Living digital: embodient in virtual worlds
The social life of avatars
International Journal of Human-Computer Studies
Trends, similarities, and differences in the usage of teen and senior public online newsgroups
ACM Transactions on Computer-Human Interaction (TOCHI)
Social networks, gender, and friending: An analysis of MySpace member profiles
Journal of the American Society for Information Science and Technology
Co-creation and user-generated content-elderly people's user requirements
Computers in Human Behavior
Proceedings of the 13th International Conference on Human-Computer Interaction. Part I: New Trends
"A little silly and empty-headed": older adults' understandings of social networking sites
Proceedings of the 23rd British HCI Group Annual Conference on People and Computers: Celebrating People and Technology
Individual Motivations for Using Social Virtual Worlds: An Exploratory Investigation in Second Life
HICSS '10 Proceedings of the 2010 43rd Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences
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3D online multi-user virtual environments (MUVEs) have a lot of potential in supporting older people in their daily lives, yet little research has been conducted to explore how older people engage with this type of technology. This paper aims to investigate the characteristics, user groups and activity patterns (particularly social networks and gift giving behaviour) of older users within a 3D online multi-user virtual environment. Data from approximately 5000 online user profiles of older and younger users from a 3D MUVE, namely IMVU, was collected for analysis. Overall, we identified several distinct patterns of use (e.g. size of social ties, level of reciprocity, etc.) among older users when compared with younger users. We also found that despite the capabilities of 3D MUVEs to provide the users immersion in alternative realities, a feature well embraced by younger users in this study, older users seemed more interested in activities which serve as an extension to their physical life.