Self Presentation: Online Persona Portrayals
Avatars: Introduction
Entry compiled by: Jeffrey A. Haines
When users participate in a video game or online world, a virtual “avatar” depicts their presence. Whether they are called “buddy icons” “avis” or MMORPG characters, all avatars serve to give face to an individual.
Avatars can be as simple as a 60x60 pixel still image, or can be as complex as a rendered 3D character, complete with costume and text profiles. Gamers play as avatars such as Mario or Sam Fischer, while online chatters develop avatar handles like “hotGuy11984.”
Depending on the presentation platform, avatars can be customized to exhibit the user’s intended personality. In GTA San Andreas, the player character can be customized through clothing, and by completing mini tasks to shape the character’s physique through virtual diet and exercise.
Avatars can serve as an escape from a person’s life-role. A fat middle-age man can become a ripped young heartthrob. Negative results have appeared because of this customizability. Child predators have used the avatar of a teenage boy to ensnare naive youngsters, and other manipulators have used their online personas to ensnare women on dating sites and in chat rooms.
A person’s online personality also can elevate them into their 15 minutes of fame. Characters such as Warcraft’s Leeroy Jenkins or the online handles used by YouTube bloggers such as “LonelyGirl’ have garnered media attention in a world where hard news is loosing audience.
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Avatar manipulation translates to real-world health improvements
Entry compiled by: Jeffrey A. Haines
Recently, researchers have speculated that for paralysis and physical therapy patients, avatar manipulation within Second Life may help them with real-world recovery.
"People with severe paralysis could find new opportunities from shopping to doing business or making new friends in the virtual world of Second Life by just thinking about it...In a recent demonstration...an associate professor at Keio University and head of the project, showed how electrodes attached to the scalp (of a paralysis victim) can pick up the electrical changes associated with brain activity. The data can be interpreted by a computer, allowing a user to manipulate his or her online persona, or avatar, around the streets of Second Life without using a keyboard or mouse." (Brain controlled avatars)
The Japanese study is currently highly theoretical, and results will not be available for another year. Although massive physical recovery is unlikely in the more severe paralysis cases, the goal of the study is to provide life-enrichment and escapism for patents whose lives are currently very limited. The system requires users to concentrate very hard on the game environment in order for the brain-controlled system to work properly, and therefore, may provide a heightened feeling of immersion.
According to a Washington Post investigation, avatar manipulation in Second Life is already helping patients with other, less severe maladies recover. "After suffering a devastating stroke four years ago, Susan Brown was left in a wheelchair with little hope of walking again. Today, the 57-year-old Richmond woman has regained use of her legs and has begun to reclaim her life, thanks in part to encouragement she says she gets from an online 'virtual world' where she can walk, run and even dance. Roberto Salvatierra, long imprisoned in his home by his terror over going outdoors, has started venturing outside more after gaining confidence by first tentatively exploring the three-dimensional, interactive world on the Internet. John Dawley III, who has a form of autism that makes it hard to read social cues, learned how to talk with people more easily by using his computer-generated alter ego to practice with other cyber-personas." The American Cancer Society is even offering lectures geared towards improving the quality of patients lives in a special area within Second Life. (Stein)
Scientists say that patients are experiencing health benefits because Second Life embraces nonwestern medicine's visualization principles, allowing the sick to experience a pseudo-healthy self. "Because the full-color, multifaceted nature of the experience offers so much more 'emotional bandwidth' than traditional Web sites, e-mail lists and discussion groups, users say the experience can feel astonishingly real. Participants develop close relationships and share intimate details even while, paradoxically, remaining anonymous. Some say they open up in ways they never would in face-to-face encounters in real support groups, therapy sessions, or even with family and close friends in their true lives." (Stein)
There is some concern among researchers that the inherent dangers of free, anonymous online worlds could have adverse effects on patients with psychological disorders, or that the ease of communication offered in a virtual environment may hurt a patients real-world interpersonal skills. "Participants may neglect potentially more helpful real-life relationships, or have unrealistic expectations about what virtual worlds can do. Users and health-care providers may be rushing ahead...without validating the usefulness of these worlds or identifying the dangers. 'We've seen the power of the Internet and what it can do...But as we all know there can also be negative consequences.' The emotional punch of virtual worlds make them fertile breeding grounds for false, misleading and possibly dangerous information. Sick, lonely and psychologically fragile people are particularly vulnerable." (Stein)
Negative possibilities aside, the graphically rudimentary but socially vivid world of Second Life does seem to be positively effecting the majority of health patients that have embraced it as a supplementary tool for recovery. As online virtual reality worlds expand and improve, it is likely that more empirically proven immersive world treatment methods will be developed, further allowing patients to recover through exploration and experimentation.
Works cited:
- Brain-Controlled Avatars Experiment in Second Life; Experimental technology uses brain activity to move avatars in virtual world. eWeek. New York: 27 November, 2007.
- Stein, Rob. Real Hope in a Virtual World. The Washington Post. 6 October, 2007.
- Virtual Reality. The Washington Post. 6 October, 2007.
Privacy in Public: Ubiquitous Media Intrusions
RFIDs as a tool for intrusion
Entry compiled by: Jeffrey A. Haines
As RFID tags become more commonplace and experience wider usage in commercial transactions, concern over personal privacy protection has mounted.
RFID tags store a limited amount of data, and are used primarily as means of identification, since their data content is fixed. RFIDs are found on everything from high end electronics packaging to some newer apparel. When a RFID tag is energized via magnets or an internal power source, it sends out a signal that can be read by a variety of receivers. Information stored in a tag can be used to identify its origin, and privacy concerns have arisen because activists believe that corporations, interest groups, and even the government could use RFIDs to monitor individuals’ shopping patterns, preferences, or locations.
Internally powered RFID tags can broadcast for up to 10 years, and continued advances in data storage space and tag size has made them convenient for consumer tracking. Organizations, including Wal-Mart and the U.S. Department of Defense have used RFIDs to track inventory. Eastman Kodak has patented a digestible RFID for monitoring patient medicine intake. Some nightclubs in Europe have implemented RFID implantation to allow VIP customers to purchase drinks and gain access.
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RFID blockers can ensure consumer privacy
Entry compiled by: Jeffrey A. Haines
In a world where ubiquitous use of RFID tags to identify and track everything from clothing to canned foods, many privacy advocates and consumers are concerned that tags left embedded in products after purchase may be used to track buying habits, target advertising, or facilitate other intrusion into an unsuspecting lifestyle. Because most RFIDs are not internally powered, they can remain functional almost indefinately, always ready to send out their encoded information when activated. "What woman wants her dress size to be publicly readable by any nearby scanner? Who wants the medications and other contents of a purse to be scannable? Who wants the amount of money in a wallet to be easily determinable by a scanner? Who wants his or her location to be tracked and recorded based on the unique ID number in shoes or other clothing?" (Juels)
In order to protect consumer privacy, at least one group of scientists has developed a RFID blocker. "A blocker tag is a cheap passive RFID device that can simulate many ordinary RFID tags simultaneously. When carried by a consumer, a blocker tag thus “blocks” RFID readers. It can do so universally by simulating all possible RFID tags. Or a blocker tag can block selectively by simulating only selected subsets of ID codes, such as those by a particular manufacturer, or those in a designated privacy zone." (Juels)
The group's paper describes a number of different methods for blocking or even "killing" RFID tags. They believe that the necessary data for their "blocker" RFID can be stored within two tags, at a cost of about five cents for each. The paper addresses possible malicious use of blocker tags to circumvent RFID tags that work as price identifiers in stores, or those that trigger theft alarms.
The researchers believe that their "selective blocking" tag proposal would work as a consumer-friendly method for protecting individual privacy, while still allowing companies to access information from RFID tags when it is needed for consumer-approved transaction purposes.