Welcome to Seminars in Experiential Cyber Psychology
I am Reflection Freenote and I will be leading our seminar this morning (my time).
We archive our semniars so advise me if you would like your identity shrouded more than your avatar allows.
I will request that you treat me and other disscussants with decency and human respect.
I will begin our seminar with some prepared remarks, and then invite open discussion of the topic as this relates to your experience of life in SL.
Living life in the metaverse provides an opportunity to explore psychological existence in a neurologically "realistic" environment, while at the same time imposing important differences.
Thus, living in the metaverse is very much like being ourselves, but seen through, if not a glass darkly, then at least a glass weirdly.
That is we see ourselves and others as though through a lens, and this lens amplifies some elements of reality, minimizes others, and simply distorts others.
Our topic this morning is the effect of anonymity on our behavior, and on our perceptions, especially of ourselves, but also othes.
So, here in second life, we live through the expression of our avatar which is a symbolic representation of self.
This avatar is a form of identity, but one which is not linked, for most of us, with our First Life self.
One of the abiding realities of First Life, is that your identity and persona tend to be fixed. That is, you are given a name at birth, which you keep throughout your life.
You have a reputation with others, and other people know and relate to you through the roles by which your identity is defined, and these roles are defined over time and in ways that are not easily altered onece established.
So, if I am a doctor or an ex-convict, I have certain elements of these roles that follow me around and have an influence on my options in behavior.
So, if I am married, or live with someone, likewise, this role defines my options in getting to know new people and what dimensions of relationship I can easily or naturally explore with them.
Even just being "who I am" in my First Life sense carries with it certain natural limitations, because I just don't tend to think of myself as someone who will behave in ways that are wildly different.
In the metaverse though, my behavior is potentially less tied to these many limitations of role and expectation (of self and others).
I can cross genders, I can cross age domains, I can pretend to various roles in live that I don't have in FL, so that I can pretend to be a doctor, for example, and most people won't know that I'm not. Or an ex-convict, for that matter.
So what have you found?
Have you explored domains of self and of behavior that are broader, more creative, less inhibited, than you do in FL?
does anonymity play a role in this?
Do you still find that you are inhibited at all?
And have these explorations and experiments led to any new understandings of yourself or others?
And with that I turn the discussion over to the group for review.
Diskussionen blev lång och intressant och farbror IB gjorde sitt bästa för att föra bort den från ämnet till något mer Apmelskt :)
Quintessential Sorbet: Well I could say for myself that anonymity plays a very big role in my SL life
Annie Dunham: ... usually our eyes and face betray important intention in our everyday lives - second life provides us both a blessing and a curse when it gives us what could be considered the "poker face" to end all poker faces. As human and empathic as we are, it is only our ability to communicate that determines whether others will understand us. On a basic level the desire to be understood lies at the heart of our instinct to seek out friendship, or intimacy, as the case may be.
Reflection Freenote: annie, I think it provides the option of communicating more clearly, and less complexly, because here we comunicat ideas first, and emotions only secondarily and through the words, whereas in FL it tends to be the otherway arund
Apmel Ibbetson: but I don´t think that the written info comes first in SL either.. my alts allways seem to fall in love with an avatar before they listen anyway
Quintessential Sorbet: You have to have more discipline with your alts Apmel! Other wise they will do whatever they please
Apmel Ibbetson: :) they already do Quint
Quintessential Sorbet: uh oh
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