Second Life is a website where people are able to take on a new identity as a “Resident” and with the help of Second Lifesoftware that is downloaded and installed on a computer, interact with other members as an “avatar” or fake person. The avatar has the ability to meet other Residents and participate in group activities, explore an “island” and buy and sell goods and services using virtual currency. many universities have built "islands" to represent their campus, and some professors have already attempted to hold a class through Second Life instead of showing up in a classroom. Many other features are offered, such as chatting with the other avatars. Your character can even fly in the game. But is Second Life being taken too seriously by some users? Some people admit to being so addicted to this virtual reality, that they spend as much as eight hours at a time on it. As described in an article i came across, all the lifelike possibilities offered by Second Life, such as making an avitar look almost identical to whoever the user desires to mirror, being able to buy land, and going to dance clubs make it difficult to not get addicted to this seemingly very real experience. There is even a woman in the United States who claims to have fallen in love with another person, or to be exact, her avatar fell for another avatar.
Looking at Second Life from this perspective of the virtual reality definitely poses a few questions. Does Second Life give people a false sense of Does Second Life give its users a false sense of reality and confidence? Is it a possitive novelty in our society or should people focus more on their real life instead of finding comfort in a virtual reality? Do the possitives of Second Life outweigh the negatives?
12 comments:
I think that Second Life is a positive thing. I don't think it gives people a false sense of reality. For the most part, it's just an interesting alternative world that can be fun to play around in. I mean there are always the extreme cases in which people take it too far, like some of them which you described, but I think that percent of the population is so low that it doesn't have a negative effect or take away from the good things it provides for the people. There are always people that take it too far in everything there is on the planet, but you can't let that take away from the good.
Second life does give a sense of false reality. But it's not that uncommon for people to fall in love when they play an online game. Any game can be addictive, and people lose track of reality because of it. We just have to learn to play less.
I think Second life is a good thing, as long as it's not taken to seriously. Ken was telling me about how a married man has a Second Life account and is married to another woman on the account and how this marriage effects his real marriage. It creates problems to the point where his wife is considering divorcing him. How can you care about a marriage on a computer more than the marriage you're in? I don't think Second Life is a bad thing for those who use it to learn and explore, but I do feel that some people take it too far, and this creates problems in their real life, not only between people they have to live with, but because it takes time away from the learning they would actually doing in real life.
like all new technologies, it needs to be taken moderately. It's crazy to think that people can actually fall in love online, But i guess that it kind of makes sense when people can make a genuine connection and still retain those sensory images when doing it.
I agree that second life is positive thing. People can get a false sense of reality if they play and use it enough. It just depends on how much you use it or the extent to which you get involved. When you have environment like second life i think you will always have people that play too much and fall in love and things like that.
I think it gives people an easy escape from real life and for some people its so much easier to be online meeting people than meeting people in real life. I think people can become addicted because they view it as being a better life than they have in the real world.
I think it really does. I read an article about a married couple who have other husbands and wives...in second life...and don't consider it cheating I suppose? I dont know about giving people a false sense of realit but i feel like people do get a little to caught up in a virtual life as apposed to real life!
I don't think that there's anything wrong at all with liking and playing Second Life. It's similar to the Sims game and that's very popular.
However there is such a thing as overdoing it. Just as with any other hobby - it shouldn't take over and dictate your life. Everything in moderation. So if you want to play Second Life, I say go for it! But if you're going to sit at a computer for eight hours at a time, I say...get out of the house and enjoy reality instead virtual reality.
I think that Second Life can be a positive thing, but it can also be a negative thing. It all just depends on how you use it really. In regards to colleges and businesses using Second Life as a way to train new employees or to teach students, Second Life is definitely a positive way to do things. It offers a real life and very different experience that is not always traditionally used. However, as with many technologies, there are those people who use it for things like watching porn etc. In instances like these, Second Life can have it's negative aspects. It's all in how the user or users want to approach the form this technology. Of course there is always someone who finds a way to use something in a way that it was no necessarily intended to be used. But I think that it's a part of life, and, eventually, we will get used to it. I do believe that the positives out weigh the negatives because there are ways to try and avoid those who make Second Life not such a good environment. It is always more important to see the good than focus on the bad too much. But we also can't ignore it. We should find ways to deal with the bad instead.
I think that Second Life is good and bad at the same time. On one hand it allows people to talk that would never have a chance to talk that like the same things they do. Second Life however is also one of those things that is a little bit creepy. Instead of going out and trying to meet new people and trying to do new things people are wasting their time sitting at home talking to people online (who in a sense are almost not real because who knows who they really are I mean there are a lot of weird people out there).
I believe in a false reality, people can be different than in real life. However, I don't think it gives the user a false sense of confidence. When someone accomplishes something in any form it gives a person confidence. It is no different in second life. Overall, I do think that the real world is much more important than the second life world because it is reality. I think Second life is a good technology to explore virtual reality in a non-violent game type way.
For some people I do think that SecondLife may give people a false sense of reality and confidence, but for the most part I don't think that it does. I think that SecondLife is a positive novelty in our society especially where business and education is involved. I think that people should not get caught up in SecondLife to the point that it consumes their lives but people engage in virtual realities all the time in order to find comfort, so I don't think that SecondLife is any different and I think that it is okay.
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