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A Brief Analysis of Presentation of Self in Everyday Life and Second Life

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A Brief Analysis of Presentation of Self in Everyday Life and Second Life A BRIEF ANALYSIS OF PRESENTATION OF SELF IN EVERYDAY LIFE AND SECOND LIFE A THESIS SUBMITTED TO THE GRADUATE SCHOOL OF SOCIAL SCIENCES OF MIDDLE EAST TECHNICAL UNIVERSITY NİL MİT IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF MASTER OF SCIENCE IN THE DEPARTMENT OF SOCIOLOGY JANUARY 2014 Approval of the Graduate School of Social Sciences Prof. Dr. Meliha Altunışık Director I certify that this thesis satisfies all the requirements as a thesis for the degree of Master of Science. Prof. Dr. Ayşe Saktanber Head of Department This is to certify that we have read this thesis and that in our opinion it is fully adequate, in scope and quality, as a thesis for the degree of Master of Science. Assist. Prof. Dr. Çağatay Topal Supervisor Examining Committee Members Assist. Prof. Dr. Fatma Umut Beşpınar (METU, SOC) Assist. Prof. Dr. Çağatay Topal (METU, SOC) Assist. Prof. Dr. Çağrı Topal (METU, BA) I hereby declare that all information in this document has been obtained and presented in accordance with academic rules and ethical conduct. I also declare that, as required by these rules and conduct, I have fully cited and referenced all material and results that are not original to this work. Name, Last name : Signature : iii ABSTRACT A Brief Analysis of Presentation of Self in Everyday Life and Second Life Nil Mit M.Sc., Department of Sociology Supervisor: Assist. Prof. Dr. Çağatay Topal JANUARY, 2014, 126 pages As a result of the rapid advancement of internet today, millions of people are spending a considerable amount of time in virtual environments created via computer technologies. This research has tried to explore, if any, the effects of spending time in virtual environments on the personal relations of the persons in real life. Interactions of the people in the virtual environment, which is Second Life, was studied based on Goffman's Presentation of Self Theory. Within the scope of this research, the author registered in secondlife.com and contacted people who spend considerable time in this medium and conducted personal interviews with the Second Life users in real life as well as in virtual life. Keywords: Internet, Self, Virtual Life, Second Life iv ÖZ Günlük Hayatta ve “Second Life” Adlı İnternet Platformunda Kendilik Sunumunun Kısa Bir İncelemesi Nil Mit Yüksek Lisans, Sociology Anabilim Dalı Tez Yöneticisi: Yard. Doç. Dr. Çağatay Topal Ocak , 2014, 126 sayfa Günümüzde internet teknolojilerinin çok hızlı bir şekilde gelişmesi sayesinde milyonlarca insan bilgisayarlar vasıtasıyla yaratılan sanal ortamlarda önemli ölçüde zaman geçirmektedir. Bu araştırma kapsamında sanal ortamlarda zaman geçirmenin gerçek hayatta kişisel ilişkiler üstündeki etkilerinin olup olmadığı araştırılmış ve incelenmiştir. Bu araştırma kapsamında, Goffman'ın kendiliğin sunumu teorisinden hareketle dünyanın en popüler sanal ortamı olan secondlife.com'daki üyeler arasındaki kişisel ilişkiler incelenmiştir. Bu çalışmanın yazarı, şahsen secondlife.com sitesine üye olmuş ve bu ortamda çok fazla zaman geçiren kişilerle hem secondlife.com üzerinden hem de ulaşabildiği avatarların gerçek hayattaki kimlikleri ile yüz yüze olmak üzere iletişime geçmiş ve görüşmeler yapmıştır. Anahtar Kelimeler: İnternet, Kendilik, Sanal Yaşam, Second Life v To My Family vi ACKNOWLEDGMENTS Foremost, I would like to express my sincere gratitude to my dear supervisor Assist. Prof. Dr. Çağatay Topal for his patience, immense knowledge and motivation during my study. Without his guidance and persistent help this study would not have been possible: He accepted to become my supervisor while I was almost at the stage of giving up with my thesis. He always believed me and helped me enter the spirit of adventure of conducting this research. I always felt his genuine support and guidance during my journey at METU. I could not have imagined having a better advisor for my study. Besides my advisor, I would like to thank the rest of my thesis committee: Assist. Prof. Dr. Fatma Umut Beşpınar for her encouragement as well as her great guidance in shaping my thesis and also Çağrı Topal, for his insightful comments and hard questions during my study. I share my appreciation to both of them for helping my dream to become true. My sincere thanks also goes to Assoc. Prof. Dr. Sibel Kalaycıoğlu whom I owe a great respect and love for providing me an intellectual guidance and emotional support when ever I needed her. In particular, I am grateful to Inst. Dr. Adnan Akçay for enlightening me for the first glance of this research and his encouragements during my master’s study starting from the first day I set my foot in METU. I would like to share my great appreciations to both of them for their great contribution to my personal life and my academic studies. I am also grateful to Prof. Dr. Tayfun Atay, for reminding me who I am. Becoming his student and entering his classes that are full of spirituality, wisdom and energy was one of the most unforgettable moments of my life. My sincere thanks to him for being one of my greatest supporters at METU vii I also would like to thank my beloved parents for supporting me spiritually throughout my life and my dear brother Can Memişoğlu for providing me love and support during my education both in Turkey and Canada. I am also very fortunate to have Shaheen Sajan who has always in my life whenever I needed a motivation, regardless the distances and the boarders between us. Lastly I would like to thank my precious friends Recep Cemal Akgün, Gülçin Con, Rana Çavuşoğlu and Sırma Irmak İnan for their support during this process. My heartfelt thanks go to my dear husband Kemal Mit for his great support and endless patience since he entered to my life. He has always been there for me whenever I felt down and provided me sincere love and support. I owe him a great love and respect for being in my life and helping me conduct this study. viii TABLE OF CONTENTS PLAGIARISM………………………………..…………………………………….iii ABSTRACT………….…………………………………………………….……….iv ÖZ……………………………………………………………………………………v DEDICATION………………………………………………………………………vi ACKNOWLEDGMENTS………………………………………………………….vii TABLE OF CONTENTS…………………………………………………………..viii CHAPTER I. INTRODUCTION ............................................................................................ 1 II. KEY CONCEPTS AND THEORETICAL BACKGROUND ............................ 8 A.Definition of Key Concepts ............................................................................ 8 i. Definition of Hyperreality ....................................................................... 8 ii. Definition of Cyberspace ...................................................................... 10 iii. Definition of Avatar .............................................................................. 11 iv. Erving Goffman: Presentation of Self in Everyday Life ......................... 12 B. Literature Review ........................................................................................ 15 i. Educational Use of Virtual Platforms ....................................................... 15 ii. Analysis of Social Behaviour and Self- Expression ................................... 20 iii. Presentation of Self and Identity Formation ............................................ 26 iv. Economic and Financial Aspects............................................................. 33 v. Technology Related and Other Aspects .................................................... 35 III. METHOD ....................................................................................................... 39 A. CASE STUDY ............................................................................................ 39 B. A Brief Analysis of the Second Life Community ........................................... 40 a. The Rationale of the Research .................................................................. 40 b. Design of the Research ............................................................................. 47 c. Collection of Data .................................................................................... 48 d. Thematic Analysis .................................................................................... 49 i. Physical features ................................................................................... 50 ix ii. Economic Aspects ...............................................................................51 iii. Roles ..................................................................................................51 e. Sampling ......................................................................................................52 f. Limitations ...................................................................................................55 IV. ETNOGRAPHY of SECOND LIFE .................................................................58 A. Second Life™; the Most Popular Virtual Medium to Have an On – Line Identity ............................................................................................................58 B. Reasons for Having a Second Life in Virtual Worlds ...................................59 C. A Personal Second Life Experience .............................................................64 V. ANALYSIS .......................................................................................................83 A.Analysis of the Case Study in Terms of the Theoretical Context ....................83 a.First Group of Questions: Physical Features ............................................83 b. Second Group of Questions:
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