Woah....talk about scary....have you heard of Second Life? I feel like a total dinosaur here (especially considering it was launched in 2003)....usually i'm very excited to learn about new technology and don't have too much trouble embracing it, but something about this virtual phenomena just frightens me. Have you watched the move Wall-E? Do you remember when you saw what the future was supposed to be like and it was quite disturbing? Well that's exactly how I felt after learning more about Second Life. Did you know that you can get married, get assaulted, and make millions all on SL? I'm still not able to fully grasp the Linden dollar and SL economy.I didn't realize the magnitude of Second Life until I read that currently about 8.2 million young Internet users (or 24%), already check out the virtual world at least once a month. Additionally, Gartner has forecasted that by by 2011, 80% of active Internet users will have a "second life" in some sort of virtual world. That's less than 2 years away...
Ok so it didn't take me too long to get over my initial fear and once I calmed down a bit--I have to admit, I did think it was kinda cool. At first I just thought the point was to create a fantasy but there seems to be many applications for SL, including education which I thought was neat. Watch the video below for some educational uses:
I've only read about SL and can't really knock this technology until I've tried it. So I ask you out there---have you tried SL? I would love to hear about your experience so drop me a response. I wonder what my avatar would look like and and what would she do on SL. Would she be more interested in something totally fictional or an enhancement of something more realistic?
Second life is waaaaay more than an escape from reality, and I think that's what makes it so scary to me...there seems to be no limits as of now. Unfortunately, I barely have time to live my real life...so I can't imagine adding a virtual life to the mix.
I haven't tried the online version, but I have tried out the Sims and there is some weird addiction to creating you own online identity. I kind of like to think of it as a way to have a dual identity, sort of like a Hannah Montana kind of thing.
ReplyDeleteIt can get dangerous if your virtual life consumes your regular life, but at the same time, it does do things like break down distance barriers and provides a fun outlet for adults.
It's not as complicated as it sounds. I'm sure there are things you can't do in virtual life that you can do in real life and vice versa. As long as you can separate your real life from your virtual, it should be okay, right?
I agree with you that the whole concept of SL is scary and weird. Just like you, I had never heard of it till Professor Melander mentioned it in class and even then I still didn't know what it was until I actually did the reading for our assignment. I feel like if humans are not careful we will get lost in social networking. We will lose our sense of who we really are if that makes any sense.
ReplyDeleteDon't get too excited about what your Avatar will look like initially. It seems like out-of-the box they are pretty vanilla and you have to use your hard earned Linden bucks to upgrade features. Did you know Avatar's aren't born wiht smiles? How sad! I guess we will find out soon enough.
ReplyDeletehave no room for a real life, on the other hand, could be a strong reason while people are actually taking up virtual life. it sometimes goes both way....just my thoughts.
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