assignment 10

Although i use the computer frequently, i do not consider myself to be particularly computer savvy, therefore am not familiar with computer-based multi-player video games, or virtual spaces such as second life. The only information i knew about second life was that Dwight from The Office is an avid member. My experience was not nearly as scary as i had anticipated. I understand there is a way to individually design every aspect of your avatar, but obviously i could not figure out how to do that, so i picked the "city chic" avatar. I was a tall and thin with hip clothing and dark hair. Once i had gotten my avatar up and running, I had trouble with the logistics of the game, like manipulating my avatar to move and communicate how i wanted. I was put on the balcony of some kind of castle, and the computer set me up with several tasks to complete to make sure i had could control of my avatar. I couldn't figure out how to successfully complete the tasks, so i ignored them, and just traveled about curiously. After interacting with several other individuals and exploring the island i was on, I came to several of the same conclusions as Yee and Bailerson.

Yee and Bailerson looked at how interpersonal distance and self-disclosure affected social interaction in their first experiment. They discovered that indeed, in terms of interpersonal distance, those who were more attractive tended to walk closer to the individuals they interacted with. Essentially, level of attractiveness was directly related to the distance between individuals while they communicated. Since i couldn't figure out how to design my avatar, fortunately, all of the pre-made avatars were fairly attractive. According to Yee and Bailerson "Self-representation has a significant and instantaneous impact on our behavior."(2007) I did notice that because i felt virtually attractive, i was not afraid to express my confidence in the ways that Yee and Bailerson described- specifically minimalizing the distance between myself and whoever i interacted with, particularly if they were male. (why not, it's not real life!)

In terms of self-disclosure, my interaction with others was mostly superficial and concentrated on the workings of the game. Since this was an assignment and not something i would have done voluntarily, I was not actually interested in meeting people and making memories. Because of this, i feel i was not as inclined to disclose information, even though i felt virtually attractive, which could explain why my interaction did not align with what Yee and Bailerson would have predicted.

Yee and Bailerson also evaluated the effect height has over negotiation behavior, and they concluded that height does affect negotiation behavior, but their prediction describes the affects being ones that are only seen over time. My experiences did not really include any negotiating, so i am not able to agree or disagree with Yee and Bailerson concerning negotiating behavior.
Yee and Bailerson high-light behavioral confirmation as being extremely influential throughout their study. I found that the way people considered me affected how i, in turn, interacted with them, so my experiences do align with Yee and Bailerson's evaluations of behavioral confirmation.
Overall, i found my interactions to match up with the conclusions Yee and Bailerson made.