Thursday, June 21, 2007
Kids Inhabiting Online Worlds in Record Numbers
Kids Inhabiting Online Worlds in Record Numbers
from Digital Smarts Blog by
"Make believe", a beloved part of childhood, is moving online in record numbers these days as particularly girls 7 to 17 gravitate to sites like Stardoll, Doppelganger, Club Penguin and Gaia Online. At Stardoll, for example, young girls can create their own online "MeDoll" identities from a template that allows the user to choose everything from skin tone to eyebrow shapes. Most important, it allows the user to dress up their avatar in the latest teen fashion. But, of course, it's not just about pleasing yourself. Popularity contests spring up even here. Stardoll users can measure their popularity by the number of "friends" they accumulate on their page, just as they might do on MySpace.com or Facebook--except the photos are not real. And as in real life, popularity has its benefits.One of the most obvious on Stardoll is that you can be a "cover girl" of the Stardoll fashion magazine by getting the most votes for your MeDoll. Most of these sites also have virtual economies with their own currencies, which users can earn or buy with their parents' credit cards and other online payment systems. The attraction is fairly obvious here and the chances for cyberbullying are somewhat minimal as users can only communicate using canned messages on most of these sites. But you have to wonder - do these MeDolls have any career aspirations? Wouldn't it be great if one of these sites let young girls try their hands at various careers or being a good parent without fashion being the guiding force? Whatever happened to dressing up in Mom's old clothes on a rainy day?
