Now, keep in mind, this website is for teenagers! Before I begin my views on sexuality in this game, I’ll tell you about my latest experience. Again, I decided I needed to talk to these Habbo inhabitants in order to understand, so I accepted friend requests willingly (all male, but one). I wasn’t sure why they were befriending me, but hey, I like friends. My very first “instant message” on Habbo read, “feeling naughty?”- my response was of course, “nah”. I didn’t get discouraged after this first inappropriate message, so I accepted my next friend’s conversation with hope. He asked how I’d been doing, etc, and I said I was new to Habbo Hotel, and wasn’t sure how it worked. He, being such a gentlemen, offered to show me around, and said to follow him. He of course led me back to his private hotel room. I was apprehensive, but I thought the best, thinking he may show me some secrets of how to play.
No. I was wrong.
I will not go into the inappropriate details but his avatar was trying to undress mine! I left.
But after this encounter, and observing all the conversations thus far, every one seems to be concerned with meeting the opposite sex for a romp in their virtual world. And if the people playing this game, across the world mind you, are mostly teenagers, what is this saying about society? I noticed how both male and female avatars were equally as interested in finding people to have a babbo* of a good time with. And it’s even more disturbing to think if the people playing aren’t between the ages of 12-17, but 40 years their senior. Why is this game so over-sexualized? Is it because our world is obsessed with sex? It’s the basis for everything; movies, TV shows, jokes, board games, news stories, newspapers, and now virtual worlds. I just wonder with this going on in virtual worlds, how will it affect the male and female users and the views on their own sexuality. I know if I were to play this game, at those formidable teenage years, it’d have a direct affect on my views on myself and what others thought of me. When I was in Habbo, one boy avatar was telling other avatar girls they were ugly and didn’t want them to add him (despite if they were babbo (horny)). If a fellow player tells you your avatar, which looks for the most part, like everyone else’s, is unattractive, wouldn’t that still possibly hurt your feelings?
An avatar is an extension of yourself, it’s a part of you, and if your avatar becomes so involved in these sexual endeavors, what would be the affects on you in the real world? Virtual worlds are looked at as places to find yourself, explore new endeavors, figure out what you’re all about, but Habbo Hotel users are mostly concerned with sex. With all this being discussed, who do you think is more at risk for forming a skewed view of their sexuality? And what could be the possible affects when forming your sexuality, if you’re doing so with the help of Habbo Hotel (or whichever virtual world the reader is inhabiting)
I'm going to go with a couple of the questions you posed throughout your post:
ReplyDeleteAnd if the people playing this game, across the world mind you, are mostly teenagers, what is this saying about society?
I'm not sure what it says about society - especially considering the wide scope you've given (global) - but I think it may say something about teenagers. Namely, it sounds like you're describing that teenagers are interested in exploring sexual interactions. This is not surprising to me - early teens (and, in many countries such as ours, preteens) are when people go through puberty. Sexual maturation is a hallmark of puberty. Given that the biological changes are giving rise to sexual development, it's been pretty normal all throughout human history that sexual exploration begins in puberty. I'd say the only difference in the last 100-150 years is that in the developed world we hit sexual maturity much, much younger than ever and we're, culturally, pushing off marriage to a much, much older age than ever. In the US, that seems to have given rise to a great increase in anxiety over what young people do in that new gap of time between sexual maturity and expected-heterosexual-state-and-church-sanctioned-coupling (a.k.a. marriage).
If a fellow player tells you your avatar, which looks for the most part, like everyone else’s, is unattractive, wouldn’t that still possibly hurt your feelings?
Wow! The situation you described sounded like someone trying to be intentionally hurtful. It's absurd! I think that it would make me both laugh at the person and feel a little hurt.
An avatar is an extension of yourself, it’s a part of you, and if your avatar becomes so involved in these sexual endeavors, what would be the affects on you in the real world?
As someone who's not explored sexuality in the virtual world, I'm really not certain what its effects would be on me.
I guess on the "pros" side, maybe it could give me a chance to suss out what I find pleasurable or not, maybe give me the confidence to try something I've wanted to try in real life, and maybe provide an outlet for behaviors I'm interested in but don't necessarily want to act out in real life. On the "cons" side, maybe it could disassociate physical intimacy from sexuality, maybe it could normalize dangerous and illegal behaviors (like coercing someone into my room and trying to undress them without consent), maybe it could make me more anxious about face-to-face interactions.
Wow! Really great analysis! You are having one hell of an experience on Habbo (glad I was able to give up on it so early on) :)
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