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asplanet
Phoenix
Joined: Nov 11, 2007
Posts: 1772
Location: Cyberspace, New Zealand
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 Posted: Thu Jul 03, 2008 7:26 pm Post subject: Autism and virtual reality |
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Autism and virtual reality - 2 July 2008 - Johanna Eubank
It used to be if you wanted to be someone else for a while, you’d wear a mask and go to a costume party. If no one knew who you were, there was no need to be self conscious.
Now there’s a costume party 24 hours a day on Second Life,
a virtual-reality world where users create avatars, or character representations for themselves, with clever names that tell a little more about how they want to be perceived than the names their parents gave them at birth.
An avatar on Second Life, is free, and anyone can join. If you want land, you’ll have to pay.
There are several “islands” specifically for people with ASDs and their families and friends. These havens are meant to be a safe environment where they can interact with others and be themselves without the real-life pressures they encounter when the go out in the real world. There are meetings, parties, and support groups scheduled just like in the real world, except the people attending them may be sitting at computers in different countries, yet attend the same party.
Brigadoon is designed for those with Asperger’s Syndrome, who are generally higher functioning than many with autism.
Autistic Liberation Front is run by a group that supports neurodiversity.
Then there’s Naughty Auties, run by a young man with Asperger’s Syndrome.
As intriguing as creating a new persona in a virtual world sounds, the idea makes me as uncomfortable as the real world must make many with autism uncomfortable. So I can neither endorse or condemn any of these virtual islands, havens or whatever they should be called. I have never been to Second Life at all.
I tell myself that I will create my avatar and try it our, but I’m not sure I ever will. However, for the more technologically adventurous and those who want to practice their social skills online, it may be worth exploring.
If Second Life isn’t attractive, but someone with autism wants a virtual aide for learning social skills, SIMmersion may be the ticket. It is also an interactive virtual reality created for people with ASDs. Simulated people will interact with the user by showing emotions and behaving like real people. They will interact differently each time and can carry on conversations for extended periods.
SIMmersion is meant to be an educational tool, unlike Second Life. While one may learn in Second Life, users must remember that they are interacting with avatars that have real people behind them. The people in SIMmersion, except for the user, are simulated.
While spending a lot of time at the computer may seem counter-productive for someone with autism, practicing social skills with SIMmersion or interacting with people in Second Life from the safety of homemay be better than no interaction at all. They could lead to improved social skills.
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"Believe in your self, we are who we are - as it can feel like an endless task trying to be someone else!" Alyson Bradley ... Aspergers Parallel Planet web site - http://asplanet.info/index.php
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Brandon-J
Velociraptor
Joined: Mar 12, 2008
Age: 20
Posts: 415
Location: North Carolina
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| Posted: Thu Jul 03, 2008 8:54 pm Post subject: |
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Rainstorm5
Cogito ergo doleo
Joined: Feb 20, 2008
Posts: 1033
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| Posted: Thu Jul 03, 2008 9:20 pm Post subject: |
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I agree, actually, that online social networking helps with social skills. Prior to my introduction to chat rooms in '95, I had no social skills whatsoever. I've learned a lot online and though it hasn't turned me into a social butterfly by any means, I did learn a lot of conversation patterns there that I use to this day. I like internet conversation primarily for the anonymity.
As for Second Life, it just sounds too complicated for me. I'm too honest and I'd probably design my avatar to look like my real self and then no one would talk to me. {Do they have any avatars for 41-year-old business women with long black hair with grey streaks in it? Maybe...} I'm notoriously stingy with money, so I wouldn't pay for a virtul house to live in. I'd probably have to live under a bridge or behind a restaurant somewhere. being homeless in a virtual world seems pointless. The whole thing seems like a colossal waste of time to me, but that's just my opinion, which doesn't count for much. The real world is hard enough for me to contend with.
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asplanet
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Joined: Nov 11, 2007
Posts: 1772
Location: Cyberspace, New Zealand
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| Posted: Thu Jul 03, 2008 9:59 pm Post subject: |
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This does concern me in the fact that we do have to live in the real world, mind you when younger I use to watch movies etc.. as when growing up the people around me were far from great role models. But I also know we learn most from real life experiences, virtual reality may help but if wrongly applied could do more damage...
One of the worse things to me is the break down of communication in society in general, which does not help us aspies... emails, on line chat etc.. can far to easily be misinterpreted...
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"Believe in your self, we are who we are - as it can feel like an endless task trying to be someone else!" Alyson Bradley ... Aspergers Parallel Planet web site - http://asplanet.info/index.php
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blue_bean
Red in the face
Joined: Apr 14, 2006
Age: 24
Posts: 1167
Location: Mid North Coast, NSW, Australia
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| Posted: Fri Jul 04, 2008 5:55 am Post subject: |
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I don't play Second Life to be someone else. Apart from my name and the physical look of my avatar, it's pretty much still me personality wise when I'm in Second Life. (yes, my avatar looks like a frickin barbie doll but I don't care, k).
You aren't required to take any new persona unless circumstances call for it, eg. for roleplay.
Second Life can be a great creative outlet too. Building, scripting, photography, animating, texturing, making all sorts of stuff. Someone once remarked that some of Second Life's best scripters may be Aspie 
Just saying that socialising isn't what it has to be all about, you can make it into a hobby/past-time with other things.
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"There's a hole in the world like a great black pit and its filled with people who are filled with sh*t and the vermin of the world inhabit it" |
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Fuzzy
Ack! Thbbbt!
Joined: Mar 31, 2006
Posts: 1916
Location: Alberta Canada
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| Posted: Fri Jul 04, 2008 6:34 am Post subject: |
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I am me in SL. my face is modeled on my own and I applied a photo of me to my body. My matching picture is in my avatars profile. The only thing that doesnt match is the name.
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SabbraCadabra
Seagull! Seagull!
Joined: Apr 22, 2008
Posts: 1411
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| Posted: Fri Jul 04, 2008 2:04 pm Post subject: |
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I've seen a lot of screenshots of Second Life, and that thing creeps me out @_@
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Rainstorm5
Cogito ergo doleo
Joined: Feb 20, 2008
Posts: 1033
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| Posted: Sat Jul 05, 2008 9:08 am Post subject: |
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| asplanet wrote: | | This does concern me in the fact that we do have to live in the real world, mind you when younger I use to watch movies etc.. as when growing up the people around me were far from great role models. But I also know we learn most from real life experiences, virtual reality may help but if wrongly applied could do more damage... |
Interesting that you bring this up. I was just thinking the same thing a couple of days ago when I was flipping through TV channels and found an old rerun of 'The Brady Bunch' playing. I've seen every episode of the Brady Bunch while growing up and it did two things to me in terms of my world view. #1, I thought of the Brady family as the 'ideal'in terms of what a parent should be, how kids should be, etc. My family was dysfunctional and I knew it way back then because I compared them daily to the Brady Family. #2., I thought all 'normal' families would be like the Brady family, and when I grew up, I discovered that the example set by the TV family was the exception rather than the norm.
A further blow to my perception of the show came when I recently saw a documentary feature on the all the weird, sicko things that went on during the filming of the Brady Bunch TV series. The actor who played the eldest son actually slept with the actress who played his mother on the show. This so disgusted me that I vowed never to watch it again. I was actually depressed when I heard about all of this stuff and was angry with the producers of the documentary for revealing it. Why did they have to do that? Is there something about smearing dirt on something otherwise pristine that gets them going? It sickens me.
Needless to say, when I found the show on TV yet again, I moved on to something else. It's surprising jst how many people were literally 'raised' by the television in the 70s, 80s and 90s. Kids acually grow up thinking that people in real life are going to be like the people they see on TV, then like me, they're consequently shattered when they discover the real world isn't that way.
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One of the worse things to me is the break down of communication in society in general, which does not help us aspies... emails, on line chat etc.. can far to easily be misinterpreted... |
I agree. Yesterday, on another forum, I was arguing on some political thread about why I feel the Progressive Democrats are wrong about eradicating all religious icons from American society (from innocent manger scenes in people's yards to a cross on a hill as they drive past it on the freeway - the ACLU is attacking all of this), and some fan of Socialism got on there, accusing me of being 'nasty' and having a 'tone,' which I didn't have. I was merely listing a series of legal precedents that indicate why religious icons are covered under the 1st Amendment. The conclusion I came to was that I didn't have a 'negative tone,' it's just that the girl didn't have the legal knowledge to argue withme on the subject, so she accused me of 'attacking' her and her Socialist buddies. It disappoints me when people don't know how to debate properly. Instead, they scream 'Foul' and cry that they've been attacked. A LOT of NTs are this way. They can't think in linear fashion, so they get defensive. That's why I didn't bother to continue arguing my point against her. Sorry to say, but she just wasn't smart enough. If she would have at least 'admitted' that she didn't know enough about Constitutional law, then I could have delineated her points for her and then more clearly explained my position, but she took the childish route and began calling me names.
NTs are very disappointing at times, especially when they imagine 'tone' in written form - where there isn't any.
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Rainstorm5
Cogito ergo doleo
Joined: Feb 20, 2008
Posts: 1033
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| Posted: Sat Jul 05, 2008 9:25 am Post subject: |
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| blue_bean wrote: | I don't play Second Life to be someone else. Apart from my name and the physical look of my avatar, it's pretty much still me personality wise when I'm in Second Life. (yes, my avatar looks like a frickin barbie doll but I don't care, k).
You aren't required to take any new persona unless circumstances call for it, eg. for roleplay. |
Love your avatar, BTW - 'Drama LLama' - how cute! Anyway, I don't have a problem with anyone else getting involved in Second Life. It's just not for me. I guess the main thing that bothers me is that everyone there looks like a 'doll" to me {like you said, a 'Barbie'].
If they ever get better graphics to where people & landscapes look a lot more 'real,' then I might change my mind. For now, IMO, the graphics are too crude.
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Second Life can be a great creative outlet too. Building, scripting, photography, animating, texturing, making all sorts of stuff. Someone once remarked that some of Second Life's best scripters may be Aspie
Just saying that socialising isn't what it has to be all about, you can make it into a hobby/past-time with other things. |
I agree that it can inspire people in a creative manner. That's why I liked Dungeons and Dragons when I was a lot younger - you invented your own 'world' so to speak. (Granted, it was imaginary, but my Aspie brain always thinks in far better image graphics, anyway, LOL). World of Warcraft is the same way and I'd probably play that if I had money to spare, which is odd, considering that I'm a 41 yr old female. But hey, I've always been a sci-fi/fantasy fan anyway.
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