Ethnography Results, Week 6

Due: March 22

Goal:

This week, myself and Pape decided to log into Second Life(SL) at the same time and meet each other in SL and collect the data together. Until now only one of us were logging in and the other took the notes.

Methods of Study:

The methods of study don't change a lot. They remain more or less the same since the only mode of interaction is via IM or VOIP. Observations are crucial, but avatars don't represent the true characteristics of people in real life.

• Teleport to Newbie Island and Help Island. (Since these places always have a lot of people)
• Observe people and their actions.
• Try to initiate conversation with people and judge their tone.
• One new thing that I wanted to study this time was the nature of conversation as friendship on SL strengthens.

Observations:

I observed that people usually don't start conversation with you unless they know you. So, it is usually you who has to take the initiative. One reason behind this is most people you see hanging out on SL have been on SL for some time and are already busy talking with their friends. I started a conversation with a guy. The conversation was short, but interesting. Here it is:

Me: So, who here is from TX?
TK: I’m from north texas….
Me: Where in North texas?
TK: We call it "Oklahoma" but Texans think they own everything.
Me: I'm not sure if they do think that way.... i was not born and raised in TX
TK: It was really a joke
Me: now i am confused...so r u from TX or OK?
TK: Oklahoma
Me: anywho, maybe Texans are indeed very proud about their state. But, on the whole, it’s a pretty good state...and whats wrong in being proud about your home state?
Me: I’ve never been to OK, so i can’t comment :)
TK: It's not bad
Me: i bet it’s not
Me: alright dude, looks like u're getting busy. I’ll get going...was nice talking to u
TK: Take care man
Me: u 2

Towards the end, TK got busy talking to some ladies and started to ignore me, so I took off.

Then I moved on and started talking to my friend - AW. I had a nice time talking to her a couple of weeks ago, so I thought of engaging in a conversation again. Here is the conversation.
Me: hey, how u doin?
AW: sweetheart, sooo good and you
Me: i'm doin fantastic
AW: holy shit…where you been?
AW: um sorry, got surprised
Me: it was a pretty busy week....and i got into a car accident yesterday
AW: oo noo you ok? I’m sorry to hear that
Me: I’m fine....bunch of drunk chicks hit my car....Saturday night, s**t happens.
AW: still that’s bad
Me: hmmm ya, since I don’t drink, I am always safe. The cops filed a report against those gals, i'm off the hook
Me: my car did get damaged from the sides. I’ll will get it fixed soon
AW: damn…but you're ok and your family loves you
Me: omg, i didn’t tell this to my parents, they already have enough to worry about…I don’t want to add to their tensions…
AW: oo they are still in India?? end of wedding season. find you a pretty girl for next year…jk
Me: so, how was your week?
AW: was ok
AW: we had disaster stress test at the bank this Saturday. test environment
AW: it was stressed and a disaster… so thats complete success right?
Me: cool....so do they train u for bank robberies and stuff like that
AW: nooo… i'm not in a branch. i do systems….double thick concrete walls
Me: my bad....i just had that in mind since i saw the movie the town last Friday.
AW: bullet proof glass and double gates. armed guards and double security doors
Me: gosh...that’s tight
AW: no money in the building…just servers. i have almost 10 passwords to work
Me: so what kinda disasters do they train you guys for
AW: everything server failures, logistics failures
Me: hackers?
AW: everything
AW: the easiest one is rotten thinking. Nobody plans for that
AW: everything gets f'd for that. No remedy.
AW: well time for bed here. have fun and be well and drive CAREFULLY
Me: oh, u stay in NY?
AW: nooo, eastcoast yes but not NY……hotlanta
Me: i might be relocating to NY soon…..for grad school
AW: cool, good for you
Me: not sure yet….anyways, i'll talk to u later then....tomorrow's Monday :(
AW: yep almost there….night night
Me: night. sleep tight

Overall Experience:

I think the overall experience was very nice even though we did nothing new this week. I think making friends on SL is similar to the old concept of making pen friends. You don't even know their RL names. You sometimes wonder what their RL names are and what kind of people they are in RL. In general, I observed that as you start making friends on SL, conversations get relaxed, you start talking about your week, your interests and hobbies. Since people are getting lonely in real lives, second life offers an alternative to talk to people and socialize. People even have face book profiles with second life names and have added their second life friends on facebook, who also use their SL names on facebook. Real identity is never revealed. Sometimes, I think this suspense sucks, but maybe it's better that way...because when you start getting to know people well, there is good chance that some of their traits may disappoint you. So, it's a boon in disguise.

* SL: second life

* RL: Real life