Abi+Darkward

Abi Darkward What I intend to cover within this paper is the way a person’s avatar can reflect or affect someone’s self image, and if having an avatar is able to sway a person’s opinion on their own real life body image. I have played a few other games that required avatars, aside from Second Life, that each had their own way that allowed you to build “you.” On the internet, a person can be anyone or anything, and virtual worlds allow the creator that freedom and so much more. An avatar doesn’t even have to remain human anymore. While spending time researching how a person’s avatar reflects their self image, I hope to be able to shed light on the time spent on one’s avatar, and how it may shed light on their feelings about themselves in the real world.

My own avatar’s body reflects the “real” me rather exactly (minus the fact she is a bit skinner than real me!), the blonde hair, blue eyes, and clothing are about as close to me as you can get. In some ways I want to use my own experiences fiddling with my avatar’s image, as well as finding those who will be willing to discuss their own images with me. A person’s avatar reflects much more than just body image, it can tell a lot about what interests that person. There are many things in Second Life that let you chose, and use, any and all kinds of accessories, from something as simple as a tie to clothes from Medieval Times. My intentions with this paper are not meant to put an ugly light on those who portray themselves as something they are not, but rather explain why showing what one may be can possibly help people in the real world.

I’d like to start out with a description of my real life self, and my Second Life “self,” in real life I am blonde, blue eyes, 5’1” and 110 lbs. My Second Life self tends to closely resemble what I look like in real life, or I’d like to think so, aside from the fact she is taller than I am. She shares the same hair color, eye color, and body build, I have even tried to closely resemble the clothing style that I wear day to day. Personally, I am not quite sure how I want my avatar to look, I haven’t fiddled with her more than a few times and never made any drastic changes so I am not quite sure what she says about me, but the general consensus seems to be that how one creates their avatar has a reflection how that person feels about themselves in the real world. Age is not restricted here either, Suzie Boss covers Teen Second Life in her article where health teacher Diane Whiting encourages use of avatars to express oneself. (Suzie Boss describes the use of the avatar in Diane Whiting's health class.) Her article starts off with the discussion five girls had in Whiting’s class, the girls were talking IN WHICH THEY TALKED about how they made their avatars “more attractive” than they were THAN THEIR ACTUAL APPEARANCE in the real world. One girl even states, “by media definition, I’m pretty gross looking.” That's really interesting. You should expand on what this means. Whiting uses the internet for in depth IN-DEPTH thinking ABOUT body image, a semicolon connects two complete thoughts she wants her students to see things different DIFFERENTLY and have the ability to support not only themselves, but their friends as the expectations of what is “beautiful” rises.

Teen Second Life allows kids STUDENTS? to discuss things that wouldn’t be brought up in normal face to face FACE-TO-FACE conversations, and this is one thing that Whiting brings up (STUDIES? DISCUSSES?). Whiting first started her experiment with having the kids create the avatar as close to their real life image as possible, and then have them modify their avatars once more to fit the image of beauty that the media sets, and once more Whiting had some students change their avatars to the opposite gender and created them to what they thought was “beautiful.” At the end, Whiting allowed the students to finally change their avatars to back what they felt most comfortable with. What would you expect most students to chose? The “beautiful” ones might be the first though, but in the end most students went back to the avatar that most closely resembled their real life self. (What a great idea for class work. Thanks!)

The article makes a good point that avatars allow students to experiment with appearances, for a child who is too worried about how they may look in real life if they decide to dress different, do something with their hair, make-up, etc having an avatar is a good tool to allow themselves to experiment without having to worry about what their peers or parents may say. Whiting went beyond just the virtual world, once the experiment in Teen Second Life was over with she went the more traditional route. (explain what you mean by this) Having the anonymity of text based chat on their side allowed the kids to open up in new ways and share their own personal stories with other kids they may not have talked about in the real world. (how was this different from the SL experience?)

“Avatar Diet: Being thin in Second Life can make you thin in your first?” R.O. SILVERMAN (using the author's name instead of the article's title makes this so much easier to understand) suggests that having an avatar that is thin and fit A THIN AND FIT AVATAR can influence how the avatar’s owner looks in the real world. Researchers had found that those with a thinner, and physically fit avatar, that about 80% of those who took part in physical activities with their avatars took part in similar activities in the real world.

Researchers studied people who chose thinner, physically fit avatars; 80% of those whose avatars took part in physical activities in the virtual world participated in similar activities in their actual lives.

Some bias is shown as well, in the study that was done those that were interviewed by a thin avatar were more willing to talk about their BMI than those that had been interviewed by an obese avatar.

Avatars also showed a bias in their attitudes to the body; those who were interrviewed by a thin avatar were more willing to ....

But, (don't start a sentence with "but." Try "however.') what has to be remembered is that only twenty-seven people took part in this study, and while the number is very, very low (and not really **credible** a reliable representation of the population as a whole ) it is still something that jogs the brain. (an indication that we need further study?) No doubt people will try this Second Life “diet” and maybe increase the idea that there is a correlation to body image and avatars. A site that may tie in with the whole “avatar diet” is the website, fitsugar which allows people to create their own virtual selves and track their diets and goals instead of just using a pen and paper method of tracking it all in columns. I think that having a person that grows as you grow, either gaining or losing weight, gives people a little more perspective because it is hard to judge themselves if they are having to look into the mirror every day. (nice point!)

Instead of talking just about the skinny avatars, I think it is time to discuss those avatars that have a little more to them. The article I am specifically talking about is, “You Mean You Chose to be Fat?: Body Image in a Virtual World” and the minute I saw the title immediately I knew it would be worth the time to read. How often do you see “fat” avatars in any virtual world? The ridicule IDEA of having a fat avatar may seem ridiculous to some, but it is definitely there. The author of this article, as well as her friend, both started out with stick thin avatars. Her “fattening up” her avatar prompted her friend into plumping up her own avatar as well. The author also ran into stigmas of being “fat” in a virtual world, AND THE ARTICLE DISCUSSES (XXhow it impactedXXdon't really need this) how other Second Life avatars treated you (THEM?). Even the clothes were not “fit” DESIGNED for larger avatars, they began to distort, even hair distorted when used on a bigger avatar. There is ARE even snippets of conversation included in the article so that the social aspect as able to be shared, where it isn’t exactly as harsh as it could be, there is still little to no support for one changing their avatar’s body size.

The author took more than just one person with her to participate in this study, she had male and female friends and would go to the more crowded areas of Second Life like beaches, malls, dance halls, etc. In the more crowded areas XXis whereXX they seemed to face harsher insults while using voice chat, insults that I don’t feel comfortable putting in this paper. Even though they faced very biting and snide comments many of them opted to save their “fatavatars” (the name the author uses to refer to their avatars), and continue to go about their business in Second Life as such. The author states at the end that she feels more comfortable than ever now, yet she still resigned herself to making her avatar skinny again. The reactions of others scared her. If, even after everything she went through in this project, she was still worried about how reactions were to obese avatars, it would make sense while there are hardly any obese avatars out there. Many times people tend to forget that it isn’t just a computer screen, that there is a living, breathing, person behind the monitor and the words and insults still hurt just as deeply as if you had said it to their face, because in reality they probably have heard it before. And, how could you feel comfortable in your own (second) skin when if you are “too big,” AND your hair won’t even fit properly?

Overall, the group consensus seems to be that an avatar does reflect its user’s body image. The way your avatar looks, if you are a regular, in-depth, player of the game rarely resembles that “real” you (obviously this excludes those that are “radical” with being raccoons or other such beings). Hiding ones ONE'S real self because of some extra weight may seem ridiculous, but it has been shown that those in virtual worlds are about just as accepting as those in the real world. Snide comments, biting remarks follow those around who chose to be different, people treating being obese like a disease. One way to avoid the ridicule, at least in the virtual world, is to conform and make your avatar skinny even if you aren’t in the real world. If you aren’t able to escape ridicule even in fake places, how do you fair FARE in the real world? Many people make their avatars skinny to avoid the situation entirely, from what I’ve been reading and understanding even people on the internet aren’t that accepting of 2D characters anymore than they are in the real world. The way you feel about yourself may be reflected through an avatar, though this is not true of everyone, the real world lets you be whatever you desire without the restrictions we have in the real one. You can be any shape, color, form, or height you want. The freedom to experiment, whether you are skinny or fat, may not exactly reflect how you feel about yourself, or it just might, but however you want to look is up to you, and should not be restricted because of the comments others may throw at you.

Bibliography

Boss, SU. (2009, June). //Avatars teach teens about self image//. Retrieved from http://www.edutopia.org/digital-generation-self-image-avatars

Cross, JA. (2007, March). //Another life: virtual worlds as tools for learning//. Retrieved from http://www.elearnmag.org/subpage.cfm?article=44-1&section=articles

Silverman, RO. (2009, August 4). //Avatar diet: being thin in "second life" can make you thin in your first//. Retrieved from http://www.drrobynsilverman.com/body-image/avatar-diet-being-thin-in-second-life-can-make-you-thin-in-your-first/

Ashkenaz, MA. (2008, June 03). //You mean you chose to be fat?: body image in a virtual world//. Retrieved from http://marissaracecourse.com/2008/06/03/you-mean-you-chose-to-be-fat-body-image-in-a-virtual-world/