Virtual Communities

Recently in one of my workshops for digital media we were asked to create an account for ‘second life’ where we had to create an ‘avatar’ – a representation of ourselves or our alter egos. When I was creating my avatar I was trying to make it as much like me as I could but truth be told I did make a few changes, I made myself slimmer and made my hair longer and blonder. It’s said that we create what we want others to think of us. I wondered round this second life, seeing what people had created and seeing just how big this virtual world has become, and how many people where online, it just shows how much having a second life means to some people. In a way it’s a way to escape their real life.

Virtual communities are just that to me, virtual. It’s almost a game to me and I don’t really think that the other avatars are real people like me, sitting at their computer. For a lot of the people it is a ‘second life’ separation from reality a place where people can be there selves. It can be a whole other secret part of your life. I don’t think I could be one of those people who log onto second life everyday and live their own ‘second life’ as if it is normal.

When I was younger I joined a site called ‘habbo hotel’ where you had to create a character and create a room, quite similar to second life where you make your character look like how you want to be perceived, by leaving out your imperfections, because really who’s going to no? You can chat to other people knowing their real people to slipping that to the back of your mind as it makes you think how different is that person in real life? They can disguise themselves just like I do. The same goes with the new Nintendo Wii where you have to create your own ‘mi’ (which is like an avatar) which you use to represent yourself to play games, but again with this I still make adjustments to my avatar image making myself shorter and slimmer, my eyes bluer etc. I think creating an avatar is a great way of getting yourself involved with the game, especially with online games, or games on the Xbox where you can play online against people all over the country where you create your own avatar to show people a perception of you, but is it really you? How do we no that what we are seeing is anywhere near the truth. With it being so easy to change the way you look and the way you want people to see you. If you think about it too much its a bit creepy, your playing and interacting with complete strangers, and you may choose to talk to these people because of the way they look, and what clothes their wearing, but as much as I change myself others could have made themselves completely different, with no connection to their real selves and that creating themselves a second life.