...Second Life? What is the point in having the opportunity to get one if you build the exact same life you already have? On reading the articles, I came to a sad conclusion... Getting a second life only helps you understand how the real world works. And it is quite ugly.
You would like to be creative and take a chance to become a different person (or pretend to be). Some manage to be inventive and daring, but those people are not afraid of being judged. Actually, when you are taking SL seriously, you don't want to be too original or too weird...because you don't want people to think that your real you is like that... What would people say ?!?
As Reuben Stiger was saying, "we represent ourselves as we want to be seen". Indeed, in virtual worlds, you can make you flawless. You can become a perfect you without spending your income in plastic surgery... But for how long? Sure, it is easy to start afresh in a world of make-believes... but the same society is being created in SL...a second world, that looks just like ours...
Consumerism, real estate, appearances, pressure to be succesful... money(Linden $)... Doesn't it sound familiar?
What is the point then?
We wanna believe that virtual worlds will make it easier to communicate, share, interact... But no matter what we do, it will remain a delayed interaction. Through virtual puppets we try to master better than ourselves. I think it can be an enriching and convenient communication tool only to talk to people you already know (business use mostly). Otherwise, it is an easy way to escape from your life, but if you work on SL during the week-ends and evenings, when do you start living, period?
Now, if you will excuse me... I have to go make my avatar look more like me...
3 comments:
Great post Julie. My entry this week has a very similar theme. Having a second life seems like an escape from reality and can be an inexpensive way to avoid solving life's small problems. Why try to make yourself better when changing your virtual avatar is so much easier?
Also, thanks for commenting on my blog post last week, I responded to your comment just a few minutes ago.
I love the puppet analogy, and you are right that the SL world will ultimately become as awkward and complicated as the real world. I just hope that we are not forced into this alternate world as its popularity grows.
Hey julie firstly thank you for your comment for my post.
I like this "we represent ourselves as we want to be seen" , and I do agree. Some people say by using second life we can escape from the real world and it could be a way out of releasing the stress. Well, I think it does not work out and we have to figure out the problem in real life anyway. As you mentioned, I can not see the point of SL.
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