Quick blog post. (I’m having surgery tomorrow so I am trying to get my apartment ready.) Two excerpts from recent articles on avatars that I thought were interesting. The first is from a Stanford University study that found “watching a ‘digital you’ strongly influences the ‘real you.’”
Principal author Jesse Fox had 25 subjects watch a digital clone (or avatar) of themselves running on a treadmill for five minutes.
She found that those who watched their avatar break a sweat spent more time exercising within a 24-hour period (an hour more in fact), than the control subjects who watched another person jogging, or those who watched their own avatar doing nothing. That’s more than double the Surgeon General’s minimum daily recommendation for exercise.
The authors suggest that eventually we could have a digital us pop up on our cell phones reminding us to take that extra loop round the track.
Persuasion studies have shown that we are most influenced by those similar to us, in looks, values, education. But here we are being persuaded by the ultimate model: our own self.
I guess watching an avatar is a form of visualization. Everyone knows that figure skaters imagine themselves doing a triple axel before they do it on the ice. Avatars are just another way to visualize an ideal performance, even if that ideal performance may just be getting out of the house, as described in an article by the Nashua Telegraph .
After suffering a devastating stroke four years ago, Susan Brown was left in a wheelchair with little hope of walking again. Today, the 57-year-old Richmond, Va., woman has regained use of her legs and has begun to reclaim her life, thanks in part to encouragement she says she gets from an online “virtual world” where she can walk, run and even dance.
Roberto Salvatierra, long imprisoned in his home by his terror over going outdoors, has started venturing outside more after gaining confidence by first tentatively exploring the three-dimensional, interactive world on the Internet.
John Dawley III, who has a form of autism that makes it hard to read social cues, learned how to talk with people more easily by using his computer-generated alter ego to practice with other cyber-personas.
Brown, Salvatierra and Dawley are just a few examples of an increasing number of sick, disabled and troubled people who say virtual worlds are helping them fight their diseases, live with their disabilities and sometimes even begin to recover. Researchers say they are only starting to appreciate the impact of this phenomenon.
So avatars are good for our health! I like how the use of avatars is highlighting the importance of the imagination for our well being. Though you gotta wonder…can avatars also support destructive behaviors? If you act out fantasies with your avatar that you wouldn’t want to do in real life, will you be persuaded by “yourself” that maybe you should?
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Garden variety North American Nomad. Born in the Midwest; lived and worked on the West Coast and abroad; studied in the South. Recently spotted putting down roots in New England.