In my anthropology class, we recently starting reading an ethnography about Second Life, a virtual world where people can get online and do practically anything with an avatar such as go shopping, build a house, attend a wedding, etc. (For more info- http://secondlife.com/whatis/). Users say that the most compelling reason they use Second Life is the relationships they make with people who are across the globe. Even if people have never met each other in the actual world, in Second Life, they can get married, be friends; an adult can even be a child avatar and have another user agree to be their parent in Second Life. This ability to create relationships and participate in groups in this world made me think about Putnam and social capital. Could people produce social capital in a virtual world like many of our groups decided in Part II that people can do on Facebook? This virtual world is like Facebook but better because you can interact with each other through more than just words. For instance, this picture is of a GreenPeace meeting in Second Life. It sounds like a stretch, and the concept is somewhat confusing, but I wonder what Putnam would say to this kind of interaction and connectivity between not only Americans, but the global population.
Tuesday, April 19, 2011
Social Capital in a Virtual World
In my anthropology class, we recently starting reading an ethnography about Second Life, a virtual world where people can get online and do practically anything with an avatar such as go shopping, build a house, attend a wedding, etc. (For more info- http://secondlife.com/whatis/). Users say that the most compelling reason they use Second Life is the relationships they make with people who are across the globe. Even if people have never met each other in the actual world, in Second Life, they can get married, be friends; an adult can even be a child avatar and have another user agree to be their parent in Second Life. This ability to create relationships and participate in groups in this world made me think about Putnam and social capital. Could people produce social capital in a virtual world like many of our groups decided in Part II that people can do on Facebook? This virtual world is like Facebook but better because you can interact with each other through more than just words. For instance, this picture is of a GreenPeace meeting in Second Life. It sounds like a stretch, and the concept is somewhat confusing, but I wonder what Putnam would say to this kind of interaction and connectivity between not only Americans, but the global population.
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Megan,
ReplyDeleteWow! These are great questions. Maybe you will continue with them in your final essay (Part IV). That would be a fine way to draw your two courses together.
LDL