In many courses we have discussed and explored the affection in real life. But this semester we get a chance to use SL as a medium to know people's lives and actions in virtual world, so recently our group decided to conduct a survey about the values of romantic relationship in SL and analyze the variables, which make the subjects have different thoughts and opinions towards this issue.
At first, we formulate a questionnaire, including twenty-one questions about the moral problems in SL relationship. Then we would go to some romantic spots, such as Tempura Island to find the potential couples and interview with them. After collecting as much data as we can, we would start to discuss and analyze the results. Through it we can know whether the country, education background, gender and age would influence people's ideas about the relationship in virtual world. At last, we would not only use video to present our findings, but also make them into charts on the poster in SL to help us explain our conclusions.
2. Methods
As mentioned before, we design twenty-one questions to let us know people's values of relationship in SL more deeply. Our target subjects are the potential couples in SL, through them we can analyze the information and opinions they give to clarify what variables would affect the result of this survey. So the first question is "Which country are you from in real life?" In our thoughts, every nation has their own cultures and customs to shape people's ideas. Therefore, country is an indispensable variable in this study. The following questions are "Your education background, gender and age in real life." To us, we also believe instruction has the ability to form people's values and visions seeing the world. Simultaneously sex and age can make two individuals have really different concepts and behaviors as well. So after careful considerations, these four are the main variables in our survey. Then the second part of the questionnaire, we would try to know their thoughts about the relationship in SL through the questions "Do you think a relationship in SL should be treated honestly and loyally just like one in Real Life?" "If you already have a relationship in Real Life, would you consider your affections in SL as an act of adultery?" "Is it possible to deal with two relationships at the same time? (RL romance and SL romance)" "If you have romantic attachments in SL, do you keep the relationship within the SL platform?" "Would you consider SL relationships as a potential RL romantic partnership or even marriage?" "Does your avatar represent and reflect the real you in RL?" and "Do you think fabricating the glorious events about you to increase the opportunities to have intimate relationship immoral?" These are the possible ethical dilemmas that they may encounter, so the interesting point is how they would see and react to the problems.
After collecting back the questionnaires, we would single out the most effective questions to discuss and analyze how the potential variables influence the result of this study. At last, the charts and video about our findings can give an explanation more clearly.
3. Result/Finding
Our subjects of this survey are mainly from four continents North/South America, Europe and Asia. Their education background is from high-school graduated to Master. The proportion of them is half female and male. Besides, their age is from 20 to 50. Now we would start from country first, the people in North America seem to treat the relationship in SL more seriously than the others from Europe, South America and Asia. For instance, one woman from USA thinks if she already has a relationship in real life, she would consider her affections in SL as an act of adultery. Because she says "Values of a real emotional relation are important, we are not dolls." But to her partner, who is from France, he really has different idea with her. He says "He doesn't think it as an act of adultery at all, because the RL life stays in RL and SL stays in SL that there is no conflict between them." And a woman from Argentina also supports his notion. She says "In SL I'm just playing, not for real. It doesn't involve real feelings, so if I have a date in SL it doesn't affect my real life's relationship." But the most surprising thing to us is that a Japanese woman says "Flirting with people in SL is just a way to satisfied myself." The answer absolutely doesn't fit the impression Japan gives us at all. So we start to think maybe it is stereotype, which make us misunderstand them or there are still some situational variables to influence the result. However, we would discuss more deeply later. Now through the analysis, we can declare country is an important variable to affect people's values of relationship in SL as before. Next we would talk about education background to show whether it has effects on the finding of this survey. A woman, who is high-school graduated thinks fabricating the glorious events about you to increase the opportunities to have intimate relationship is immoral. Because she says "Being dishonest can't make a real relationship in either SL or RL." Coincidentally that her partner also has a similar concept with her, although he is college graduated. He says "It's untruthful, and dishonesty is immoral. Furthermore, it will never lead to any real relationship." But out of our expectation, a man is Master graduated having really different opinion with them. He says "Why should it be immoral? It's just about having fun." So through the contrast, we find higher the educational background they have; there is no promise that they would treat the relationship in SL more seriously. However, we would consider all the variables together and give a more complete explanation in next section too. Then let's look at gender, we have interviewed with five couples in this study. There are two women, who think their avatar represent and reflect the real self in RL, but only one man has the same idea with them. They say "Not so much in appearance, but I don't act differently in SL from how I am in RL, because I have nothing to hide." On the other hand, there are four men and three women having the opposite notion with them. They say "Because that is what SL for, they provide their avatars with things they can't afford and dare to do in RL. It's fun to play that way." So after the examination, we are able to know females treat their lives and relationships more honestly in SL than males. Sex is really a potential variable, which would affect their thoughts towards this issue. At last, we are going to observe the finding from the age aspect. A woman, who is 22, thinks a relationship in SL is not necessarily to be treated loyally just like one in real life. She says "Second Life is a computer game, so dating here is just for fun." There is a man, who is 35, also supporting her opinion that he says "He is just having some fun in SL, nothing is serious here." But to the elder couple, who are 43 and 50, they hold completely different concept with them. They say "All relationships in life, especially intimate ones should be treated honestly. Even though those are Internet based, still ought to be taken seriously as a committed affection." Through this inspection, we realize there is a big gap between the two generations. So age is still an essential variable that we can't ignore.
After reviewing the result of this survey, we would discuss more comprehensively and give a conclusion in the next section.
4. Discussion & Conclusion
Through detailed consideration and cross-analysis, we have a conclusion that educational background is not a necessary variable related to this study, because high-school graduated is adequate enough to affirm their values. Besides, country and gender are relatively important variables in our survey. Although globalization and equality of men and women have given their influence some attacks, they are still significant factors worth searching. Above all, age is the most essential variable this time that we can see clearly there is a line in 35. If the subjects are elder than the standard, they always treat the relationship in SL seriously and their avatars represent themselves personally. On the other hand, the younger ones become more open-minded through the decreasing of their age. However, because of limited time, we can't get sufficient samples to do this survey very precisely. But we would make a poster in SL to use the charts to explain and compare the five couples separately. Therefore, if you gain more interest about this issue, you can go to the romantic spots, such as Tempura Island and the Lost Gardens of Apollo to have a conversation with the couples and I'm sure you would know more about them.
