Second life is a computer program developed by a company called Linden Labs. It's like a cross between a chatroom and the Sims. People who play Second Life are given the opportunity to create an avatar to represent themselves within the game's universe, which Linden Labs founder Philip Rosedale promotes as a place where anything is possible. I don't think anything will ever happen there.
I downloaded Second Life and played it for fifteen minutes. The Second Life world is portrayed with awful colors and big blocky shapes. Every structure I walked past was made out of awkwardly rendered polygons, and the hills kept blinking on and off while the computer was evaluating whether to render them or not.
I watched the interview with Philip Rosedale on Second Life. Second Life has a "population" of 12 million people. The website implied that I'd meet and interact with people from around the real world. Playing Second Life should have been a social experience.
I managed to talk to two people and then I went inside someone's house. The two people I talked to didn't have anything of interest to say, or they didn't want to talk to me. They talked to me using lazy AIM abbreviations. I wish I had chosen a girl avatar, because then people might have wanted to talk to me more.
It was a poor substitute for real interaction with other people. But I think for people who are socially underdeveloped, Second Life might be appealing. People who are shy, experience social anxiety, or are awkward in person might find communicating this way fascinating. The way you interact in Second Life is so limited and artificial, you really can't mess up unless you try.
I kept trying to mess up every time I had a conversation with someone. To me, knowing that I'm acting through a computer character makes me want to do and say things I would never do in the First Life. Since I knew there'd be no repercussions, I just harassed people.
When the internet first came out in the early nineties, my friend's dad had AOL. We'd go to random chatrooms with a made up screenname, and annoy people. The lack of any sort of consequence , and complete anonymity, makes you do and say things you never would in real life.
Second Life seems to emphasize this part of human behavior, as part of what makes it a world of limitless possibilites. It encourages people to exaggerate themselves, by allowing you to depict yourself however you want. This disguise is something a lot of people must perceive as liberating, but I think it just fosters laziness and self-indulgence.
Some people might like Second Life. The lack of consequence allows people to flirt and exaggerate with impunity. They may favor their character over themselves because of this. Rosendale's commented during the video that "we may eventually prefer our digital selves." This struck me as extremely misguided. You won't enjoy being your digital self more, you'll like being yourself less.
I downloaded Second Life and played it for fifteen minutes. The Second Life world is portrayed with awful colors and big blocky shapes. Every structure I walked past was made out of awkwardly rendered polygons, and the hills kept blinking on and off while the computer was evaluating whether to render them or not.
I watched the interview with Philip Rosedale on Second Life. Second Life has a "population" of 12 million people. The website implied that I'd meet and interact with people from around the real world. Playing Second Life should have been a social experience.
I managed to talk to two people and then I went inside someone's house. The two people I talked to didn't have anything of interest to say, or they didn't want to talk to me. They talked to me using lazy AIM abbreviations. I wish I had chosen a girl avatar, because then people might have wanted to talk to me more.
It was a poor substitute for real interaction with other people. But I think for people who are socially underdeveloped, Second Life might be appealing. People who are shy, experience social anxiety, or are awkward in person might find communicating this way fascinating. The way you interact in Second Life is so limited and artificial, you really can't mess up unless you try.
I kept trying to mess up every time I had a conversation with someone. To me, knowing that I'm acting through a computer character makes me want to do and say things I would never do in the First Life. Since I knew there'd be no repercussions, I just harassed people.
When the internet first came out in the early nineties, my friend's dad had AOL. We'd go to random chatrooms with a made up screenname, and annoy people. The lack of any sort of consequence , and complete anonymity, makes you do and say things you never would in real life.
Second Life seems to emphasize this part of human behavior, as part of what makes it a world of limitless possibilites. It encourages people to exaggerate themselves, by allowing you to depict yourself however you want. This disguise is something a lot of people must perceive as liberating, but I think it just fosters laziness and self-indulgence.
Some people might like Second Life. The lack of consequence allows people to flirt and exaggerate with impunity. They may favor their character over themselves because of this. Rosendale's commented during the video that "we may eventually prefer our digital selves." This struck me as extremely misguided. You won't enjoy being your digital self more, you'll like being yourself less.
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