Week Three - Topic 3e: Turkle's Theories

Do Turkle’s theories based on MUDs apply here also?

I think that Turkle’s theories based on MUD’s do apply here as MUD’s have many similarities to Second Life in terms of role-playing, users and online personas; the main difference is Second-Life uses graphics and images.
Turkle suggests that users of MUD’s can very easily create several adaptable and unstable identities, even though this pushes the confines of the concept of identity. This is the same for Second Life; one user can create many ‘residents’ so they can construct themselves as they desire, often taking different aspects of their real life personality and emphasising that particular trait for each avatar.
One of the case studies in Turkles’ paper, a 21 year old college student, reveals that his violent characters on MUD’s are actually a part of him, however he chooses to use his violent side on the computer rather than in real life. I believe that many people will do this on Second Life just as they do in MUD’s.