Examining Gender, Race and Body Image in a Virtual World

 For this assignment I used different avatars to see how people responded differently. I found some differences however none too substantial.

First I went into a virtual world that was considered an accepting spot for newcomers. I waited a while for people to message me but no one did. I began responding in the group chat but was ignored.  I think that this world or "destination" was not the best spot to try to chat with others. Everyone in the world was considered a newcomer and therefore did not know how to respond. I finally messages a guy to see how he would respond. He responded shortly after seeming confused and asking me questions about how to use his avatar.  I of course did not know all of the answers. I messaged a few others but no one got back to me. After I left the world someone messaged me asking if I wanted to see them and I said I left and they said "okay next time". It was all sort of odd.

 After the non responsive environment I had just been in I decided to try again with he same avatar only in a virtual world that was considered a "hot spot for chatting". This was definitely a more chatty world. It was an Irish Pub. The people in it were.. unusual to say the least. First I attempted to involve myself in the group chat. I also messaged a guy, I thought might respond best to my avatar (because I was using a pretty girl avatar). The guy responded but not very energetically. I began reading the group chat. A guy referred to himself as an anti social psychopath and said that's what "they" call him. I asked who calls him that and he said all of his friends. A girl responded "I hate labels". The conversation was odd and kind of uncomfortable. It became clear that the kind of people in this chat were needy for any kind of social interaction.

The next world I teleported to was in London. I changed my avatar to an African American male. People were just standing around not really doing much. No one was even chatting really. I messaged a couple of people (a few females and a male). The male got back to me and we had a short chat but he stopped responding. To one of the women I said "Hey" to which she responded "Hey." I then asked what she was up to and she responded "???". Being a girl myself I understood what that meant. It was basically "Why are you talking to me?!". Conversations were definitely not as well received under this avatar.

Finally I changed my avatar to a female African American. She was very attractive and wearing a tight black dress. I entered a "club" virtual world expecting there to be dancing and a lot going on. Though it said there were 30+ people in the world I only found a few people. I messaged two of these people and got no response. One of the men seemed to be "checking my avatar out" but never messaged me back so I was not sure what to make of that. 

I decided to make my avatar shorter and see if anyone responded differently. There were only two people nearby and they still did not reply to my messages. No one was in the group chat. I waited for a response but never got one.

In one of the worlds I did see a girl in a wheelchair. Though I could not figure out how to put myself in a wheelchair I watched how she was interacting with others to see if she was being treated any differently.  She actually seemed to be having better luck interacting with others than I was. All in all it was kind of cool to see that people actually use these online worlds to be whatever version of themselves they want to be.