova writes that “few people are willing to go web shopping for tires for their car, but hundreds of thousands are willing to go virtual shopping for shoes for their avatar” (p. 3). This got me thinking, because while I have not put much effort into my avatar and definitely haven’t spent a single linden dollar on her appearance, most of the nice clothing and necessities on SL cost money. The people who are committed to SL put money into their accounts so that they can spend money in this virtual world, give tips in clubs, and enhance their avatars overall. Virtual business owners found ways to use the online world by doing exactly what businesses do in reality – promote their product to make people feel that they need what is being sold. I don’t think this is exploitation, I think that it is a savvy business move with so many people using the online world as an alternate reality.

I’m not a gamer by any means so I was shocked when I read Dibbell’s article. I do recall hearing about gold farms in a previous class, but this article helped to clarify what they are and what they do. According to Dibbell these gaming workshops are “neither owned nor operated by the game companies from which they make their money” (p. 9). When I read this I questioned how ethical it is to have someone profit from somebody else’s ideas and creation. In the newsroom that I intern in we put together packages for the show. When we want to use b-roll or a still that we did not take ourselves we have to ask for permission for the right to use them. If we are granted these rights we then provide credit where credit is due. That’s why I question the ethics of gaming workshops. These workers are cheating the system by earning points for other players and then getting paid for these actions. Players don’t give credit to the gold farmer and the golf farmers don’t ask for permission from the gaming companies. Not only that, gold farmers make very little money, their boss gets a significant amount more than they do and then their hard work is sold for a chunk of money even greater than that.  It all sounds sketchy and under the table.

Lastly, I thought that the Linden Lab article was pretty genius. It stated that IBM saved over $250,000 in travel and venue costs by holding a Virtual World Conference and furthermore, they saved $150,000 in productivity gains because people could go right back to work after the conference was over. IBM has committed to learning about virtual worlds by using them and I think that this is a very innovative way to conduct business and utilize new technology. I don’t think that this business is exploiting virtual worlds, instead they are choosing to learn about them and how to use them by interacting with the environment. While it obviously saved IBM money, the Second Life Grid is pioneering a new wave of doing business and if anything I think that this will bring light to SL/virtual worlds and has made businesses choosing to participate the virtual leaders of this new age.

 

*This is a picture of a gold farm or a gaming workshop. In the Dibbell article we read that “for every 100 gold coins he gathers, Li makes 10 yuan, or about $1.25, earning an effective wage of 30 cents an hour, more or less. The boss, in turn, receives $3 or more when he sells those same coins to an online retailer, who will sell them to the final customer (an American or European player) for as much as $20” (p.1). If this isn’t exploitation, I’m not quite sure what is….

Unit 10: Privacy, Disclosure and Lying

I thought I had already posted what I had written from my word document to wordpress, but apparently not… so here are my thoughts on last week’s readings:

The fact is that technology has drastically altered how/what we consider privacy, intimacy display. Nussbaum writes, “so it may be time to consider the possibility that young people who behave as if privacy doesn’t exist are actually the sane people, not the insane ones” (p. 3). With social media such as Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Google +, etc. our lives are no longer private because everything that we share and do is documented online. We live in the Digital Age and our presence online leaves a digital footprint. I question much of what my friends tweet because I feel like I’m reading their personal journal entries and I don’t need to know every little detail of their lives. However, that’s what the Internet and these platforms have done, they have made the private very very public.

After reading Madrid’s article I was in shock and actually disgusted. She says “our natural bullshit detectors are muted online; we can’t rely on facial expressions and other physical cues for sensing lies, and studies suggest that without these cues, we’re prone to generously fill in the blanks” (p. 10). While I have never heard or experienced interactions as horrific as the one in this article, I have been contacted on social media by people claiming to be somebody they’re not. The fact that lying and fakes appear on social media doesn’t necessarily alter how I present myself, it just forces me to be cautious. I don’t accept people on Facebook if I have never met them and I make sure that their activity relates to what I know about them, or look to see if we have mutual friends. It’s disturbing to know that people spend their time lying and harassing other people and that the Internet makes it easy to do so anonymously.

Marwick and Boyd explain that Twitter is where many different groups of people converge and therefore, presentation of oneself is presented in context of followers. “Twitter requires celebrity practitioners to negotiate a complicated social environment where fans, famous people, and intermediaries such as gossip columnists co-exist. These multiple audiences complicate self-presentation, since people present identity differently based on context” (p. 143). The kind of lives and selves that are being presented online are monitored and cater to groupies and followers. Markwick and Boyd talk about celebrities, but I can personally speak on the subject. I know that the way I present myself on Twitter reflects the kind of person I am to my followers. Because my account is not private anybody can see what I tweet and that includes potential employers. My tweets vary from work related to personal, but I make sure that I don’t say anything that could get me into trouble, be too controversial, or taken out of context. Although, I’m sure I have at some point… so I always try to think before I tweet

 

 

*Most people on Twitter know about Amanda Bynes’ Twitter rants/arguments with celebrities. She took an argument/thoughts that should be private and made them public.

 

Week 9: Virtual Ethnography

In this week’s reading we learned about virtual ethnography, as well as the complications that arise and the questions a good researcher might be confronted with. Last Thursday was my first experience with virtual ethnography. Although these readings weren’t the most interesting they definitely resonated with last week’s Second Life field trips and I was able to reflect on my own experience.

Baym and Markham explained that people from various backgrounds are drawn to the study of the Internet for many different reading and furthermore, the excess of data available on the Internet has made the process of researching more complex. Due to the fact that I will be going on more virtual field trips this semester I decided to focus on the tips that this article provided regarding what internet researches need.  Baym and Markham explain that “credible research is driven by clearly defined questions and adaptability in answering them” (p. xv). Next Thursday I plan on being prepared with questions that I would like to ask, answer and observe while on my Second Life field trip. However, I will keep in mind that incidents might occur that I had not anticipated, or counter-arguments might arise and I should be prepared to be flexible and address these situations.

Boellstorff’s article stated something that I needed to realize and come to terms with if I want to conduct good research in Second Life. He says “people find virtual worlds meaningful sites for social action, cultures in virtual worlds exist whether we like it or not; our task as ethnographers is to study them” (p. 62). It has been difficult for me to take Second Life seriously because although we have discussed it as a culture and a community I still view it as a grown up version of the Sims—a video game. If I want to conduct research I need to stop being skeptical about this virtual world and realize that it does exist and my responsibility is to study it, not question or criticize it. I plan on going into our next field trip with an open mind and conduct ethnography in this environment the best I can with a more positive outlook.

Lastly, in Carter’s article I learned that cyber ethnography is similar to conventional ethnography; however the fact that it is via the Internet make it more complex. Carter says “the global reach of the Internet and the use of pseudonyms combined with the duty to fully inform the research subjects about my research and myself increased the complexity of ethical considerations” (p. 152). This was something I was curious about when conducting my own research on Thursday. I spoke with a few avatars in the location that I was observing and I was reading the group chat as an ethnographer. It felt odd because I wasn’t informing them that I was conducting research based on their actions, conversations and environment. I know that some ethnographers choose to tell their subjects about their intentions and other choose to conduct research privately as one of the group. I’m curious if one way is better, or more efficient than the other?

 

*I went to REZ Nightclub in Second Life for Thursday’s field trip. Although this is not a screen shot of my interactions, what I viewed looked similar to this. There were people dancing on the stages and the dance floor, avatars were dancing with one another and a group chat was continuously going as the music played. I awkwardly stood in the corner and observed. I only started interacting towards the end of the field trip. Next trip I plan on being more interactive and getting to know my environment better.

Week 8: Online Community

After reading this weeks articles and giving much thought to the idea of community online I have come to the conclusion that friendship can work solely in an offline context, solely in an online context and simultaneously.

There are plenty of friendships/communities that exist only in the offline world. It has become less and less prominent in the Digital Age to not have an online presence as well, but these organic communities do exist.

In McCabe’s article it is stated that the Internet allows people the opportunity to speak with one another “using the immediacy characteristic of face-to-face communication, while maintaining an unparalleled degree of anonymity” (p. 1). She gives the example of how there are many support groups that meet online that do not meet in person. In these cases friendship/community in the online context is exclusively digital.

In the Baym article we read about how most online groups are not tied to geographical space, but that the people involved in those groups do in fact think of them as shared spaces (p. 75). For example in Second Life the players do not share the same geographical reality, but they do consider the locations that their friends/community hangs out in to be a shared space. The Dibbell article gives examples like Albion Park, which is where people go to be alone or chat privately (p. 1).  Albion Park is a place where Second Life avatars go to be a part of the location’s quiet and tranquil community. Therefore, Second Life allows for friendship/community online, however it can take place offline as well. There was a Second Life convention held in 2011 where Second Life residents were able to meet each other in a real world setting. They discussed Second Life (their online community) offline.

Furthermore, I would like to give my own example of why I believe community online can exist simultaneously offline. My first hand experience with this is with this class! I attend class on Tuesdays in which all of us sit in the classroom and have our own little Self and Society room A1 community. However, we also meet online in Second Life where we have the same community, but in a digital context. I have spoken to my classmates offline and participated in group work in Second Life. In this day and age friendship/community doesn’t have to be exclusively offline, or online. I have seen friendship/community work on and offline via our class and I think that while it may not be prominentit is clearly possible.

 

*This photo shows a group of stick figure friends/community offline who are communicating about their online experiences. I think this depicts how our offline and online communities exist simultaneously.

Week 7: Online Culture

 

This week’s readings were definitely though provoking. I was able to relate a lot of my online experiences to what these articles were conveying about online cultures.

While reading Boyd’s article I thought about my involvement with social networking sites and more specifically, my deviation from MySpace to Facebook. From 2003-2006 almost everybody I was friends with used MySpace, so it made sense to be on the site. It was my online community and I interacted with friends and family near and far. When I entered high school some of my friends that were older made the jump to Facebook. Eventually, fewer people that I was friends with were on MySpace, so I too made the leap to Facebook and stopped using MySpace completely. Boyd quotes an old saying, “birds of a feather flock together.” That is exactly what happened in my situation. For me personally, it had nothing to do with self-segregating along racial and ethnic lines and everything to do with the fact that my personal network no longer existed on MySpace and was growing on Facebook. It’s possible that my friends who moved to Facebook first left MySpace because of ethnic and racial reasons, but I think it had to do  with the fact that Facebook was new and the trend is to jump on the bandwagon.

Sydell’s report reminded me of many of the articles and discussions we have had about Second Life being not just a virtual world, but an online community. The fact is that many SL users are emotionally connected to their avatars, friends and communities that they have created. This plague that broke out in the World of Warcraft (WOW) game may not have hurt or killed anybody in reality, but players lives had changed. I am not committed to SL and am not a hard-core gamer by any means. However, I do use Facebook and other applications like Twitter, Instagram and Pinterest. When someone deactivates their Facebook or stops using Twitter it does change my interactions, my customs and my online behavior. For example, when one of my best friends deactivated her Facebook I no longer made comments that I typically would have, something that I may have originally posted to her wall I would instead send in a text and I no longer felt the need to go on as often. We text and call each other all the time, but our Facebook interactions occur when we both find ourselves bored and just want to share something funny or comment on nothing in particular. This is just one example of how my online customs changed. While she was present in my reality, she was no longer present in my online reality.  Thank god she came back to FB because my online reality definitely missed her and our bizarreinteractions! I imagine that this is how users of WOW felt when the virtual plague broke out because their virtual world/community that they have a very strong connection to was changing and they had to change with it.

Williams’ article reminded me of SL as I’ve come to understand that it is not just a game, but an online community that has functions very similar to our reality. Williams explained that playing WOW is as social as a team. Teams have traditions, customs and ways of communicating that are distinct. When I visited an island on SL I felt out-of-place because I was not a part of the “team.” I did not know the traditions, standards or how to communicate with the people who frequented this island. There was a dance floor that many avatars were dancing on. Most of them were coupled up and it was clear that they were pros at using SL. I chose to stand on the outskirts of the dance floor because I didn’t know what was acceptable on this island. In reality when we realize that we don’t fit in it is an uncomfortable feeling and that’s how I felt on this island. It’s evident to me that online cultures do exist and they do imitate offline cultures.

 

*We create communities and cultures in our online communities whether we realize it or not. There are written or implied  standards and guidelines that we follow, as well as traditions and practices that we participate in. When we think about it these online cultural norms are quite similar to our offline ones.

Week 6: Online Identity and Relationships

I found the topic and the readings for this week to be very interesting and relatable due to the fact that most, if not all of our generation has an online profile.

Managing Impressions Online focused on self-presentation in online dating. This article reminded me of the TV show Catfish. I have only seen it a handful of times, but it was the first example that popped into my head while reading. The article explains that online environments provide individuals with an increased ability to control their self-presentation and therefore, greater opportunities for misrepresentation. While the article pointed out that the anticipation of face-to-face communication does influence self-representation, this is not always the case. The MTV Reality TV series, Catfish is a reality based docudrama sharing the truths and lies of online dating. On the show a “catfish” is a person that creates a fake profile on social media in order to appear more appealing than his/her true self. These people have the intention of tricking others into falling in love with them. I’ve received friend requests from people who pretend to be somebody that they’re not by creating fake accounts. I don’t accept requests from people I don’t know and I don’t understand why anybody would waste their time impersonating others. For the most part, I think that the majority of people I am friends with online give their profiles mini makeovers or polish them up a bit. My friends represent selective versions of themselves, so while they are not creating fake profiles or impersonating others, they are selecting what they do and do not want to share i.e choosing what setting to put on private, untagging photos, etc.

Look at Us talked about the use of SM photo galleries as a tool of self-presentation and as a visual autobiography. The fact that this article looked at college students’ photos and how our peers represent themselves made this article an interesting read. I could not agree more with the fact that people post  the information that represents the image that they desire—highly selective versions of themselves. I use Facebook to connect with friends, upload photos, and share information that I’m excited about. My profile certainly does not embody every element of who I am, it’s a selective version of who I am, or a polished version. That being said, what I choose to share is not a lie or an exaggeration either. In regards to photographs, I actually started laughing because the article talked about women who have clear ways of posing for photographs i.e. posing for photos with an arched back, hand on hip, head slightly canted, etc. I joined a sorority my freshman year of college and began participating in what is known as the “sorority pose”  and the “sorority squat” aka  hand on hip or bending down with hands on knees. I have done this less and less over the years because as soon as my dad saw me doing this in photos on our family vacation he would call me out and tell me I look ridiculous or too posed. At one point I took the camera so I could take a picture of him and he put his hand on his hip and gave me a big grin.  I could not help but laugh at his impersonation of me.  I honestly had no idea I was even doing it, it just became a natural reaction to taking a picture: “say cheese” meant hand on hip. I still do it from time to time, but I try not to because It’s not a natural way to stand, it doesn’t look normal and it’s definitely posed. So, thanks dad.

*You don’t have to look at too many profiles to find a photo similar to this one. The infamous hand on hip, overly posed photo. College ladies can’t deny that they’ve perfected this pose over the years. Honestly though… this looks beyond awkward.

Week 5: Playing and Collaborating Online

This week’s articles were effortless to get through and fairly enjoyable to read. I found myself relating a lot of what I was reading to the way our society functions when it comes to online behaviors and gaming, so I didn’t have to work too hard to apply the articles to familiar scenarios.

Jenkins’ article talks about fandom and communities who connect with each other for recreational purposes. This article reminded me of Second Life and how people use this online reality in order to communicate and spend time with other people who share similar interests. For example, fans of Harry Potter have the ability to teleport to Wicked Workshop where users can purchase brooms, wands and find wizard, witches and servant elf skins. When I teleported to the shop it instantly reminded me of where Harry Potter purchased his wand in the first movie. For fans of Harry Potter this is the perfect way to interact with other diehards, live out the Harry Potter experience and chat about the obsession in an environment created for anybody, but specifically for the Harry Potter fandom. Second Life is their community, but to a greater degree this online Harry Potter workshop is a location created for them to interact.

Man’s article talks about inserting game elements into marketing to make the experience more appealing. I immediately thought about the Candy Crush craze as soon as I read about gamification and the use of game mechanics to boost interest in non-game applications (Man, p. 3). Facebook is an online social networking device, but lately it has been infiltrated with gaming like FarmVille, Words with Friends and my least favorite, Candy Crush. My friends spend hours playing Candy Crush through Facebook and I have received countless of requests to join the game. When they beat a level it shows on my newsfeed and the amount of chatter on FB and Twitter about the game is/was actually horrifying. People I know that were avid players spent most of their time trying to pass a level and stopped interacting with the people around them while they were in the game . To my knowledge, people who play candy crush were able to interact with each other through the game by giving each other lives and by other means. These interactions surfaced on Facebook when they would invite friends to play and talk about their “trials” or their “obsession” via comment or status.

Tanz’s article also discussed gaming in non-game situations and they types of games that are being constructed in order to keep users playing, communicating and preoccupied. It wasn’t very surprising that game developer, Ian Bogost’s games reflecting unsatisfying everyday experiences haven’t been extremely successful (Tanz, p. 1). People use Second Life as an alternate living experience and normally users enhance their experience rather than trying to live out dissatisfying ones. People play social games to get lost in a pastime, not to be challenged with something that has no positive results (bonus points or moving to the next level).  Tanz says that social games are a new breed of gaming and from what I’ve seen they are also an effective way to categorize people into communities that then communicate with one another and non-gamers through the fixation of the game (Tanz, p. 2). Let me refer back to my example of Candy Crush to make the point that these games are definitely addictive and create their own community amongst the players. On social media non-players are also inundated with the gamer communities’ activities (through requests, updates, notifications), which is an interesting way that communication is being mediated through gaming and the Internet.

*People playing Candy Crush could give someone else a life and that was a means of interacting that the game created for its users. This spoofs on the fact that people were living in the game and how seriously they took this interaction.

Week 3: Avatar and Self Representation cont.

Instructor Sanchez, I’ve been having a lot of trouble posting to WordPress today. It initially posted on my own WordPress and then I had to change the time stamp to match the original. The post that I copy and pasted from my blog excluded the picture I had chosen. Below is the media and explanation that I chose to accompany my post.

 

This photo is of two avatars conversing on Second Life. In regards to self representation, emotion and non-verbal cues are clearly missing from this online conversation. The avatars look mechanical and are unable to convey all the aspects that a face-to-face conversation entails. The people that play these avatars may seem confident and composed, but they are not able to truly represent themselves through these virtual people. I know when I have a conversation with someone we sit closer, use our hands to speak, our faces to convey meaning and I read the signs that are not given through verbal speech in order to understand the entirety of the talk.