lwatson's posterous

Second life

So all this talking and thinking about virtual identities has really given me an interest as to what you can do through the interent when it comes to developing a virtual identity. I've never really explored the sites or programmes where you create a character and interact with other characters with World of Warcraft etc, so today I joined Second Life to see what its all about. I remember learning about it to an extent in one of the Level 100 MFCO papers last year and its incredibal what people are able to do through it. Its like a whole new dimension, literally a second life. You can meet people, get a job, buy things, sell things, create homes basically anything you do in 'real life' you can do through this Second Life idea. I can see how people get caught up in it and become obsessed because you are actually given the oppotunity to completely reinvent yourself as you want to be, issues that are aparent in the 'real world' don't occur when it comes to your avatar, for example things such as race, ethnicity, body image all these types of issues aren't really issues as you create your own avatar exactly how you want it to be. Say if you were really over weight and unhealthy and didnt like this about you, on Second Life you can create yourself to being the opposite if thats what you want, the whole 'image' idea is there, but there arent so much image issues as is becomming an increasing problem in society in the 'real world'. As I (or should I say my avatar, a blonde girl called Ella) wonders through Second Life its honestly like a whole world right inside my computer, theres people everywhere keen for a chat and doing normal everyday things, except through their computers. The people around are from all over the world, another great advantage of this online socialising idea, as when in 'real life' would you chat to different people from different parts of the world as if they are living next door, the possibility of creating great friendships with someone who is in say Italy is very probable. A great article I found that outlines the extent of what is possible on Second Life can be found on this link: http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/content/06_18/b3982001.htm. So I'm looking forward to learning how to move around sucessfully and having a good look round this new 'world' Ive discovered and hopefully learn more about these types of possibilties that are now avalible to use through our computers.

To Posterous, Love Metalab