Week 3 Questions and Answers

1. How do the affordances of Facebook and pure text-based chat rooms differ? Which of these differences do you consider may have led to the death of chat rooms and the meteoric rise of social network sites?

Text-based chat rooms are purely text conversations between people, with no other forms of communication. Facebook, however, has room for images and videos to be shared between people. As for the death of chat rooms, this may be caused by the fact that Facebook can be used by people to communicate in more ways, allowing people to share more of their lives with their online friends. Chat rooms don’t allow this, so this is probably why social network sites have gained popularity over chat rooms. People probably prefer communicating in different ways, especially with people from other parts of the world that might not speak English. With pictures, it may be easier for people to communicate.

 

2. Comment on the quality of spatiality in graphical worlds and how this affordance might be related to a sense of 'immersion' and presence/co-presence.

In graphical worlds, a person would have the sense of being in a different world as long as they are there. They would feel as if they had travelled to a different place completely separate from the real world. As a result, a person may become deeply immersed in this new world and may even be reluctant to return to their own world. They would have a sense of presence in this alternate world, and it would affect their ability to function in the real world. They would end up spending more and more time in the alternate world, and would eventually lose their relationships with the people they know.

 

3. Consider which personality traits (if any) may be related to the feeling, in some, of 'deep  immersion' in graphical worlds.

A person who is deeply immersed in a graphical world, such as Second Life, may be antisocial towards the people they know in the real world, as they will be thinking of their alternate world and the friends they have there. They may get confused at times when dealing with their real lives, and be unsure of what is real and what isn’t. It could lead to mental health issues as a person spends less time in the real world.

 

4. Overview the main reasons you chose the SL avatar you did.

The avatar I chose had hair similar to mine, which is mostly why I chose it. I liked the clothing that she wears, as she has a similar style to me, so I saw some of myself in her. Also, there were a few avatars that I liked the look of, but they were already taken by the time I was choosing mine. Of the avatars that were available, the avatar I chose was the one I liked the best. I am ultimately happy with the avatar I chose for use in Second Life.