The virtual world of ‘Second Life’
Ok, so I've never used this before! However the first thing that strikes me is it looks very simular to The Sims (remember that interactive computer game, in which you could constantly get Upgrades (Ha remember them money makers we spoke about before) such as casino, holiday and romance versions!! However the difference is this is online!!
I began by picking a person i'd like to be ( a choice of images of woman and men), I guess most people pick an image they think looks like them or in fact they'd like to look like. Then you fill information about yourself, interestingly it allows you to pick a on screen random second name from a choice that they give you. However it does ask for your real first and last name after this.
Once you get started I found it was very like the interactive computer game The Sims. The difference is instead of playing on your own, your playing with millions of other people round the world who also have set up accounts on Second Life.
The idea is that you create your own virtual world. You dress up and down the figure that represents you. Picking clothes, facial features, even build your own home and also 'holiday' it to other parts of the world. The idea is to interact with the other users of the site, known as residents, who have built their own homes and world.
I guess the appeal of the site is being able to 'act'. Talk and also perhaps act what you may think would be your ideal world. For example getting to design your home with no real limitations of money and work in an area of bussiness you'd ldeally like.
I think it's completely different to real life, because I doubt many people build their world on second life, exactly how it really is. The whole point in these websites is so people can use their imaginations and have abit of fun.
I reckon there is a huge range of relationships and identities on this type of website. From friendships, true intentions of lookin for romance, and also people just having a laugh.
Sherry Turkle makes reference to The life of the Sims where like seconf life you try to "build a community, an ecosystem, or a public policy" and "the goal is to make a successful whole from complex, interrelated parts." ( http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/4.01/turkle.html?pg=2&topic=&topic_set) Her thoughts on MUDS are expressed threw her ideas on computing such as that the "lessons of computing today have to do not with calculation and rules, but with simulation, navigation, and interaction"
I think Second Life is a good example of what MUDs allow people to do using the internet.
Friday, 6 February 2009
Identity and Ethics
Is withholding one’s identity ethically wrong?
Unfortunately in this day and age, there is a need for caution when it comes providing other people with you identity. Due to amount of Identity faud taking place, I am much more likely to be careful about the numerous websites that ask so many questions about yourself. Why do some of these companies need your Full Name, Age, date of birth, current address & even some companies ask for information on your earnings and parents earnings. Also the fact that some websites arent completely offical and are quite often fakes or companies of an original , therefore I do think there is a need to be cautious with how much information you provide people you dont know.
However, I think it's wrong to pretend to be someone your not, or in the case of chatrooms. Pretending to be a different age, or sex to manipulate other people using the same services, and encouraging them to give you their details. Its tough to know where to stand when it comes to the internet, theres a fine line between using the internet as a means of escapism and a means of gaining control.
Many people use the internet as a way of dating and meeting new people, whilst this is very much a postitive attibute of the internet, as means people are opening up to the bigger world and perhaps educating themselves, it also gives them the chance to build a image of what they really want to look like, act like or even adopt the personalitys of people they know and want to be like, rather than being themselves. This 'mask' allows people to develop a distance from the real world and the virtual world of the internet.
Unfortunately in this day and age, there is a need for caution when it comes providing other people with you identity. Due to amount of Identity faud taking place, I am much more likely to be careful about the numerous websites that ask so many questions about yourself. Why do some of these companies need your Full Name, Age, date of birth, current address & even some companies ask for information on your earnings and parents earnings. Also the fact that some websites arent completely offical and are quite often fakes or companies of an original , therefore I do think there is a need to be cautious with how much information you provide people you dont know.
However, I think it's wrong to pretend to be someone your not, or in the case of chatrooms. Pretending to be a different age, or sex to manipulate other people using the same services, and encouraging them to give you their details. Its tough to know where to stand when it comes to the internet, theres a fine line between using the internet as a means of escapism and a means of gaining control.
Many people use the internet as a way of dating and meeting new people, whilst this is very much a postitive attibute of the internet, as means people are opening up to the bigger world and perhaps educating themselves, it also gives them the chance to build a image of what they really want to look like, act like or even adopt the personalitys of people they know and want to be like, rather than being themselves. This 'mask' allows people to develop a distance from the real world and the virtual world of the internet.
Are online relationships the same as offline ones?
A simple and quick answer to this is ....... Well it depends who your talking to.
The idea that if its someone you know well, family or close friends then your relationship will be then same!!!
However MSN or chatrooms allow people have different relationships according to what side of your personallity you want to present to the people your talking to.
The idea that if its someone you know well, family or close friends then your relationship will be then same!!!
However MSN or chatrooms allow people have different relationships according to what side of your personallity you want to present to the people your talking to.
Do you think that assuming an online persona encourages people to play with the identity they present online.
Yes!!! I think that the availability of numerous websites of differing styles allow people to not only express their true self but also perhaps the self they'd like to be or want others to think they are. For example on Facebook, you have the choice of who you add as your friends and you also have the option to change your everyday status of who your feeling or what you doing.
However also websites such Gaydar and similar specifically designed websites allow people that would not normally express their true self in real life in worry that they may be discriminated against, can communicate and express themselves more freely and prehaps with this take more risks than they would do in real life.
Lister refers to similar topics such as the expression of self 'social networks and peer to peer network sharing' and one of his most important points of how the internet "breaks the connection between outward expression of identity and physical body"
However also websites such Gaydar and similar specifically designed websites allow people that would not normally express their true self in real life in worry that they may be discriminated against, can communicate and express themselves more freely and prehaps with this take more risks than they would do in real life.
Lister refers to similar topics such as the expression of self 'social networks and peer to peer network sharing' and one of his most important points of how the internet "breaks the connection between outward expression of identity and physical body"
In what ways can the Net be thought of as an ‘open architecture?’
I think the concept of the internet being 'open architecture' is an interesting one. It describes how the internet is built up of a collection of networks and I think it refers the availablity of designing, communicating and being able to build your own collection of data. Lister states that the 'open architecture' of the internet facilites the flow and exchange of data (p164) Its about the quanity of "human labour and ingenuity that has gone into building net-based communication systems." (165)
Therefore i think that the fact that people can build their own websites, or join communication sites such as Facebook, Bebo and myspace and from here build up personal webpages of often their own choice. Such as images, colours styles of writing.
Reading from Lister et al pp. 164-72
Therefore i think that the fact that people can build their own websites, or join communication sites such as Facebook, Bebo and myspace and from here build up personal webpages of often their own choice. Such as images, colours styles of writing.
Reading from Lister et al pp. 164-72
Tuesday, 3 February 2009
WEEK THREE LECTURE NOTES
This week were taking a closer look at the relationships that are formed by online communication platforms!! Specially about how people interact and how they use the provided facilities to express personal opinion and their identity.
Identity experimentation - people can present and portray themselves how they want! Perhaps in experimenting in areas of their life that are more socially controlled offline, such as their sexuality. However the dangers of this seem to be ever present!! The fact that people can pretend to be someone their not, I find quite daunting. It has led to many criticisms of the internet and wide availability it provides.
It draws on opinions of Shawn P. Wilbur as he refers to ‘ the emancipatory discourse of cyberspace’. The sense that being online can be a liberation from the offline world and the roles and identities it requires of us. Wilbur often refers the 'virtual community' that the internet has created and how it has allowed us to create our own 'virtual identity.'
Nicholas Negroponte pronounces digital technology as 'True personalization is upon us’ - this means how as time goes and as the further advances of digital age opens up more and more ways and choices will open up for us to express ourselves in the way would normally but in digital.
Postmodernism Vs new media. In slight contrast to Negroponte who thinks that simply the advancements of this online technology is simply providing us with more ways to express ourselves as we are, writers such as Mark Poster and Sherry Turkle have argued that electronic media can radically change our sense of self.
Three eras
1)Era of Oralism
2)Era of Written exchange
3)Era of Electronic
LOOK HOW THINGS HAVE CHANGED!
Therefore the ability of personal expression and identity must have adapted to fit these different forms.
How virtual reality , evokes play and discovery, instituting a new level of imagination
Howard Rheingold asks
"are relationships and commitments as we know them even possible in a place where identities are fluid? We reduce and encode our identities as words on a screen, decode and unpack the identities of others."
I think this is an excellent quote!! It questions how possible it is for people to get across their true identity via online communication???? there are no facial expressions or tone of voice and sometimes no visual aids (some people use webcam) .
Surely without all these very personal attributes that help to make up a persons identity then a true representation of their identity cant be show on online.
However there is the argument that perhaps people are adapted and learning new ways to express themselves. It just whether the new generations new learning is good enough?
Ideas about identity-as-play camp. How the internet can be away for people to communicate free of the social baggage such as class, race, gender, nationality that alienates and divides people.
I think that this is one of the most highly questionable attributes of online communicate. In relation to blogs, forums, and chat rooms unless you truly know the person in the real world, face to face, I think it's highly unlikely that someone can present their true self, to like, via the use of words on an online discussion. However with the advancement of technology and the growing use of webcams, and programs such as skype (a phone call over the internet)it will possible to give others a close match of your identity, presuming your honest of course!!
Reading- online seminar
Identity experimentation - people can present and portray themselves how they want! Perhaps in experimenting in areas of their life that are more socially controlled offline, such as their sexuality. However the dangers of this seem to be ever present!! The fact that people can pretend to be someone their not, I find quite daunting. It has led to many criticisms of the internet and wide availability it provides.
It draws on opinions of Shawn P. Wilbur as he refers to ‘ the emancipatory discourse of cyberspace’. The sense that being online can be a liberation from the offline world and the roles and identities it requires of us. Wilbur often refers the 'virtual community' that the internet has created and how it has allowed us to create our own 'virtual identity.'
Nicholas Negroponte pronounces digital technology as 'True personalization is upon us’ - this means how as time goes and as the further advances of digital age opens up more and more ways and choices will open up for us to express ourselves in the way would normally but in digital.
Postmodernism Vs new media. In slight contrast to Negroponte who thinks that simply the advancements of this online technology is simply providing us with more ways to express ourselves as we are, writers such as Mark Poster and Sherry Turkle have argued that electronic media can radically change our sense of self.
Three eras
1)Era of Oralism
2)Era of Written exchange
3)Era of Electronic
LOOK HOW THINGS HAVE CHANGED!
Therefore the ability of personal expression and identity must have adapted to fit these different forms.
How virtual reality , evokes play and discovery, instituting a new level of imagination
Howard Rheingold asks
"are relationships and commitments as we know them even possible in a place where identities are fluid? We reduce and encode our identities as words on a screen, decode and unpack the identities of others."
I think this is an excellent quote!! It questions how possible it is for people to get across their true identity via online communication???? there are no facial expressions or tone of voice and sometimes no visual aids (some people use webcam) .
Surely without all these very personal attributes that help to make up a persons identity then a true representation of their identity cant be show on online.
However there is the argument that perhaps people are adapted and learning new ways to express themselves. It just whether the new generations new learning is good enough?
Ideas about identity-as-play camp. How the internet can be away for people to communicate free of the social baggage such as class, race, gender, nationality that alienates and divides people.
I think that this is one of the most highly questionable attributes of online communicate. In relation to blogs, forums, and chat rooms unless you truly know the person in the real world, face to face, I think it's highly unlikely that someone can present their true self, to like, via the use of words on an online discussion. However with the advancement of technology and the growing use of webcams, and programs such as skype (a phone call over the internet)it will possible to give others a close match of your identity, presuming your honest of course!!
Reading- online seminar
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