Avatars, Identity & Deception I. A.R. Stone “In Novel Condtions” II. Julian Dibbel, A Rape in Cyberspace III. PBS Channel, Is Facebook changing our identity

Dibbell: A Rape in Cyberspace (LamdaMoo)  LamdaMOO- online database maintained for experimental purposes inside a Xerox Corporation which had open access to the internet  MUD- Multi User Dungeon  Interact with other users from around the world  Dr. Bombay created an online persona to witness the incident  Unsafe because there wasn’t any authority

Cyberspace Incident  Rape Display from an Online User named Mr. Bungle by using a Voodoo Doll in the halls of LamdaMoo  Legba & Starsinger (usernames) were the victims  Mr. Bungle used a computer form New York University  Interaction across the United States  Mr. Bungle had Social Issues in real life  No Explicit Rules against before the Incident

Results from Cyberspace Incident  Social Forums were created about Mr. Bungle  Post Traumatic Stress Disorder from Victims  In 24 hours, 50 players wanted to banish Mr. Bungle started by Evangeline (Survivor of Virtual Rape)  Blocking other users  Harassment under California State Law?  Online Rape versus Actual Rape  Online Democracy (Banishment, Toading)  No Journalistic Value for the Media

Novel Conditions: The Cross Dressing Psychiatrist  CompuServe one of the main information sources  “People are willing to pay money just to connect, Just for the opportunity to communicate.”  Role Playing Game- less expensive and becomes part of their daily lives  First RPG Established (1972) Dungeons and Dragons  Multiple User Domain (1980)- multiple user social environment  MUD name was switched multiple times

Online Persona  Sanford Lewin, a Male Psychiatrist in the Real World  First Account “Doctor” which online users mistaken him as a female  Created a 2 nd account Female Psychiatrist named Julie Graham in the virtual world  Julie was disabled and had a traumatic life  Started a woman’s discussion group and talked to individuals about suicide, depression, drugs etc.  Protected females from Rapists  Volunteered to help individuals who are intoxicated

Online Interaction Results  Julie became married, attended conferences, talked about going to college  Disabled Individuals questioned in Julie was disabled in real life  Lewin feared about Julie’s popularity and only expected to make a few friends  Lewin tried to kill the Julie character  Online Users found out about Julie Graham was Lewin  Many individuals felt betrayed because of deception. Julie was not real

Pros about online gaming/interactions  Helpful for the economy and a from Marketing/Advertising standpoint  People are willing to pay money just to connect on the internet and communicate  You can make a private account  Helpful towards individuals, example the cross dressing psychiatrist  Huge Profit, Low Cost funding

Cons about Online Gaming/Interactions  Dangerous people on the internet  Can create traumatic mental experiences  Difficult to differentiate online versus physical rape  MMO, RPG- have no regulations under law when first created  Difficult to track actions of other players

Is Facebook Changing Our Identity: PBS channel Facebook facts:  Facebook has 955,000,000 users. 552,000,000 of those users use the internet daily.  That’s as many people that’s in Unites States, United Kingdom, Spain, Germany, Italy all combined  All of these people are uploading 250 million photos a day and clicking the like button 2.7 billion times a day

Is Facebook Changing our Identity Facebook is used for users to create a digital version of them and advertise their life styles and to show friends their location and what changes has happened recently in their life.

Lock Theory Philosopher John Lock theory is that we tend to construct our idea of ourselves and our identity based on what we know and over past experiences, things we cant or don’t know is not apart of our identity.

Facebook’s Facts Pros and Cons (Pro)Fact: The average brain holds over one to ten terabits of data. Facebook can hold that much data in just an hour. Other interesting facts:

Final Thoughts How social media sucks our brains dry: (Pro)Fact: Facebook can help you hold thousands of friends that you would have kept in contact with if it wasn’t for this social site Facebook then just becomes a memory holder for us.