Quote:
Originally Posted by Ingrid N.  As such, my interpersonal interactions (interpersonal actions?) mostly mirrors that of my RL, except it seems in SL I am completely socially retarded. I think I'm the only person on this board with over 1000 posts and no friends, so I don't know (Walker friended me, but I think only cause I was whining about not having any friends  ). In RL I am about as withdrawn or standoffish as I am here, but the interaction is of course not as one-dimensional, meaning so much on here is lost due to the lack of body language, tone of voice and such. So, it's a lot easier there to make friends for me than here. I have mentioned this before, a few times, I think social interaction virtual worlds would be greatly faciliated by a more sophisticated system of facial expression and body language than we have at the moment, but I am of course stating the obvious here. Uncanny valley, here I come!. |
Thanks for posting that, Ingrid.
I find the lack of facial expressions and body language to be a problem. When I started
SL and would meet someone, I had to stop looking at their avatar's face and posture/gestures - it didn't match up to their words and I realized it didn't mean anything in the conversation. But this takes a lot of depth from the conversation.
I don't know if I find it easier or harder to make friends in
SL versus RL - they are so different. But I know that the situations in
SL that are unworkable for me IRL - talking in a group in which people do not talk in turns or walking up to a stranger and starting a conversation, for example - also give me problems in
SL. I didn't anticipate this at all when I started and am disappointed in myself that I can't escape it in a virtual world. So I guess the emotions that
SL provoke can be too much like RL at times.