Sections of a Dissertation Literature Review

Some sociologists believe that technological innovation is the single most important source of social change. In the past if we need to communicate with someone, people write letters which could take weeks to arrive. Now we only have to pick up our cell phones and text them, or use any instant messaging service on the computer to reach someone, even if they are only 15 feet away. It is easier to connect with a lot of people, but at the same time it isolates us all. The meaning of identity in this age of the internet has changed, as soon as you look inside the computer screen; you got the power to become someone else.

MMORPG (Massively multiplayer online role-playing game) is a genre of role-playing video games in which a very large number of players interact with one another within a virtual game world. In a MMORPG, you create an avatar, which is an interactive, social representation of you to play. Avatars come in different dimensions and just like people; they view the world from different perspectives. Avatars can look nothing like the user, so the user can transform themselves into any sort of person they want to be. In I, AVATAR, Mark Stephen Meadows shared how many female avatars in Second Life are really male in real life. Unlike other MMORPG games, there are no dragons to slaughter, and no princess to save in Second Life. If there is an election going on the outside world, you would find the exact same banners in the cyber world. This made the world of Second Life seem more real than any other games; to some it has even surpassed the reality of the real world to its players. You are in a virtual reality that resembles the physical reality, but the difference is you are given as much choice as the number of avatars you have, life in Second Life is just easier and sweeter than real life. What can be

Sections of a Dissertation more tempting than a chance to live your life in a world you may choose and modify freely as you pleased, and being the person you want to be when your own life is relatively less satisfying? Acknowledgement is a non-neglectable part of our emotional need, if we cannot obtain it; it makes it hard for us to accept our identity and the reality. As a result, people sometimes prefer their avatar personas to their real ones.

Most of us had the experience of talking to people when they are engaged with their avatars, it is simply impossible to have a normal conversation with them. Sometimes, people just get lost in their avatars. In Life On The Screen, Sherry Turkle wrote about how our network life allows us to hide from each other, even if we are tethered to each other. She used several cases to prove how games like Second Life are doing things to us, separating people. For example, having a fling in the cyber world is not against the law, but still it breaks hearts. Now I feel paranoid whenever he is on the computer. I cant get it off my mind that he is cheating, and he probably is tabulating data for his thesis. I feel like my trust has been violated. It must be clear that this sex thing has really hurt our marriage. This problem has also been established in I,Avatar, Cyber Junkie, and basically all the other books I have read about virtual games. Turkle however, is not just concerned with the problem of online identity; she seems more upset with the electronic interaction between people nowadays. In her book ALONE TOGETHER she explored further in the problem. Instead of talking on the phone, we send a text; instead of writing letters full of emotions, we edit our Tumblr blog. In the book a 23-year-old law student objects when friends apologize online: Saying you are sorry as your status . . . that is not an apology. That is saying Im sorry to Facebook. And yet, as Turkle notes, these trends show no sign of reducing, as

Sections of a Dissertation people increasingly lean toward technologies. Our excuse is always the same we would love to talk but there just isnt time. Send us an e-mail. Well get back to you.

Alone Together and I, Avatar both discuss relationships in Second Life. Alone together talks more generally about how avatars are affecting the real world. It talks about how big businesses storms up in the game so fast and what occurs once a user has crossed the hurdle of entry into virtual worlds. Castronova, in Synthetic Worlds, cites the three important events. The first is when the avatars attributes feel like they are your personal attributes. The second is when you have an emotional investment in an event in the virtual world. The third is when you recognize that labor in a virtual world can be valued just like labor in the real world that virtual money is money and that a virtual world is still a world. Meadows brought up examples of Entropia Universe, the worlds first virtual world banking licenses were auctioned for a total of US$404,000 to a consortium of real-world banks. I,Avatar also spoke of how the game has affected science, observing evolutionary trends in Second Life had contributed a lot to sociological research and psychological research. On the other hand, Turkle showed no interest in these in Alone Together. She focused mainly on how we are putting too much attention into machines that we care for virtual things way more than people around us, we neglects our friends and family. Cyber Junkie showed complete objection to cyber worlds, it uses extensive scientific and social research, complemented by his and others' personal stories to give gamers and players a step-by-step guide for recovery. Out of all these books, this is the only one that treats virtual games/video games as pure evilness. Although Life on the screen and Alone Together holds a negative view on computer culture as well, but Turkle is more concerned with people responds. If we know what the most vital things to us are, it would be a lot better.

Sections of a Dissertation