Who are you off the virtual world?
Off the virtual world, I’m a busy college student who is double majoring in Computer Science and Immersive Media Design, spending most of my time either working on assignments, going to classes, or performing tasks as a TA for CMSC216. I really enjoy coding, making art, and helping teach computer science concepts to other people, which are the main reasons I chose to take on all these responsibilities and time commitments. I’m also a bit of a perfectionist, which means a lot of my time is dedicated to figuring out how I can improve something if I’m not satisfied with it, so I don’t normally get much free time. Any time I do get is usually spent playing video games by myself or with a few close friends. I’m a mostly introverted person by nature, so it's not often that I go out to parties, or sports games, or shopping with friends, or really any other typical college activities. The only social activity I regularly participate in is going to the UMD cybersecurity club. Although I don’t often explicitly seek out social situations to be in, I enjoy making new friends and connecting with other people. In conversations, I’m often the one who is making jokes and trying to lighten the mood by acting silly. My biggest dream in life is actually closely related to my mannerisms in conversation. I would love to become an independent game developer in the future, and use my games to try and give other people some much needed laughs and fun.
Who are you in the virtual world at this moment?
My virtual world self exists mainly within games that I play. While I don’t play Second Life, there are many other similar games that I play, including games like Pokémon Violet, Minecraft, Terraria, and Deep Rock Galactic. These games all feature a character creator, and while not being as extensive as the Second Life creator, they still allow for plenty of customization of your avatar. However, although there are so many options to choose from, I often create my character to be as similar as possible to myself, from the skin tone, to the color and look of my hair, to even clothes which I could see myself normally wearing. The only real difference from my real self is that I tend to wear more accessories in the virtual world. And it seems that my experience is not too uncommon: “Unsurprisingly, although one can represent oneself in an infinity of ways, most avatars look like their “real” self—only more attractive, more athletic, and typically better endowed” (Gottschalk, 2010, p. 511). My mannerisms and attitudes are also mostly the same as who I am off the virtual world, only perhaps even more exaggerated in the virtual world. With other players, I’ll tell lots of jokes, I’ll act in a light hearted manner, and I’ll try and play around and have fun. If anyone needs help with learning some mechanic, I’d be more than happy to help them. The way I see it, myself in the virtual world is sort of like an alternate reality me, just in a usually cooler setting.
And who do you want to be as these two worlds are getting more and more blended/connected?
As these two worlds come closer and closer to becoming one, the only thing I really want is for me to keep being true to myself and what I like to do. I want to continue being the person who makes jokes all the time and tries to have fun, and I want to continue being a programmer and artist and friend who helps others learn. I also wouldn’t mind trying on some of the accessories which I wear in the virtual world. As the reading says, “We inevitably manifest our offline self when we interact online, and our online interactions inevitably follow and transform us when we are offline” (Gottschalk, 2010, p. 505), and I feel like I’ve already come close to the end of this path–the unification of the real and virtual self.
References
Gottschalk, S. (2010), The Presentation of Avatars in Second Life: Self and Interaction in Social Virtual Spaces. Symbolic Interaction, 33: 501-525. https://doi.org/10.1525/si.2010.33.4.501