Second Life... Or Get a Life!! On second thoughts.....

A couple of years back I watched my partner log into Second Life and create an avatar. He named ‘it’ or should I say his Avatar ‘Jonathon.’ Now for a guy named Jeff I wondered how he came up with this name.... I wondered if it was just a random name or if maybe he liked the name. It then amazed me that a 6 foot 4” slim build man would design an Avatar with grotesque facial features and about 100 kilos heavier than his true self. What would be the attraction of creating a ‘so-called’ less unattractive version of yourself... Well I guess the answer to that would be that my partner did not associate this character as an extension of his being but just as a way of ‘trying out’ the game.

He was under the pretense that it would be a quick visit to the game to see his work mate’s (in the real world) creation. He would teleport himself to his friend’s Avatar in order to see his virtual workshop that would simulate his ‘ideal’ workshop that he would create in the ‘real world’ one day in the future. I did surprise me that 30 something year old men that actually did have normal hectic lives could find this time to spend in this simulated world. What was even more surprising was that another work mate of my partner had even posted a ‘photo’ from Second-Life on his Facebook page in one of his albums of his Avatar and his Avatars Girlfriend. It was a post-card from Ayers Rock. Their Avatars had been on a holiday to Central Australia ... Well the Second Life Central Australia.... I wonder if it was love at first site. Did these two Avatars or the people controlling them actually feel any emotion for each other? I actually met both of these guys on the weekend and having heard a lot about both and forming constructs of both in my mind I did find myself thinking that these guys were both quite ‘normal.’

My question is then why did these guys feel the need to engage in this online experience that consumed many hours of both of their lives? Well I am guessing that they just find this another way of engaging socially in a way that will not have real-life consequences. Perhaps it is a way in which physical presence is eliminated and therefore removes this awkwardness when ‘socialising.’ But who knows they may have their own set’s of reason’s like I am sure many people that have an Avatar do. I am still not convinced that this is a great way to spend hours on end a day though. I can see how people can interact with a virtual world in a way that might replicate ‘real’ life but you never know whether others are there for the same reasons. I might just add that I did in fact create my own Avatar on Second Life yesterday (after a lengthy discussion of the topic) but after frustrations with technology and multiple crashings of my PC I deleted the program. Plus do I really need another form of distraction from my studying apart from the endless and ever-growing list that I already have... NO!

Could there perhaps be another Second Life wedding on the way.... check out this one with a cost of approx $300.... money well spent???

MISHACHARLIE ACKNOWLEDGES THE USE OF CONTENT:
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