SOCIAL NETWORKING RISK – MYSPACE, ITS SO YESTERDAY – MOVING ON TO SECOND LIFE

We frequently write in this blog about the dangers of revealing too much personal information on social networking sites such as MySpace. Pre teens and teens are particularly at risk; primarily due to the lack of caution, peer pressure to reveal too much information, and targeting by predators.

At KnightsBridge Castel we have searched through hundreds of records in MySpace looking for personally revealing information. This research was conducted with the approval of the MySpace participants, including teenagers. We found the amount of personal information revealed on these sites to be appalling.

In the last month we began researching the new social network craze – Second Life. Unlike MySpace, Second Life creates an active virtual world in which “players” in the game interact with each other through instant messaging (IM). Compared to Second Line, MySpace is passive, dull, and not interactive. Second Live is visually stunning and allows for interaction between players at a far more engaging level.

Second Life, has its seamy side, however we have noticed that players in Second Life are far more reluctant to reveal personal information than on MySpace. Our findings at this point are intuitive, but based on hundreds of IM conversations with participants. Only time will tell if players in Second Life fall into the same patterns of revealing too much personal information as they easily do in MySpace.

However, the dynamics of the almost real interactive nature of Second Life seems to make people more cautious than the simple posting systems of MySpace. In interactions on Second Life, you are presented with an interactive visual image of the person you are talking to, and although most of the players depicted are “beautiful” people, the very act of talking (via IM) to a virtual person makes players more cautious about revealing identity details.

A more scientific study is needed; however there is a deep difference in the psychology of interaction between MySpace and Second Life. Its worthy of a dissertation.