Random Thought: Virtual Worlds and Identity

So I was browsing around the internet and came across this:
Avatar Identity Theft Prompts Review of Gaia and Virtual World Rules.

The entire thing is basically an overview of this one incident where a young teenage girl had her Gaia account hacked, losing her "identity."

When Clementine realizes she has been hacked she bursts into tears. "I feel like I just witnessed my own murder," she remarks to her mother.

Clementine, dejected, unenthusiastically searches all of the areas of the site she once frequented, feeling a shadow of her former self. When she looks in her account at the marketplace (like an eBay exchange) she realizes that while she was banned someone had traded her possessions for $134,508 in Gaian gold. Her identity lost, her valuable possessions stolen and sold, for the first time she now knows what it feels like to be the victim of a serious crime.

It goes into depth - talking about all the steps her and her mother took to try and recover her account, and because of the connections they had, they were able to recover her account and virtual possessions.

This incident brought to light a lot of issues concerning social networking sites and virtual worlds, mostly about how even though in the terms of service teens are warned against giving out their personal information, they can easily be manipulated into doing so by an authority figure.

The CEOs talked about the steps they are taking to address the issue and the extra efforts they make to ensure that their users are happy with their service. "Gaia actively checks every name and password embedded in a message and double checks to assure a password is not being shared. Gaia has also launched a more comprehensive and mandatory education campaign for all new users, introducing them to examples of potential dangerous activity in a game-like interactive format."

Legal experts on virtual worlds also gave their opinion on the case and the following issue: "It's undetermined, then, if a virtual world host is responsible for compensating/reimbursing users when third parties steal their virtual booty. Even more questionable is what responsibility virtual worlds might have for mental duress caused by members' losses."

The article also goes into depth about the "presentation of self." I thought this was very interesting - how teenagers and others take their virtual selves really seriously, and how such an incident can have a great impact on them in real life.

With technology expanding and these virtual sites growing, it seems as if there is no such thing as "real" life anymore. The virtual is becoming reality. That isn't necessarily a bad thing but it makes me wonder, what happens when we can't step away from that?

It's like the virtual worlds are starting to own us, rather than just being a simple form of entertainment. Even though I think technology is great, I think there comes a point in time when we need to learn to set boundaries. But, that's the thing, the boundaries are being redefined. What we once considered "fantasy" or "fake" is now, in a sense, becoming real.

I think it'll be very interesting to see where this takes us, 10 or 20 years down the line. Will we lose ourselves, or simply just recreate new identities?

I guess we'll just have to wait and see.

Blog Seven: Interface

Joseph Cornell's: Navigating the Imagination is an excellent example of interactivity and interface.

I really liked this site because it was very engaging. I really liked the audio clips and flipping through the journals. My favorite part was the Crystal Cages - where you can create your own metaphoric tower of words.

I think overall it works really well because it requires you to participate by clicking around, listening, and watching all the different features on the website. It's also pretty easy and fun to figure out.

Blog Six: YouTube Debates

Does YouTube offer a space for public debate in the manner suggested by this week's reading? Why or why not?

YouTube is a new cultural phenomenon that has a lot of potential in engaging civic participation. I think that it is a medium through which public debate is possible because it is accessible to pretty much everyone and offers a way through which to communicate with one another on varying issues.

Anyone can make a video and post it, allowing others to view and comment on it. Its popularity also makes it possible to spread messages around. This is why even politicians use it in their campaigning - they realize how incredibly important mass media is in reaching their audiences. It's pretty much an online forum for people to engage in discussion and debates. This social engagement is a vehicle for democracy in the sense that it is a "wonderful new tool for use by the mass citizenry that will promote an open flow of information and exchange of ideas."

In a sense, it is almost like McLuhan's ideal of the "global village" - it can be used for the benefit of "increasing mankind's collective and individual experiences of the world." It allows us to "hear, see, and know the world, and, moreover, helps us connect ourselves to geographically distant communities and bodies."

This instant interconnection is essential in strengthening democracy in that it provides regular people with the ability to participate in it. It has a lot of power to shape civic engagement. As our culture continues to advance technologically, it is only natural that our methods of discussion evolve as well. YouTube is an example of how this is true.