The Disruptive Power of Second Life
First
let me start with my experience with Second Life: my middle school students LOVE the idea of it
and always want to access the various sites they use at home. I have found that this is more popular with
my African American students compared to my Caucasian students. Of course I don’t allow my students to access
these types of sites in my classroom but there are always a few that try their
hardest to get around this “classroom rule”.
Before I was educated on “Second Life” sites, I thought they were pretty
much harmless but several years ago I monitored a few of my student’s usage by
creating my own avatar on the site and found that this type of peer interaction
can actually be harmful.
Second
life sites allow individuals the potential to create a virtual individual and
pretty much be the person they can’t be in the “real world”. They are able to create the avatar to appear
like they would like to appear or as an individual that they may think is “cool”
whether it is a person accepted by society.
They can change their attitude to one that can be portrayed at
disrespectful and completely unacceptable.
This “virtual person” they create is one they can hide behind, one they
can use to be hurtful to others that may simply being seeing it as
entertainment.
Another
concern I have with virtual worlds and avatars, is that some more vulnerable
people may forget that it is in fact just virtual and may mistake it for
reality. After creating my avatar and
observing my students in their virtual world, I found that some used language
that I was shocked to “hear” come out of their mouth and the clothes they
dressed their avatar in was far from what I would ever see them wearing at
school. Another concern was that they
wouldn’t have any idea who they were interacting with but would share personal,
and potentially harmful information with these complete strangers. All of the Internet safety discussions I have
had with my students seemed to “fly out the window” when they were in these
virtual worlds—that became their life, their reality, for the time and to me
that is scary.
In
the article, How Second Life Affects Real
Life (2008) from Time Magazine, it brings up the same information that I
discussed earlier about how an individual can create an avatar to be anybody
they want to be. The article talks about
how an individual created an avatar to be much better looking and cool than he
is actually portrayed in real life. He
is able to be more outgoing in this virtual world making it so more people like
the individual and so people want to “hang with the avatar”.
References:
Dell, Kristina (2008, May).
How Second Life Affects Real Life.
Retrieved July 22, 2012 at
Module 4 Feedback:
ReplyDeleteGreetings Brandy! Wow, our blog posts convey totally different messages. Where I have no first hand experience with Second Life, I listed one of the positive social benefits being the fact that users could escape from some of the negative aspects of face-to-face interactions such as bullying and violence. But, according to what you have witnessed among your students, this 3-dimensional interface still allows for such negative interactions. Do you know if there is an option for Second Life users to opt out of having any interaction with the avatars of specified users to avoid such negative peer interactions?
Great post!
Tawana
ReplyDeleteThe ones I've experienced with and witnessed does not have an option to "select" who you interact with--IRS pretty much a free for all. Personally I've not seen nor had a good experience with Second Life. I think it gives our youth a artificial view on reality. Just my opinion though, I'm sure there are lots that would disagree with it.
Brandy
That is great that you have experience first hand with this technology. Were you able to use any aspect of it in the classroom or was it more of a supplemental technology that was used at home? I also feel you are right when it comes to altering reality. I feel if people begin to rely too much on this technology their reality could become somewhat disappointing. Great post!
ReplyDeleteHeather
Hi Brandy - What do you think is the driver behind the increased popularity of Second Life amongst African American students? I agree that any sites that allow students to massage their personality and facts can be harmful both in self development and potentially inviting harm.
ReplyDeleteBrandy, Thanks for the insight. I personally haven't been on second life, only listened to the news reports. Unfortunately I can't remember anything good about second life although the volume of people that seem to be on it is interesting. Because your students are on it do you think it might be useful in education?
ReplyDelete