Serenity - Week 4 Reading Summary

How to say "Good-bye" in Second Life

This research article looks at the way in which people within Second Life end conversations, and whether or not it differs in any way from conversations in the real world. The participants used were thirty two students from a university in Bangkok who were using Second Life as a way to improve their English conversation skills. They were told to simply recored their naturally occurring conversations within their time in Second Life, which, after discounting ones which ended due to computer error, gave thirty nine interactions for the final analysis.

The researchers found that there were four structures commonly used when closing conversations within Second Life. They were, in the order which they usually were found: pre-closing, insertions, terminal closing turn and after close. Out of all these, only the terminal closing turn is compulsory, however, the pre-closing step was used in thirty four out of the thirty nine pieces of data. This data showed that, as within the real world, conversation participants in Second Life still utilised face saving techniques instead of abruptly ending communication. The only major differences ended up being in the discourse used, usually in the sense that it being over text allows for the usage of techniques not traditionally used or even available in the spoken word. For example, 'byeeeeeeee~ :)', which is more extended than one would normally hear between adults and contains the emoticon at the end. Though as the researcher says, the use of emoticons may be just an attempt to represent non verbal signals which Second Life lacks the ability to convey, so it should perhaps not be considered a new discourse, but merely an adaptation of one that exists already.

Again, this article reinforces for me how much people continue to adhere to the social conventions even when in a situation that cannot force them to do so. However, in other online groups, this same level is not always reached. This may be because Second Life is succeeding so completely in its goal to be a complete world within the virtual sphere that people cannot help but follow their societal norms, and would also go a long way to explaining the overall lack of griefing when compared to other online communities.

In respect to conversations, it would be interesting to look at whether or not avatars follow non verbal norms while interacting in Second Life, such as facing the speaker and not performing other activities. I think the overall finding would be yes, particularly when I think back to our in class activities on the AUT island and how I always try to make sure that my avatar is facing Darryl when he talks to us. Has anyone else happened across a study on something like this?

Reference

Pojanapunya, P., & Jaroenkitboworn, K. (2011). How to say "good-bye" in second life. Journal of Pragmatics, 43(14), 3591. doi: 10.1016/j.pragma.2011.08.010