Class in Second Life…yea we went there, literally!

I don’t know if any of you have ever heard of Second Life, because I know I hadn’t until we were assigned the task of creating an avatar (the virtual you) and figuring it all out. We had to do so because we had decided to hold class IN Second Life (SL). For someone who had never even heard of SL I was a little upset that we were being required to go there for a class, though intrigued at the same time. A lot of the irritation stems from the fact that I have always been a little wary of Internet activities such as SL were people literally waste their lives away in a world that doesn’t really exist! I think that our society has become so dependent on the Internet and all the new and different things that are available now that people have become obsessed.

Speaking as someone who constantly texts rather calls, I completely understand that these new technologies are convenient and often easier. We have to ask ourselves what will happen to our society and even in a broader, more extreme sense, us as human beings if we start to limit our personal and physical contact with other human beings the way we have already begun to do so. For the few short minutes that we were online in class I saw how easy it can be to lose yourself in the ‘game’ (or whatever SL is). For example I fell off the
island gallery we were touring, (an interesting idea to be discussed in a little bit) and I fell into a pool behind someones house, I guess you could say I was ‘lost’ in the game(I know that was awful!). Well, the ‘owner’, if you believe you can really own anything in SL (in the literal and figurative meanings of ownership) came out and greeted me and asked if they could help me out. I guess since I fell from the sky into their pool they figured I didn’t know what I was doing which was an accurate description of my time in SL! I don’t know how many different times I fell off the silly islands and couldn’t get back…but I digress…

Anyway, the house’s ‘owner’ gave me tips and hints and was very friendly, we had an actual conversation and at its close I realized that I had no idea who this person was or where they were from. Even though their avatar was a women, were they? Was it an old, creepy guy named Russel who secretly wanted to be the woman named Kathy whom he played in SL? Or was it really just a young woman named Kathy who owned property in an unreal world? There are so many variables when dealing with artificial environments and unrestricted registration, it makes you question what is real and who you can trust. I know that seems really dramatic and is unnecessarily so but you have to keep in mind that some people who get involved in things like that have no filter, and no limit to the time they spend there and thus become fully dependent on it as a form of interaction. This is unhealthy, we as human beings need to interact with one another on a daily basis to be healthy, happy human beings! Its a proven fact that kids who interact with other children grow up to lead more productive lives.

I am climbing off my soap box now, I promise, I just have concerns about man-made environments and the way we, as a society except them without question or second glance. Don’t get me wrong, there are many things I enjoy about SL and the newest technologies created alongside it, such as the art galleries I mentioned already. It is not only possible to create works in SL, which blows my mind if I really think about it, but you can actually feature your works in your own gallery, which for us artists is a very special thing. In the real world, realistically you may never be featured in a gallery but online you can have your own, be your own curator and sell your own art. Well, not really ’sell’ to real people in the real world but sell to other avatars in SL, its weird to think that though money, online money at that, is exchanged but not really exchanged in the REAL world…so, does this really count as a monetary exchange? In that sense, does the art from SL really exist, is it really art even?

I know I just climbed right back on a nother soap box there so this will be the close.

There are a lot of things I could discuss here but it gives me a headache to think about all the different interpretations and I still have a lot of posts to make, good bye for now.

ps

If you want to check out SL just log on, its free and fun so you should try it!

www.secondlife.com