Qualitative Differences between 3D and IM

Questions of social identity in the socialising space always arise when people talk about social networking. social identity is however viewed differently according to the quality of network socialisation. The 3D experience is very different from an IM experience. Although you can express emotions with both through text and emoticons, the user does not get a full picture of who you are as a person and your identity. The 3D world offers a very realistic chat experience where there are avatars, scenes and a complete virtual world. A good example of 3D space are Second life and IMVU. MSN, Skype does not offer any virtual experience, it is simply a mean of communication between people as well as an image sharing tool. The way people understand others is different according to what service they are using, neither however can give a clear picture of the person's exact identity. For some people, their social networking identity is different to how it is in reality. Some people tend to be someone they are not as an affect of who they are communicating with as well as the medium used for the communication.