Week 5- The 3D and IM experience

Social networking can be broken up into IM and 3D chat rooms. There are qualitative differences that divide the two. IM or instant messanging are for example msn, yahoo, skype, facbook and myspace and 3D worlds could be World of War Craft, IMVU, Habbo Hotel, Second Life and active world to name a few. The main difference between the two is that with IM you would most likely know the person you are speaking to and the communication methods are through text and a webcam. With The online 3D worlds you create your own character or 'avatars' however this still does not give the user any idea of who the other person is. So that sense of identity is missing but i guess some people enjoy the idea of speaking to a complete stranger. I guess i would prefer IM experience over the online 3D experience due to the fact that i know exactly who i am talking to and i eel like i am talking to an actual person and not a computerised character from an electronic game...that's my opinion.