Sozialarbeit und/oder virtuelle Welten? - E-Beratungsjournal

Abstract
Social work and/or virtual world?
Perspectives of social work services in the virtual world Second Life
Millions of people use and spend many hours in it, the media reports about it every day.
Our everyday life goes along with and is somehow determined by this media: the virtual
world, the most famous is the Internet.
This net of networks offers unlimited possibilities, for example, the well-known
application Second Life. This specific virtual world is used by more than eleven million
people. Without a doubt social work has not yet recognize the virtual world, except for
online-counselling, as a sphere of action. The thesis question is: when so many people
come together is there no need for social work service or do they just not notice tasks in
the virtual world as a space where real people interact?
The thesis emphasis on the virtual world is to examine those and search for needs of action
for social work, with the objective to show possibilities for ways in which social work can
exhibit and establish itself in this new sphere of activity.
The general survey is a review of current findings in the field of media- and
communication-psychology in the context of the virtual world. Beyond this it shows ways
of communication in the net, how it works and links it with possible social work roles.
With this theoretical background the focus lies on the exploration of Second Life. The
exploration contains a login to observe and research this „game“. To get more information
about the “game“ and the player it was necessary to chat with the people.
On the basis of the research conducted, the results confirmed that there is a need for social
work action in a virtual world like Second Life. The outcome of the thesis shows
multifarious possibilities of how social work can take action in the new sphere ‚the virtual
world’.
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