Introduction
My alarm is ringing. It is 7 a.m. With a lot of effort I come out of my bed. Automatically, with my eyes still closed, my right forefinger is heading towards the power button of my computer. I always put my computer into the sleep state, in this way I can immediately start when I want to resume working. As the mayor of Abbanaville I am responsible for its growth and management. And by being the overall planner and leader of my city I want to bring happiness to the people. It sounds really easy but the truth is that being a mayor is an exhausting responsibility. My role as the executive of the strategic authority of Abbanaville is to promote economic development and wealth creation, social development, and the improvement of the environment. All in all, I have a lot of other duties and responsibilities that centre around running the city government and providing goods and services for my people.
Another day arrived to run my own bustling metropolis. Today I decided to construct some houses in order for my city to grow which will allow more people to move in and it will allow me to collect more housing payments in order to help grow my city into a real impressive megalopolis. Fortunately, I have a horde of friends and citizens to help me. I can really rely on them and they are willing to help me for almost every task. It is no wonder that I was awarded last year as ‘Best Mayor of 2010’ since I am doing the best I can to keep citizens happy, therefore I will ask my people to help me collect rent of the housing payments today.
‘Rob!!’, a witchy voice was screaming from below. It is the voice of my lovely mom, pushing me to go to school. But I cannot go to school, I need to satisfy my people. I do not need any education, I am a mayor. Besides, at school nobody likes me. In real life I am just an ordinary 14 year old boy with no friends. On my way to school I am already making plans to build residential areas and shopping centres for citizens to enjoy but on the same time I am frightened to enter class and notice all these eyes on me. I am wondering, ‘who am I? Am I an ordinary 14 year old boy or the mayor of Abbanaville? What is actually my identity? Do I have a virtual identity? What is the difference between identity and virtual identity? Why am I shifting every day from personality? Does this mean that I have two identities? And does this shifting process has any consequences on my daily life?’
What is identity?
Anyone can find a short definition of identity. Sometimes these definitions are unclear or too complicated. Here are some examples from the political and international field:
- Identity is ‘people’s concepts of who they are, of what sort of people they are, and how they relate to others’ (Hogg and Abrams, 1988).
- ‘Identity is used in this book to describe the way individuals and groups define themselves and are defined by others on the basis of race, ethnicity, religion, language, and culture’ (Deng, 1995).
- Identity ‘refers to the ways in which individuals and collectivities are distinguished in their social relations with other individuals and collectivities (Jenkins, 1996).
By reading these definitions we can say that identity is a collection of characteristics which are linked to a person and/or a group. People are shifting continuously, consciously and unconsciously, from one identity to another because they have changeable roles in various situations, such as the student, the father, the boyfriend, etc. According to Giddens (1996), 'identity is a reflexive project’, in the sense that individuals are their own ‘identity project’ because they are shifting from one fitting character to another for the circumstances they find themselves in, ‘an endeavour that we continuously work and reflect on. We create, maintain and revise a set of biographical narratives – the story of who we are, and how we came to be where we are now’ (Giddens, 1996)
What is virtual identity?
Virtual identity or online identity is a social identity that an Internaut creates in websites and online societies. In the virtual community, online identity is conceivably much more flexible than real identity. This is allowing people to shift identities easily and change their age, name, race, gender, culture or social status. You are free to make a definition of the self and you can include a large number of identities without having to think of behavioural guidelines or defined etiquette.
It is hard to define if this identity is the inner self or what the public sees. We can even question if online identity is a truer reflection of the self than the image of someone in the real world.
Robbie Cooper is a photographer and he has studied the connection between the real and virtual identity of gamers. For the book “Alter Ego: Avatars and their creators” (Cooper, Spaight & Dibbell, 2007), co-author Robbie Cooper has been taking photographs of the real identity and the virtual identity to show the contrast between reality and fantasy. If we take a look at the photos below we can see connections between the real identity and virtual identity avatar but we can also identify the distance that separates them.
‘The computer screen is my window to the world. Online it doesn't matter what you look like’.
© Robbie Cooper / Chris Boot
Robbie Cooper says that ‘in the virtual world, they either had more powers or better looks. I tried hard to find someone who deliberately played a fat avatar and I couldn't find anyone – although apparently they do exist. It does seem like in almost every case, the avatar is bigger, better, faster, it can fly, it has abilities the person doesn't have in the real world’ (Identity in a virtual world, 2007).
In the virtual world this is a conspicuous trend, when people are looking and choosing for their online identity or identities, they always choose to be not as much ordinary than they are in the real world, they are making virtual identities that are idealized versions of themselves.
Philip Rosedale - Philip Linden
‘As thinking beings, we can imagine a world much better than the real one.
Second Life lets us actually build that imagined place’.
© Robbie Cooper / Chris Boot
Why is Rob shifting identities from an ordinary 14-year old boy to the mayor of Abbanaville?
Nowadays, it is considered normal to shift from real life identity to virtual or online identity. However, this has not always been the case. Since the early 1800s shifting identities was perceived as being schizophrenic. Now, everyone does it; only to a different extend. One can, for example, choose to enhance its traits on Facebook to make one look better for potential employees and friends, or, in Rob’s case, pretend like he is someone completely different, such as the mayor of Abbanaville, while he is actually a regular 14-year old school boy. So, why does he do that?
First of all, it has often to do with someone who is not satisfied by who he or she is in real life, and therefor is trying to be the person, who one believes he or she really is, on the Internet. This can refer to a shy person, who is afraid of self-expression and therefor prefers to use the Internet because it gives a feeling of freedom, a feeling to be the person you want to be. Having the feeling that you cannot be yourself is both mentally and physically wrong. Therefore, by shifting identities you can obtain a feeling of satisfaction, you feel more complete and satisfied and this can also make it easier for someone to feel accepted into the virtual society.
Secondly, being curious is in the nature of humankind. Experimenting is part of that curiosity. Nowadays it is much easier for someone to pretend to be entirely someone else; therefor it is easier to experiment. With different virtual worlds, chat rooms and the possibility to create many e-mail addresses one can simply choose and experiment what it would be like to be someone else completely. Here, it can be possible for a man to pretend to be a woman or slightly younger, just out of curiosity and to experiment what the difference is in reactions when he is a woman. In Rob’s case, to be a mayor of a city could also have started out as curiosity, only now this has taken on a more drastic level; he prefers his virtual identity over his own identity.
Finally, shifting identities from one personality to another can fulfil someone’s inner desires, the wishes of the heart and even long-awaited dreams, making that person feel more complete. In Rob’s case, he does not want to be a school boy anymore and he has always dreamt of being a successful mayor of a city. On the Internet Rob has the feeling he has fulfilled that dream and therefor he is happier, except when he is on school. Rob has a virtual identity which is extremely different from his real life identity, and therefor he has an extreme feeling of being dissatisfied by who he is in real life. Having the possibility to shift from one identity to another can help create a positive feeling.
What are the consequences for Rob’s daily life?
Rob can have different consequences for his daily life when he is shifting identities from an ordinary 14-year old school boy to the mayor of Abbanaville. There are both positive and negative aspects of the completely different identities that Rob has created. The positive points of Rob shifting identity can be, first of all, that he is more happy and satisfied in his overall life. It is like Yin and Yang; they complement each other. Being the mayor of Abbanaville in his virtual identity, complements the fact that he is unhappy and not satisfied by who he is in real life. While he is at school he is looking forward to be at home as soon as he can. While this does not have to be a positive point, it can be because the thought of it alone can create happiness in his mind, making him feel happier while he is still at school. Secondly, it is that anonymous culture that gives him the freedom of being himself. It is easier to speak to someone else if you cannot see this person in real life. The boundaries that Rob is feeling in real life are not there in the anonymous culture which is present on the Internet. This is a positive point because when someone has the feeling he or she cannot be him- or herself in the real world, it can make a person feel extremely sad and may result in an extreme ending, such as suicide. The other outlet for them is the virtual world. An anonymous culture where there are no boundaries and where they feel they can be themselves. The last positive point is that if he really is interested in virtual, or online, worlds, he can make a job out of it. He can, for example, create games. With his playing experience, he must know many things he would like to see changed or improved. This way Rob can combine his real identity with his online identity, making him feel more comfortable in both worlds and this way he can create a balance in his life. However, there is also negative aspects to it, which may affect Rob in his daily life, because wanting to be a mayor at all times, while he is actually a 14-year old school boy, can have some negative consequences. The negative points are, first of all, that it can make him feel extremely uncomfortable in his ‘real’ life. Because he feels he is more himself as being a mayor than being a school boy, it can give him unsatisfied feelings, like fear, shame and discomfort.
He is changing into the person he has created virtually and feels displaced in the real world. This is a negative factor because the virtual world should not have a higher impact on his life than his real world.
The second negative point of Rob shifting identities is that Rob is not learning how to respond in the real society. Since Rob is unlikely to have a social life outside being a virtual mayor of Abbanaville, he will have a lack of social skills. This can pose problems later when he has a job or when he starts dating. Rob is used to having the freedom to say anything he wants without any boundaries. Once these boundaries become visible in real life, he might not know what to say and because he is used to saying what he wants on the Internet, he might also say the wrong things to, for example, a girl who he wants to impress.
Finally, on the long-term it can also pose problems. If he continues to feel unsatisfied in his own reality and happy in his virtual reality, he might not want to leave his virtual reality. This means that when he gets older, and finishes school, he might not want to get out of his house anymore. He feels uneasy and unfamiliar with the outside world. This can result in problem behaviour, such as anxiety. He can feel frightened to leave his house, because he has little experience with how to deal with the real world. At the moment this is also the case. Rob actually does not want to leave his house, because he wants to be the mayor of Abbanaville. His mother telling him he has to go to school is the only thing that keeps him from not going to school.
Conclusion
‘Rob, wait!’, a familiar voice was calling me. It was the voice of Susan, a girl from school I never talked with. She was wondering if the notes I made were for Abbanaville. I answered yes. I asked myself how she possibly has seen my notes. We were engaged in a conversation and the more I was talking about Abbanaville, the more I saw her eyes sparkling. After she told me that she has been playing the same game for ages. I got really upset about the word ‘game’, she used because I take my job as mayor really seriously. She slightly laughed and explained me that she had the same feeling I have right now when she had the responsibility of mayor of Abbanaville. She told me that she had no friends and even her family was not even giving her any attention.
Until one day, she wanted to resume her work as mayor but the programme was not working anymore. It was crashed, forever gone, terminated, game over. After a period of loneliness and discomfort about her real life identity she decided to discover herself all over again by hanging out with school friends and by family visits. When she discovered her real life identity she started to play another virtual game where she created her own avatar. Without changing this time her whole personality she is combining her real life and virtual identity and she shifting from one to the other identity without changing too much.
She offered me to help me discover my real life identity and by helping me to combine these two identities in a responsible manner.
On my way back home I have thought about the story of Susan and about aspects such as real life identity and virtual identity. I can conclude that I have developed a virtual identity and that I actually should do my best to develop a real life identity as well. I do not want to be known as the 14-year old school boy without friends, but also as the friend, the brother, the son and many more.
References
Are you your avatar? Book details dangers of the ‘E-Personality’. (2011,
January 27). Retrieved October 8, 2011, from the abc news website: http://abcnews.go.com/Technology/online-life-harms-civility-creates-aggressive-personality-psychiatrist/story?id=12771299
Cooper, R., Spaight, T., & Dibbell, J. (2007). Avatars and their creators. London:
Chris Boot Ltd
Chan, M.J. (2007). Identity in a virtual world. Retrieved October 6, 2011, from
the CNN Website: http://articles.cnn.com/20070607/tech/virtual_identity_1_virtual-world-identity-avatar/2?_s=PM:TECH
Giddens, A. (1991). Modernity and self-identity. Self and society in the late
modern age. California: Stanford University Press
Why do people take double personality online? (2010, April 23) Retrieved October 8, 2011, from the article pros website: http://www.articlepros.com/computers_and_internet/More-In-Computers-Internet/article-424495.html
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