SGER: The Avatar-Self Relationship: An Exploratory Study of Identity Negotiation in Second Life

Southern Methodist University, Dallas TX

Investigators

Abstract

This research addresses the central question with respect to avatars in computer-generated virtual worlds: How does the user negotiate among the many possible relationships between the self and the avatar? Virtual worlds form an integral part of the 3D web and as such play an increasingly important role in the evolution of our computer-mediated communication infrastructure. Avatars, which are the representation of the communicator in 3D web applications including email, chat and virtual worlds, are a cornerstone of these new media. A key affordance of avatars is embodiment, which not only gives communicators visible presence in situations and encounters, but also allows them to engage in practices of the body such as walking, sitting or gesturing. As such, the avatar serves as a cue for the communicator's identity and as a powerful visual complement to the more text-based media like instant messaging and email. However, unlike the non-verbal cues that a communicator's real-world body gives off, the cues of the virtual body can be intentionally manipulated and controlled by its owner. Furthermore, the avatar does not only interact with the intended target of the communication, but with the owner him/herself. This complexity of the avatar-self relationship raises questions about what type of relationship to invoke for effective communication in educational, commercial and organizational settings, where the owner - not the avatar - is typically the target of communicative action. This study explores the types of avatar-self relationships that are enacted in virtual worlds, and the conditions under which different relationships become salient and why. Drawing on a sample of residents of Second Life, one of the largest virtual worlds, this research will rely on real-world, face-to-face interviews, as well as a photo-diary interview method for data collection. Categories of avatar-self relationships and a framework for understanding when they become salient and why will be developed using interpretive techniques and an emergent theory building approach that is informed by Erving Goffman's dramaturgical theory of identity negotiation. This broad theoretical approach is widely used in research on avatars and other forms of self-presentation, but the research methods to be employed in this project are innovative, giving this project the potential of contributing significantly to the development of a host of new hypotheses and theoretical advancements. As synthetic worlds and avatars are likely to become more prevalent in 3D web applications, we need to develop frameworks and language to describe and make sense of the increasingly intertwined nature of online and offline selves. This research on the avatar-self relationship makes potentially transformative inroads into our understanding of communicators' negotiation of the increasingly blurred offline-online and reality-virtuality boundaries.