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Johnny Depp Page 1
Alias’ Importance
It is one thing to admire a man, and another to admire a man after walking in his shoes. Regardless of the depth of one’s reverence, there are a minimal amount of individuals who parade around dressed up as their heroes, attempting to become them. Fortunately, Second Life provides a somewhat socially acceptable alternative that can not only help us understand those we admire, but connect to them and realize that our ideal selves are quite achievable. My Second Life experience as Johnny Depp led to multiple epiphanies on the subject of leadership and I’ve learned that I can be a leader in my life, right now. The silliness that is creating an avatar and “becoming” your role model actually serves to bridge the gap between you and the you that you want to be. The two forms of Johnny Depp’s embodiment discussed.^1 At first, Johnny Depp may appear to be a peculiar role model. In one particular Second Life chat session, the question of a “bad” leader was brought up, and I was surprised to find myself speaking with words that Depp may have spoken himself- “There's no such thing as a bad leader. There are just leaders for different kinds of people.”^2 As we explored the seemingly rhetorical question, “What is a leader?” I came
Johnny Depp Page 2 to realize that a leader is simply one whose example can be and is followed. He doesn’t have to be elected like our president- he simply has to believe in something and carry it out in a manner that creates respect and a desire to follow in his footsteps. Johnny Depp has overcome a remarkable amount of trouble be it with himself, his family, his background, or the media, and used his unique vision in acting to charm and intrigue audiences worldwide. I find his strong conviction most admirable; he’s not arrogant, yet he knows his self worth, he’s true to himself, and he knows how to stand up for himself. His leadership promotes individual diversity by proudly embodying the idea that you don’t have to be like everyone else in order to make a difference- in fact, you must do the exact opposite. This is perhaps the only reason he’s the man who took Hollywood by storm, but was not sucked into it‘s world of corruption. Now that’s self- conviction. I’d always admired his conviction from afar, and hoped that someday I could feel the same way about myself. But I’d always been afraid to stand up for myself, and often found myself pressured by those around me. What would they think if I said this or that? I didn’t want to appear “mean”, so instead of being assertive and fair to myself by vocalizing my needs and opinions, I simply stayed quite so as not to step on anyone’s toes. I told myself to just go with the flow, for then no one would dislike me. What I didn’t realize was that if I simply “went with the flow”, no one would dislike me, but it’d be because no one even noticed me- I was letting myself become nothing but another conformist face in the crowd. As I (or rather, Johnny) said in one of our Second Life discussions, “A leader is an individual. Don't generalize… See, man, that's the thing
Johnny Depp Page 4 Now, how has this boost in self confidence benefited me as a leader? The effects are even evident throughout the chat logs. Confidence allowed for me to step up and take control of the situation. I often found myself acting as a mediator in the discussion, while contributing my own thoughts as well. One difficulty of chatting in Second Life is having to deal with lag. Even though I am a very experienced typist, many of those that I chatted with needed typing time. I was not frustrated by this, and in fact I think it’s a beneficial aspect. While you’re waiting, you re-read and consider what has been said as opposed to just talking and not listening, which many people do in a face-to-face conversation. Looking back on these chat logs, I can reevaluate many of my statements, which I find very beneficial in terms of personal growth. However, although I understand the importance of giving participants time to type, many others did not respect the slower typists. As a result, multiple conversations ran parallel to each other, and not only were some participants ignored, but it led to a great amount of confusion. Since I understood the frustration that these slower typists may have felt, I did not hesitate to stand up for them. I was assertive, but not mean about it. I would give feedback on an idea and then suggest something like “hold on Colbert, let this Sprinkles kid finish.”^5 in a casual manner. I was surprised to find that when I addressed the group, “One idea at a time... Let's hear the doctor, and then we'll talk about writing,”^6 those chatting immediately tabled their own conversation and took part in the one I directed them towards. I realized at that point that being a leader was not difficult at all. In these two examples, I had effortlessly showcased one of the traits Goleman highlight’s as part of a leader’s emotional intelligence. “Conflict management” is important as “leaders… surface the conflict, acknowledge the feelings and views of all sides, and then redirect the
Johnny Depp Page 5 energy toward a shared ideal.”^7 Having established and somewhat attained the traits of a leader, it is important to note the difference it has made in my everyday routine as well as my writing skills. There was one very big shift in mentality when I was writing project two as opposed to project one, and I believe it can be attributed to the Second Life experience. The chats made me realize that there was no formula for a great leader and similarly, there was really no formula for a great anything. The specific “anything” that I’d like to focus on is an essay. Previously, I’d line up all the requirements presented to me and develop a “hit list” of subjects I needed to cover. This disrupted the flow of my writing, and made essays a chore rather than an enjoyable expression of my opinions and experiences. After experiencing Second Life, I felt a little more brave in my writing. It didn’t matter whether or not I followed every little rule before me- the idea was to back up, find a set of ideas I wished to convey in order to summarize my experiences, and let the writing flow. Also, my motivation to write has increased because it was truly a unique experience! Really, how many classes give you the opportunity to become your role model in a videogame and chat about it? It adds a whole new dimension to discussions. At first, I experienced quite a bit of “techno stress”. I didn’t understand why we couldn’t just have face-to-face discussion like normal human beings. Second Life didn’t work on my computer, I had trouble logging in, I couldn’t get my avatar to look like Johnny Depp… the list goes on and on. However, there was a very good reason NOT to discuss face to face. It puts us in a comfort zone. I was comfortable pretending to be someone else because we all were being someone else. It didn’t matter who I truly was or what I looked like- for the
Johnny Depp Page 7 grow. As I stated, it is one thing to admire a man, and another to admire a man after walking in his shoes. Often, we respect an individual so much that we elevate them to the level of a god. We feel that there is a distance between us and our role model, and that becoming that role model is difficult or even impossible. By impersonating our role models, we closed the gap between ourselves and them. We discovered that they’re people just like us, and that the characteristics that led to their achievements are very easy for us to attain. The result? Positive growth, development of leadership skills, and a new reason to write. Discovery Learning without ever having to stand up.^9 Word Count: 1,
1 Me at the computer, http://img139.imageshack.us/img139/5128/proj1nl3.jpg A Random man dressed as Depp http://youngestofone.typepad.com/multimedia/images/dsc04729.jpg 2 Chat 1, Group 5, [9:29] Complete Log can be found at http://hellogeneration.livejournal.com/2870.html 3 Chat 1, Group 5, [9:18] Complete Log can be found at http://hellogeneration.livejournal.com/2870.html 4 Willy Wonka of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory , http://www.filmski.net/slike/slike/news02/11/na-setu--- charlie_ins1.jpg 5 Chat 1, Group 5, [9:27] Complete Log can be found at http://hellogeneration.livejournal.com/2870.html 6 Chat 2, Group 1, [10:08] Complete Log can be found at http://hellogeneration.livejournal.com/2870.html 7 Page 69, Daniel Goleman, Primal Leadership: Realizing the Power of Emotional Intelligence Harvard 02 8 Group 5 in the Second round of discussions http://img139.imageshack.us/img139/7421/proj3lp7.jpg 9 Group 2 in the First round of discussions http://img100.imageshack.us/img100/3982/proj2zs9.jpg
