Constructed Identity

Desearch Methods 001: Research Dynamics

To further research in to the dynamics of constructing an identity, participants are given simple task of trying to convey their identity to another person in an offline setting. Participants are given an approximate time of 30 minutes to either draw, write or despict in any manner through a paper to tell about themselves. Then after the research participants are to set up Facebook accounts and construct their profiles. A generic Facebook account is set up to consolidate the participants Facebook accounts and their offline representations in one accessible page. An analysis of the findings will help to facilitate in understanding the dynamics of offline identity construct as well as online identity constructs.

The Facebook group account.

http://www.facebook.com/people/Pixel_Created/1223060076

*for access to this facebook account for purposes of grading please contact group administration.

Later findings & analysis will be posted on the blog

Analysis on Research Method 001

ResearchMethod001

Research Method 002: Interview with a Second Life user.

Different virtual spaces on the internet that are based around user interaction offer a range of ways to let users represent themselves, Many social networking spaces only offer the ability to let users upload photos and videos however virtual worlds allow them to construct an avatar in 3 dimensions and express a range of expressions and emotions through body and facial movement. Second Life is an example of such a space and at the moment it offers the users the most control when developing an online identity. Second life gives users full control over their avatar’s appearance and personality; it even gives them job opportunities, homes, social spaces and shops. So when developing an application like Evotar it is important understand what it is that drives people to construct an online identities, and create a persona for that identity that is sometimes very far from reality.

Our group had the chance to interview a seasoned Second Life user, which gave us a good opportunity to compare and contrast a person’s real identity and their online identity through the eyes of an onlooker.

The subject is a 50 year old middle class male who works in television production as a camera man, He describes himself as quite active and as he has no children it gives him the opportunity to get outdoors a lot and go dirt bike riding and scuba diving on the weekends. After work his time is mostly spent at eating out at “nice” restaurants with his friends and also in front of the computer managing his online business that exists within second life.

Before Second Life, His experiences within the internet over 10 years extended to exploring anything and everything, although he never bothered to explore the world of online social networking in its early days such as chat rooms and instant messaging. His main interests on the Internet were not as social as they are today; He was just fascinated with the amount of information and entertainment available on the Internet. With the popularity of online social networking in today’s society he mentions that his involvement in Second Life only and not any other space such as Facebook or My Space is prompted only but the money factor.

He started out in Second Life just over 12 months ago after reading an article in the New York Times about the opportunities that Second Life offers for users to make money. He was interested in the idea of making some extra money from the comfort of his own home so he decided to check it out for himself, He was interested in the idea of buying and selling virtual land because the article mentioned that people were building virtual homes, shopping centres and advertising spaces for people to buy.

Inside the virtual world his avatar works in land development and builds houses, a lot of his customers purchase land and buildings for their avatars to live in but he says that the majority of land available in Second Life is actually used by companies as advertising space. It generates a few hundred dollars each month for him and as a result he has been invited to give presentations to some large corporations on the advertising potential available inside the world. When conducting these presentations he likes to use his avatar to give them. He says he spends about twenty hours per week on Second Life mostly for amusement.

When developing the identity of his avatar he chose to represent his real life identity as closely as possible but he says that because he has full control over the persona he prefers to keep it looking its best at all times. He purchases items and clothing to customise the avatars appearance but tries to use them as he would in real life. For instance when he is just exploring and chatting to people he dresses quite casually but when he is at his virtual office or giving a presentation he usually changes the clothes to something more formal. After using it for over a year he says he has developed a network of friends, some of which he is also meets with in real life but most of them are friends he has met online. There have been times when people have asked to meet in person and he has accepted, they often ask for pictures and contact details which he finds a bit unnerving in some cases but quite ok when he feels he knows a person well enough. In the times when he has actually met a person in real life after establishing a relationship with them online, their real personalities and appearances can be quite different than how he had thought. But on the flip side he admits that the persona that he portrays online is not quite the same as the one he portrays in real life either. There is an element of assumption that goes along with online social networking that assumes that people are not exactly as they seem, but because it is so common for people to misrepresent themselves it is kind of accepted and therefore not looked at as a negative aspect. It seemed that there were less emotional values associated with this kind of interaction because although he has had some strange experiences while playing, nothing could really affect him too much on the outside world. He admits he has tried things online that he would not try in the real world but that is because there is a smaller sense of consequence. The consequences that exist in second life are so small that they don’t really bother him because compared to his real life his second life is nowhere near as significant.

It could be concluded that when constructing an online identity, the tools provided by the software limit the user. It is often the case that software offers the opportunity for people to represent themselves but doesn’t provide enough tools for them to do that properly. As a result people tend to come across differently, sometime intentionally or otherwise, but in almost all cases the user is aware of what is being projected to others, because although the online identity is a digital version of the user, the user is in fact an onlooker to that version just the same as the other people. The noticeable differences between our subjects two identities is best seen when comparing personality traits such as morals, ethics, sociability and self control. It seemed that he was becoming more social online, spending around 20 hours per week indicating that he is a frequent user of Second Life and it equated to around a third of the time he spent socialising in real life. In terms of appearances, it is not uncommon for people to glorify their avatar and while our subject claims that physically his avatar is modelled in his image, it is more of a loose interpretation and is often kept in the best shape possible.

For us this gives us a good basis to prove that out proposed application would greatly assist and possibly even force people to construct their online identities as accurately as possible. Because factors such as sociability, conduct and appearance all effect the way the person is being perceived in real life, it could be very useful to use these traits to form the online identity of a person as well.

Research Method 003: Questionaire

*This analysis of this research is included in the proposal