Thursday, August 26, 2010

Social Networks in the Lives of Avatars – Part 1

CLOUD1


The expansion of avatar identities across social networks has increased tremendously since I posted this image back in the spring of 2008. This growth can certainly be viewed as a reflection of a similar trend in the larger ocean of human-identified culture. But I think the small pond of the Second Life community offers some interesting insights into both the personal and cultural impact of social networking. I also suspect that social networks have unique or amplified impact on insular Second Life society and the firewalled dance of pseudonymous identity.

I plan on posting a series of brief reflections on this topic over the next week or two. Please chime in with your thoughts and stay tuned! (This post is in the key of C.)

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

Great to hear you'll be writing more about this. Can't wait to read it.

In addition to writing, may I suggest also turning your thoughts into a cartoon/video? Could be both informative and hilarious.

Like "Social Networking Wars?" ;) http://bit.ly/aG8EQp

-Pathfinder

Botgirl Questi said...

Great idea! I started on a script. Premise is Botgirl explaining Twitter to Majic. Should be fun and informative.

Anonymous said...

You've left out Plurk, which has a vibrant SL community and makes Twitter look like kindergarten.

Botgirl Questi said...

I didn't start using Plurk until June of 2008 and the image was created a few months before then. I agree that Plurk has one of the most (if not THE most) vibrant and active Second LIfe social networking communities.