Avatar Under (Social) Construction

With reference to and inspired by Dustan Writer's article 'I AM NOT REALLY ME, AND I PROBABLY NEVER WILL BE: AVATARS AND ACTUAL IDENTITY'

Social Construction

Anyone who has studied Social Psychology will be familiar with the extensive work of Kenneth Gergen about the constructed identity and its variants in different social groups and situations. Also group work done by Zimbardo and others underpins these significant findings.

This is a phenomena that has been well researched and well proven for many years now. Its findings and conclusions are well established, even in situations that are fabricated and not considered 'normal' interaction.

Constructed Identity

Our identity consists of parts. All are part of the whole, yet the sum of the parts is greater than the parts themselves.

Identity varies in differing situations and each person who knows us sees us with a different identity according to their own filter of experience and understanding. Just as we all have our 'telephone voice', we have a personality for every individual we come into contact with, depending on our previous stereotyping of people we judge as being 'like them' – in real life this judgement is often made by the colour of someone's skin, their gender, hair colour, age and dress. These categorisations are strikingly arrived at within 7 seconds, before a person even has a chance to open his or her mouth.

Pinker (2002, p. 202) writes that "some categories really are social constructions: they exist only because people tacitly agree to act as if they exist".

Avatar Identity

Avatars are a convenient way to decide on what stereotype you wish to be given, outside of those organically embedded into you. You already have an idea of what makes up that category. In Second Life, we are also defining new categories, such as Steam Punk and Furries. What we have is created a socially agreed norm for what constitutes that category.

Avatar names are also constructed like real names. Akin to nicknames, they are ones we chose for ourselves rather than having names like 'four eyes' thrust upon us. We construct our own chosen identities within the pressures of our real environment, it is much the same within virtual worlds.

Identities Linked

I personally agree that real names and photographs should identify us and link us to the real world, however there too, we are in a continual process of constructing and deconstructing our identities, dependent on our own and others' expectations. No one has a consistent identity that they carry around with them intact, we vary al the time. When you row with your significant other or scream at your kids, are you the same person who greets the boss? I hope not because you'll soon be out of a job.

The same applies to virtual worlds, we fit in with societal expectations of us. Linden Labs has the intelligence to treat each cultural entity as distinct. They don't expect conformity as Twinity does (which is not surprising given its Germanic home – were we to stereotype this would be neat, tidy, organised and controlled). We are all bound by our own cultural expectations.

What is Transparency?

When Dustan talks about trust, again the word transparency rises its ugly head. Authenticity, integrity, validity and other such words enter the arena too. He mentions 'RECOURSE', this is simply a culturally bound principle in the US and other western nations. Nations who do not have a blame/sue culture are not even aware of this. I have a lot of contact with Portuguese people, in both realms and people from this culture are eager to exchange personal information in Second Life. There is no 'blame culture' in that country. Perhaps the Western 'sue' culture is the reason for fear, not transparency itself.

I myself was at the sharp end of that phenomenon in hiring a builder who we shall call 'Dolly' here. Dolly was from the US, California to be precise. Dolly wasn't interested in the pittance I paid her to build in Second Life, she had a sick relative who needed money for medical care. Dolly had limited building skills and I took pity on her believing I could train her. Needless to say Dolly's work was never any good and was never completed. However, after she disappeared I was contacted by her lawyer who informed me that I had to pay $12,000 US because she had incurred stress during her work in Second Life. All this was set up well before I took Dolly on and needless to say, she had already tried the same stunt several times before this. If this is your culture, then indeed it is wise to hide your true identity.

Where there is money, the lawyers, accountants and tax men will always be there to take their cut.

However this is nothing to do with 'who you are' and everything to do with preventing exploitation. As Dustan says, relationships are another construction, built over time and dependent on past performance. This is why social networks have become paramount during these information rich times.

Body of Evidence

I have to disagree with Prokofy Neva, not because I personally disagree, but because there is a huge body of empirical research that reinforces these facts about the human psyche. I see the power of Prokofy's argument and know that might can sometimes be right, but not in this case - where masses of leading research over the past 100 years points in the opposite direction. Alberik did not write tripe, he wrote something that has been well substantiated. I am sure that those interested in this subject would find much of the work done by 'Social Constructionists' useful.

The Value of Anonymity

As Infocyde points out, Oscar Wilde was a wise man. Seldom are we given the opportunity for anonymity in life. However, the opposite is also possible, as people are shown to construct lies more liberally when given anonymity in courts. As even language is a fundamental construct, we can make ourselves and others believe anything we want to through language and image.

The true value of anonymity is freedom of choice, the choice to tell the truth or to lie without the threat of punishment.

Why hide behind an Avatar?

So why separate part of our personalities and split them off - as you would do if you kept your true identity hidden behind an avatar?

- To separate an aspect of your personality and contain it in an environment that is not threatening. People threatened in this way would find help in the study of PTSD, fragmented personalities and warfare to understand this more deeply.

As Kwame AKA (Julius Sowu) says, fleeing from ourselves has caused more grief that integrating and understanding our various identities, or 'faces'. Personally I would encourage anyone resisting this move forward to look at themselves and identify what they are frightened of instead of resisting change.

Times are Changing

Change is inevitable, even change of the 'self'. We grow older, we change jobs, we cannot resist it. Change can be positive, once we are across the barrier that is fear. We are more than one identity, we are many - changing, evolving and growing. I thank everyone who has given me the material and inspiration to join this discussion to help me change and grow.

To show the world all that you are and share it with others is the most powerful expression of 'self' possible. To deny this to yourself and others is tragic.

Moore's Law as applied to Second Life

The Moore's Law of Second Life

Moore's Law is an interesting phenomenon faced by all new technologies and was highlighted by Geoffrey Moore as early as 1991. One well understood method for spanning the chasm is through the application of information. Thus education is key to mass adoption.

As Moore says in 'Crossing The Chasm' "the notion that part of what defines a high-tech market is the tendency of its members to reference each other when making buying decisions-- is absolutely key to successful high-tech marketing."

This being the case, the only way to achieve this is by educating the market and ensuring the word is spread - although I have to add here, this is only once you have established 'who' your market is. I am not sure that Linden Labs has a clear definition or appreciation of who their market actually is yet?

Establishing the Market

Linden Labs appear keen to adopt anyone who comes across to them. This does not strengthen or focus their initiative. Going off at many tangents dilutes power and lacks direction. To run a race you have to have a specific goal. Intangible end points at various locations simply reduces effectiveness.

One thing I don't see is a consistent strategy or to put it into popular current business speak 'a Roadmap'.

Game play and war strategies - Follow history

My advice to them would be to watch what happened with the closest business model to theirs, the Internet. It evolved from military and educational use. Banks and Government followed rapidly with their need to connect between nations. Companies and corporations came last. Many who failed to adopt the Internet early enough, found their market being stolen from underneath their noses by online equivalents such as Amazon.

I predict that this pattern will repeat in Second Life and other virtual interconnectivity solutions. New businesses will evolve from within the media, which will replace existing ones - this is good news for some of Linden Labs existing users as skill sets are already being honed even though the market is immature. Early adopters in the current gold rush will benefit, but will need to innovate, not just repeat 'online versions' of existing methods to market.

Increase productivity value

Other metrics include making products easier, cheaper and faster than existing adopted methods. When huge established corporations such as Microsoft, launch a new technology, they already have an established market to throw the new products into, leaving companies such as Linden Labs as the 'poor man' in a highly competitive environment. 

You can tell when a technology is mature by the behaviour of Microsoft, who will copy the best parts of existing products and launch their own product with those features in it. To date, the virtual world market is still immature and most platform creators are still yet to understand their market. We in the field can tell them who their market is, should they wish to listen to us rather than follow the latest whim. 

As information is part of the key to mass adoption, it would seem sensible for the solution provider to ask its existing market of early adopters. This seldom happens in young and small companies as they lack the resources to use strategies such as gaming and using information methods to understand their niche and outsmart their competitors in the form of huge corporations ready to pounce and swallow their market.

History will repeat itself

I found this to be true from examining Netscape's marketing policy in 1996. Remember them? - they were the market leaders at the time. They made an executive decision to let Microsoft spend it's money on marketing its new browser and they would tag onto its tail and get their (hat they expected to be - larger) share of the market from that. Anyone why has studied game theory would have been aware of the consequences from the example of the Americas Cup Race. In yachting wisdom it is commonly accepted that if you are in the lead, watch the guy behind and do everything he is doing because that way he cannot overtake you.

Advice for Linden Labs

For Linden Labs the direction seems clear: stay focussed, watch your imitators and exploit the existing user base to spread the message 'virally'. Information, ease of use and lower costs lead to mass adoption. 

A Footnote:

As a gateway owner and a firm aficionado of Second Life and virtual worlds, one thing I come across a lot is 'what is there to do here'. 

I just want to add here that the answer to 'anything you want' will soon be supplied with many opportunities and products to fill that 'chasm'.