By Chyung Eun-ju and Joel Cho
Currently, the subject of the metaverse is discussed and debated mostly in conceptual and abstract forms, as these digital environments are still in the phase of being fully developed and the adoption of digital spaces for practical use is still in its embryonic stage.
There's a wide range of uses for the metaverse being made by various different companies and the way we interact in the digital world can vary according to the platform being used to access it.
As we take greater steps into the metaverse, the idea and implications of users' digital identities become more and more relevant. Indeed, the subject of digital identity has always been present from the inception of the internet; from the moment we log in to the internet and interact within the digital space, we are portraying a digital persona.
The boom of social media can be seen as the next big step for the evolution of our digital identities, as these kinds of platforms allowed us to control and project an image of the individual we wanted to embody online.
Now with the rise of the metaverse comes a new opportunity to reinvent ourselves. In most metaverse platforms, users must present themselves through an avatar which can be highly customized, providing a unique opportunity for anyone to create a digital persona with little to no limitations.
And just as it was the case with social media, this new chapter of the digital world provides us with a limitless degree of self-determination. We are now able to create a digital image of ourselves without any resemblance to our real physical selves and interact with others through this new identity.
So with this new possibility for reinvention, we find ourselves asking what we would do if we were given the power to be anonymous.
As metaverse interactions become increasingly anonymous and pseudonymous, users are given the opportunity to act on their natural inclinations. According to John Suler, a professor of clinical psychology at Rider University, the paradox of anonymity is that "On one hand, you feel protected and safe because your identity is unknown to the other person but then you want to reveal all sorts of intimate things about yourself."
The ability to be anonymous and pseudonymous in online interactions also results in catfishing. The Netflix docuseries "Untold: The Girlfriend Who Didn't Exist" presented the story of how famous college football player Manti Te'o was in a relationship with a Lennay Kekua, a fictitious person made by Naya Tuiasosopo, who at the time used the digital identity of Kekua to process her struggles with her gender and sexual identity. Even without the intricacies of the metaverse, Tuiasosopo was able to make a character from a stolen picture and created a relationship so deep without even any physical encounter.
"The truth of it is that it happened, I grew feelings, I grew emotions that sooner or later I couldn't control anymore," Tuiasosopo said to Dr. Phil, after her hoax had been reported by the media. In the documentary, she stated how her life had become Lennay's, and you could tell how she had embodied Lennay and how this digital identity helped her with her identity issues.
Appearances have always been crucial in people's decision-making processes. In a classic study by Monroe Lefkowitz, Robert R. Blake and Jane Mouton in 1955, a man wore a fancy suit and in another condition wore dirty attire. He stood at the intersection and would cross against the "Do Not Walk" signal in both conditions.
The study counted the number of people who would follow the man by also breaking the law and crossing against the signal, finding that people were three to five times more likely to follow the man into traffic when he was dressed in clothing associated with higher social status relative to when he was dressed otherwise.
Appearances are a powerful asset that not only affect others' behavior but also our own. Adam Galinsky, a Columbia University business school professor, illustrated this in a study on how people are affected by what they wear. In the study, participants wore a loose-fitting jacket and were told whether it was a doctor's jacket or an artist's smock. The results showed that participants dressed in a doctor's jacket performed better at a given task.
So following up on these ideas, in a world where you can become anyone, with the ability to essentially portray yourself at a whim, how would our digital appearance affect us physically?
Researchers Nick Yee and Jeremy Bailenson stated that not only do people conform to their avatar appearance but also that our digital identity has the power to change our physical one. This phenomenon is known as the "Proteus effect" named after the Greek mythological character who was able to change his form at will. A user playing a superhero is more likely to lend a helping hand outside the digital setting.
It is interesting to note that the social rules we apply to the virtual world are primarily the same as physical ones, since even in our portrayal of a digital identity we are still ruled by inherent and systemic ideologies we hold onto in the real world.
Our social habits of sitting when having meetings make it awkward to be standing in the metaverse even if our virtual bodies do not get tired. We make virtual chairs because our physical bodies get tired. In this sense, the virtual world becomes somewhat of a replica of physical social standards.
What we are observing in this embryonic stage of the metaverse is that we, as humans, tend to lean into familiar representations and behaviors of the physical world we inhabit. This is bleeding into the digital world we are creating. Even as the digital world detaches us from our physical forms, we are still social creatures trying to replicate the fundamental experience of proximity through the digital form.
It goes without saying that these ideas are constantly being adapted and we are still learning how the metaverse is effectively influencing our physical world, as it is continuously adapting and finding its space in our society.
Chyung Eun-ju (ejchyung@snu.ac.kr) is studying for a master's degree in marketing at Seoul National University. Her research focuses on digital assets and the metaverse. Joel Cho (joelywcho@gmail.com) is a practicing lawyer specializing in IP and digital law.
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| Chyung Eun-ju |
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| Joel Cho |
There's a wide range of uses for the metaverse being made by various different companies and the way we interact in the digital world can vary according to the platform being used to access it.
As we take greater steps into the metaverse, the idea and implications of users' digital identities become more and more relevant. Indeed, the subject of digital identity has always been present from the inception of the internet; from the moment we log in to the internet and interact within the digital space, we are portraying a digital persona.
The boom of social media can be seen as the next big step for the evolution of our digital identities, as these kinds of platforms allowed us to control and project an image of the individual we wanted to embody online.
Now with the rise of the metaverse comes a new opportunity to reinvent ourselves. In most metaverse platforms, users must present themselves through an avatar which can be highly customized, providing a unique opportunity for anyone to create a digital persona with little to no limitations.
And just as it was the case with social media, this new chapter of the digital world provides us with a limitless degree of self-determination. We are now able to create a digital image of ourselves without any resemblance to our real physical selves and interact with others through this new identity.
So with this new possibility for reinvention, we find ourselves asking what we would do if we were given the power to be anonymous.
As metaverse interactions become increasingly anonymous and pseudonymous, users are given the opportunity to act on their natural inclinations. According to John Suler, a professor of clinical psychology at Rider University, the paradox of anonymity is that "On one hand, you feel protected and safe because your identity is unknown to the other person but then you want to reveal all sorts of intimate things about yourself."
The ability to be anonymous and pseudonymous in online interactions also results in catfishing. The Netflix docuseries "Untold: The Girlfriend Who Didn't Exist" presented the story of how famous college football player Manti Te'o was in a relationship with a Lennay Kekua, a fictitious person made by Naya Tuiasosopo, who at the time used the digital identity of Kekua to process her struggles with her gender and sexual identity. Even without the intricacies of the metaverse, Tuiasosopo was able to make a character from a stolen picture and created a relationship so deep without even any physical encounter.
"The truth of it is that it happened, I grew feelings, I grew emotions that sooner or later I couldn't control anymore," Tuiasosopo said to Dr. Phil, after her hoax had been reported by the media. In the documentary, she stated how her life had become Lennay's, and you could tell how she had embodied Lennay and how this digital identity helped her with her identity issues.
Appearances have always been crucial in people's decision-making processes. In a classic study by Monroe Lefkowitz, Robert R. Blake and Jane Mouton in 1955, a man wore a fancy suit and in another condition wore dirty attire. He stood at the intersection and would cross against the "Do Not Walk" signal in both conditions.
The study counted the number of people who would follow the man by also breaking the law and crossing against the signal, finding that people were three to five times more likely to follow the man into traffic when he was dressed in clothing associated with higher social status relative to when he was dressed otherwise.
Appearances are a powerful asset that not only affect others' behavior but also our own. Adam Galinsky, a Columbia University business school professor, illustrated this in a study on how people are affected by what they wear. In the study, participants wore a loose-fitting jacket and were told whether it was a doctor's jacket or an artist's smock. The results showed that participants dressed in a doctor's jacket performed better at a given task.
So following up on these ideas, in a world where you can become anyone, with the ability to essentially portray yourself at a whim, how would our digital appearance affect us physically?
Researchers Nick Yee and Jeremy Bailenson stated that not only do people conform to their avatar appearance but also that our digital identity has the power to change our physical one. This phenomenon is known as the "Proteus effect" named after the Greek mythological character who was able to change his form at will. A user playing a superhero is more likely to lend a helping hand outside the digital setting.
It is interesting to note that the social rules we apply to the virtual world are primarily the same as physical ones, since even in our portrayal of a digital identity we are still ruled by inherent and systemic ideologies we hold onto in the real world.
Our social habits of sitting when having meetings make it awkward to be standing in the metaverse even if our virtual bodies do not get tired. We make virtual chairs because our physical bodies get tired. In this sense, the virtual world becomes somewhat of a replica of physical social standards.
What we are observing in this embryonic stage of the metaverse is that we, as humans, tend to lean into familiar representations and behaviors of the physical world we inhabit. This is bleeding into the digital world we are creating. Even as the digital world detaches us from our physical forms, we are still social creatures trying to replicate the fundamental experience of proximity through the digital form.
It goes without saying that these ideas are constantly being adapted and we are still learning how the metaverse is effectively influencing our physical world, as it is continuously adapting and finding its space in our society.
Chyung Eun-ju (ejchyung@snu.ac.kr) is studying for a master's degree in marketing at Seoul National University. Her research focuses on digital assets and the metaverse. Joel Cho (joelywcho@gmail.com) is a practicing lawyer specializing in IP and digital law.
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