New media spawns new academic journals, and Second Life is no exception. The recently minted Czech-based web publication Cyberpsychology: Journal of Psychosocial Research on Cyberspace invites discussion about various aspects of virtual worlds. But Second Life is already a phenomenon inspiring academic papers, and avatars' mores and manners are there for the mining.
The first edition of Cyberpsychology includes studies of teenage internet use in Estonia, and adolescents and SMS. So far, so predictable. But the enticingly titled "Simulation in Cyberspace and Touch of the Flesh: Kissing, the Blush, the Hickey and the Caress" delivers unexpectedly lush ideas about the differences between the "living flesh" and virtual erotic encounters. In cyberspace, there are no hickeys.
"Investigation and Analysis of a Reported Incident Resulting in an Actual Airline Hijacking Due to a Fanatical and Engrossed VR State," however, sounds like a movie pitch.
