Agism in Second Life

As a part of my MUVE project on creating an environment in Second Life for health care professionals to learn to eliminate agism from their interactions with senior citizens, I transformed my avatar into a senior citizen. I explored SL as my senior citizen avatar and discovered some very interesting patterns. On the tame side of my experiences, I was simply ignored. On the blatant side, I was told outright to get a new avatar.

Many times other avatars would walk away as I walked (wheeled) toward them. If they did engage in a conversation with me, it was either very short or they used very simple language. Often times I would return as my younger avatar and, even though my name hadn't changed, no one recognized me as the older woman they had seen before. I was able to have conversations with a few of the same people and they were much more socialable.

The avatar that told me to get a new avatar was actually offended that I had such an avatar. He said that SL is for fantasies and, "don't you want to look better?" I role-played a bit and told him that there are some avatars that look very similar to their "RL avatar." I told him this is what I look like in RL. He said, "in that case, maybe you shouldn't be in SL." I tried to contact him as my young avatar, but was unable to find him.

My interactions as a senior citizen weren't all negative. I had several people who were simply curious as to my choice of avatars, but treated me no differently.

Overall, I was surprised by my experiences, especially after finding SL to be such a friendly environment before my transformation. As my younger avatar, I met many people from all over the world, many of whom gave me something for free (objects, landmarks, $L). I am disheartened by the agism I experienced in SL, but it confirms my concerns that SL perpetuates an unhealthy ideal body image.