Just Me Only Better

I have never engaged in virtual environments so I was fascinated to learn that there were few non-human avatars in Multi-User Virtual Environments like Second Life. I also found the idea of the users having three bodies very interesting: the imagined body, the physical body, and the digital body. Although the three bodies are connected with each other, there’s also a disconnect between them because the avatars have dimensions that are unattainable in real life. Because of this, I am very curious about the well-being of the people who participate in MUVEs (e.g. their level of self esteem).

Additionally, the most useful part of Fragoso and Rosario’s article is the section about Erwin Goffman and his ideas. Goffman emphasized the idea of “performance.” He believed that an individual portrayed certain impressions when he/she interacted with other people (i.e. the front stage). This is very similar to the avatars on MUVEs since users choose characteristics that they believe are easily identifiable to other users. Thus, they choose stereotypical indicators.

Moreover, I was not all that surprised when the study found that a majority of users chose avatars that contained a Caucasian standard of beauty. I also was not shocked to find out that often times the avatars had over-exaggerated characteristics (e.g large breast and tiny waists), which would be impossible to biological possess in the offline world. After all, look at the toys girls were grown up with --> Barbie. From the very beginning, Barbie had unrealistic dimensions. I’m sure most of you know that if Barbie was a real life woman, she wouldn’t be able to walk! Now let’s move onto G.I. Joe. Over the past decades, G.I. Joe has undergone a major transformation --> G.I. Joe

Finally, I think it would be interesting for the researchers to study the Mii characters people create on the Wii. I wonder if the results would be similar to the ones in this study.