Second life avatars as extensions of social and physical bodies in people with Myalgic Encephalomyelitis/Chronic Fatigue Syndrome

Abstract

In 2009, a virtual reality support centre in the virtual world Second Life was constructed for people with myalgic encephalomyelitis/chronic fatigue syndrome to determine whether a virtual reality setting could help alleviate the social isolation experienced by sufferers of this condition, despite the specific challenges technology presents to individuals with the illness. The results of the study suggest that the physiological effects experienced by participants while navigating their Second Life avatars necessitate a reconsideration of the relationship between the organic human body, psychoanalytic projections of the idealized or socially constructed body and technology. This paper examines the role avatars play as extensions of both the social and physiological bodies of users by combining phenomenological, cyberfeminist and psychoanalytic theory with recent findings in neuroscience.

Notes

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Additional information

Notes on contributors

Kirsty Best

Dr Kirsty Best is a Senior Lecturer with the School of Media, Communication and Culture at Murdoch University. This work is the product of a Discovery Grant from the Australian Research Council (ARC). Recent articles have appeared in Information, Communication and Society, the International Journal of Cultural Studies and the Canadian Journal of Communication. Dr Best also runs the Centre for ME/CFS and Other Invisible Illnesses in Second Life, for awareness and support of people with myalgic encephalomyelitis/chronic fatigue syndrome and other related illnesses (www.facebook.com/mecfs).

Stephanie Butler

Stephanie Butler is a PhD student in the Department of English and Cultural Studies at McMaster University. Her primary research focuses on domesticity and trauma in British Women's Second World War life writing. Her other areas of research include communication studies-centred approaches to disability studies and multi-user virtual environments, theories of affordances, and multimodal self-narration. She and Dr Best have previously published co-written articles on the ME/CFS Centre project that have been featured in Information, Communication and Society and Disability Studies Quarterly.