Essay 31 - Virtual Worlds and Identity Disruption

Not all technologies reinforce identity regression. Some do the opposite. A little over a decade and a half ago, I spent way too much time in a virtual world called Second Life. Second Life is a three-dimensional world where users have avatars (little people who represent them) who they dress and groom to create a fantasy version of their self. The avatar can explore the tens of thousands of islands, shop for items to cloth their avatar and most importantly interact with other people through their avatars. This interaction could be through voice, disguised voice or typing depending on how real or disguised you wanted to be. In some cases, avatars would resemble the person in looks, dress, and personality. In other cases, they would be very different. But when interacting with other avatars you would usually take them at face value.

Some men would create female avatars and some women would create male avatars, although that was far less common. Some younger people would create more mature avatars, perhaps to gain respect. Some older people would create more youthful avatars perhaps to recapture their youth. Some people would create animal avatar called furries, which I never really understood. In general, people would create avatars to explore gender, personality, social class preference, or fantasy alternatives.

A person who was timid in real life might create a bold or bombastic avatar persona. Women who were straight in real life would create lesbian avatars in much greater numbers than straight men would create gay avatars. (I have no idea why that was the case.) A person who worked in a call center in real life might be a businessperson in Second Life creating a shop of some kind or dealing in real estate.

Many people who created and explored new identities in Second Life found that these new identities fit them better than the identities they projected in real life offering possibilities for identity disruption. If this happens, should they try to be more like their avatar or just keep it to themselves?

This essay is 349 words long and the audio is a little over 3 minutes.