I thought that the presentation on second life was awesome. I always find people’s serious involvement in virtual realities interesting. One of the things that I find most fascinating about virtual reality is how much it tells us about actual reality. As Marshall McLuhan notes in “The Medium is the Message” whenever a new technology emerges, it fundamentality changes the ways in which individuals think about and relate to one another. It was clear from the presentation that most of the individuals who took second life seriously and who spent vast amounts of time in this virtual world were, in actuality, living in less than ideal situations. The single mom who could not afford to go out, the man who had been unhappily engaged for several years, and the “fury” all seemed to be in situations where they felt unable to relate to others in their actual society, and seemed to feel more comfortable in a virtual reality (or at least felt comfortable using second life as a social outlet). Virtual reality in a sense enables us to work out many of the imperfections in our real lives by creating other lives for ourselves. Technology has in many ways allowed us to exist in complete isolation from one another, which has inevitably effected, either positively or negatively, the ways in which we socialize with one another. The possibility of being able to be whoever we want to be, even if it isn’t real, enables many people who feel socially awkward in reality to relate to others. I personally find virtual realities bizarre, but I think it is difficult to say whether their effects have been wholly good or bad. I don’t know whether the existence of virtual realities has resulted in more isolation, as people no longer have to actually engage with others in order to have social lives, or whether virtual realties have enable many people who previously had no social outlets to relate to others. Regardless, I think that the popularity of virtual reality says a lot about how unfulfilled, or socially disengaged people feel in the actual world.
Comments (2)
I agree with you that virtual lives are indeed influencing dramatically the way that people relate to one another face to face. I worry that people may become disenchanted with one another, especially after hearing about how one avatar (Demon something?) in Shannon's presentation, mentioned that people don't have perfect bodies in real life (RL). The combination of technologically-altered images of people, in addition to virtual reality experiences muddles RL expectations (I think I'm going to refer to real life using RL, it's quite hilarious, no?). Can a social life exist when it doesn't involve bodies? Do we overemphasize yet underemphasize the importance of physical interaction and contact? If all we seek is virtual pleasure, we may as well be brains attached to computers...well, that is a bit extreme.
Posted by la chistosa | December 4, 2007 4:00 PM
Posted on December 4, 2007 16:00
I agree. It was both insightful and funny. It really made me understand the complexities of virtual reality as well as their highly sexualized content. At the same time, I still don't understand how people can spend twelve hours a day playing a game. From the presentation, it seems that people play for many different reasons but that many people play to create an alternate virtual ego that is more exciting that their actual reality. I wonder what impacts this game is having on those actual realities. Are they being left behind? Does that single mother that spends twelve hours on the Second Life spend time with her kids? What about a job? Where did that man with the fiance get four hours of private time to go flirt and have sex with other virtual women? Are people doing this at work? I suppose these are questions that you really couldn't answer without further participant observation.
At the same time, I think that the cyborg concept or the idea that humans, as they become more dependent upon technology, are becoming part human and part machine. If we take this a step further and apply McLuhan then do people or these "cyborgs" become messages as they are in and of themselves forms of media? just some thoughts...
Posted by Maxwell Tracy | December 4, 2007 6:17 PM
Posted on December 4, 2007 18:17