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The Transcendent Self & Second Life

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Embodying various personas in the virtual is a method of both expressing yourself and your known identity, however it is also a chance to redefine yourself. Here emerges the fractured version of ourselves, one we present online and one that remains in the physical world.  In Coming of Age in Second Life, Trishie pretends to be a child, hoping to relieve herself of the daily responsibilities of being a mother. This virtual setting provides an anonymous mask in which she is able to experience another version of reality. With the technical freedom of choice, an inversion of roles is possible, making risks and divergence from ones real-life self more tempting. In general, a veil like this creates a safe space for the user to participate in these alternate, yet plausible situations and create and engage in various social relationships.

There are many possibilities and identities to choose from, many of which stem from our own desires. However because everyone is subject to the prejudices and assumptions of real life, people’s online persona may also be the result of environmental pressures, such as embody a character with lighter skin, despite the fact the user is an African-American with darker skin tones, believing it will be more favorable in the online realm as it is perceived to be in the real world. With this in mind, the virtual becomes limited to common preconceptions of everyday life. Additionally when this happens, the virtual self is no longer truly an extension of one’s self but rather a product of societal pressures. In this regard, the concept haunting is reversed. Normally people should be able to appear as they so choose, yet they begin to define their preferences based on a prevailing sense of what is ideal.

However, once we accumulate different experiences and set of preferences from these online interactions, we begin to develop an alternate idea of normalcy. There is now a new model of what is considered ordinary which the user can begin to live by, demonstrating the haunting of their virtual character in real life. For example, when the author of Coming of Age in Second Life speaks of his interaction with Trishie, he recalls a time in which they were speaking about the food her online parents had left her when she says, “‘Brb, gotta check my meatloaf’” (109, Boellstorff), referring to the food which she was making her “actual-world children,” (109, Boellstorff). Separate from her real life, Trishie has create a new set of social relationships within the Second Life simulation. There is an overlap in the real and virtual because one’s avatar constantly exists in two ways. Firstly it continues, because it represents the materialized desires or beliefs of the user and secondly because other users, unless they are away that the original user is gone, can keep trying to interact with the avatar. But this particular situation is interesting because Trishie’s real-world persona as a mother speaks and is present within her virtual simulation. The fact that the simulation continues whether the real-life person is present or not opens up the possibility of haunting and therefore, “AFK is not the same thing as walking out of the room in the actual world, because with afk one’s avatar remains and contributes to the social situation,” (111, Boellstorff). With the rise of the virtual, a new language has even developed, applicable only to the online world, which includes the term, "afk," meaning "away from keyboard". If the division between the real and the virtual begins to blur, issues or miscommunications can arise and as a result, the concept of "afk" becomes crucial to maintaining the separation between reality and simulation.  “Afk” allows for both versions of the self to exist in a more harmonious way, so neither one disrupts the other. 

This page has paths:

  1. Haunting: Effect on The Self Sarah Frauen

This page has tags:

  1. Transformation of Social Relations Esther Liu
  2. How the Virtual Influences the Real Self Theresa Tong
  3. Transformation of Social Relations Through Virtual Play Esther Liu
  4. The Second Life Self Kayla McCoy
  5. Definition of Self Theresa Tong
  6. Second Life Chloe Lewis
  7. Virtuality Chloe Lewis
  8. Sarah Frauen, Author Sarah Frauen
  9. Video Games Jon Levine
  10. Transformation Esther Liu
  11. Simulation Zheqing Zhu
  12. Tom Boellstorff Kayla McCoy
  13. Avatar Kayla McCoy

Contents of this tag:

  1. How the Virtual Influences the Real Self
  2. Transformation of Social Relations Through Virtual Play
  3. Self: Conclusion