Someone always has to harsh the mellow, don’t they? If it’s not grey goo (ding! ding! ding!), it’s do-gooders like the World Development Movement. Yeah, I’d never heard of them either, probably because they haven’t been adopted by Bono or Sting. Their big move is to place a counter in Second Life which ostensibly keeps track of the (estimated) number of children who’ve died from poverty and other preventable causes since the virtal world went live in 2003.
Unfortunately for the message, the counter is in fairly small type at the bottom of a large, underdesigned billboard which reads DON’T FORGET THE REAL WORLD. A valid if admonishing message, as is the counter, but what exactly are they expecting? That Second Lifers will see the billboard from afar, decide for some reason to come in for a (much) closer look, see the counter, then have an attack of conscience and do something about that world with its children croaking like clockwork?
An argument could be made that if it makes just one user, like Aimee The Scary Blowup Doll, get off their Frito-enhanced duff and do something—”something” probably meaning making a
contribution to the WDM—it was worth the effort. I guess, but even if Second Life shut down tomorrow, social conditions in meatspace would not improve. I’m reminded of the arguments against NASA and space exploration: we should take care of our problems on earth before we go into space! Yeah, well, if NASA was dismantled, the money would not go towards feeding the poor or educating children. When Napster was shut down, I kept an eye on the Billboard charts to see if Metallica albums would shoot to the top of the charts. Never quite happened.
Something that did happen the day the counter went live was the release of a study:
Nearly half of all Americans who belong to online communities claim that the virtual world they inhabit is as important as the real world.
According to a new study conducted by the USC-Annenberg School Centre for the Digital Future, 43 per cent of those who are part of a virtual community said that they felt as strongly about this society as they do about the physical world that they are a part of.
The report found that over 50 per cent of members log-in to their online community at least once a day.
If I may express my buried rage by possibly injudicious use of the d-word…duh! Human nature has not budged for thousands of years, nor is it likely to, yet with every technological innovation the cultural doomsayers act like the Very Bad Things are new. Granted, there was a sea change in availability with the development of mass media over the past century, but in spite of what a highly stupid MSN article from last August would have you believe, teenagers have been listening to music with “raunchy, sexual lyrics” for decades before they had iPods to fill, and having sex for a good while longer before that. I felt a self-righteous anger towards Tipper Gore and the PMRC in the eighties for daring to block my access to pr0n rock. It didn’t work—life finds a way, and I got my Jane’s Addiction albums just fine—but it sure was fun to resent her for trying.
Hrm. MSN running an article accusing their competitor’s product of causing teenage promiscuity, while their corporate parent Microsoft prepares to launch their own product, and…nah. Just a coincidence, I’m sure. Moving right along—
The thing is, Second Life users are (by and large) the same demographic who once took the Star Trek vs. Star Wars rivalry seriously, or could explain to you all the ways that Paramount totally ripped off JMS with DS9, dude. Their escapism is important stuff, so much so that it ceases to be escapism and an emotional connection is developed.
This is nothing at all new, and I’d daresay it’s a possible definition of good serial fiction: not in terms of literary merit, but about how it affects the consumer. There was a public outcry when Sherlock Holmes got killed off in 1893, so much so that Doyle resurrected the character in 1905. That was…er…hold on, there’s a calculator somewhere on my laptop—wow. One hundred and one years ago. Hell, that was even before teenagers were listening to “sexually degrading music” on their iPods.
I get it, I do. There was a time when my schedule was structured around my shows, my stories. September 30, 1990 was a super-important night to me and the people around me (I’m looking at you, Jim), being the premieres of the fourth season of Star Trek: The Next Generation and the second season of Twin Peaks, each the resolution to a nail-bitey cliffhanger which we’d debated all summer long. Very big deal.
If you’re reading Medialoper, I probably don’t need to tell you how I reacted when I watched the Battlestar Galactica episode “Pegasus” for the first time. Or the second time. Or the third. Or how I get just thinking about it, that look on Sharon’s face, the tone of her voice when she says what the frack?, and…make-believe characters on a fictional spaceship on a teevee show which I downloaded via BitTorrent and watched on a less-than-stellar fifteen-inch CRT, and so what? In that moment of experience it’s all too real, and Brian O’Blivion was right: television is reality, and reality is less than television. Add in the interactive, self-determining element of Second Life, make yourself a character, and if you fall in love or your heart is broken or anything in between then of course it’s going to feel at least as significant as your real life. Especially if your real life kinda sucks.
I only hope that somewhere in Second Life, there’s a billboard with the truly important message Winners Don’t Use Drugs, familiar to those of who frequented arcades back in the day. Didn’t work then, but maybe it will now. And if it reaches just one person…
Yeah, it is pretty weak. There is a lot more that they COULD do, if they chose to – but like many technological and social advances, human behavior lags – especially in bureaucratic top heavy organizations.
Reminds me of the story of people using runners in the Dominican Republic almost a decade after the telephone was in businesses.
Evolve, or die. Maybe I should make some signs like that. With counters. =-)
Second Life: Land of the WEAK home of the BROKEN
First of all, I have been there, have done that. Had clubs, owned land, made friends, money, and fell in love. Second life on the surface, especially for the newbie and Entrepreneur/artist is a fun and cool place to make some friends, and make some money. It is looked at as supercharged chat room, a video game. But the nature of its name is where the insidiousness is. As much of a second life (SL) as it might be, in order to operate you still have to use your Real Life (RL) abilities. You do not follow a different thought and emotional pattern when in SL. You can only use what you know in RL. But kidding yourself is one of the appeals of SL. You eventually get lost in it.
At first it is new and exciting. Like a new video game. Learning the functions that move your avatar around, visiting places and socializing with the natives. You are perfect, and you can fly. No sickness, no need for money (well not as much) and people don’t have bad breath and, as a “normal”, “intelligent” person, it is an interesting place to explore and learn. But it eventually becomes one of three things. 1. Boring, like a video game you have played over and over. 2. An environment to explore your creative ability to design and sell things. Or, 3 it consumes your psyche.
The first two are what they are; the third is the meat and potatoes of SL. This is the one that is more consistent. Do you really think the folks at Linden Labs are spending their free time on SL.? No, they are spending the money they are making in RL (SL is a business so it is RL for them) on RL things.
There comes a saturation point where you walk away or get sucked in. I will say this for the last time and it does not apply to you newbie’s, or the smart ones that are making money off the lonely. It is a place to hide from reality. It is a place where weak, lost souls go to escape from the depth and breadth of life. I will allow some latitude for you shut-ins. Some people have nothing else but the four walls of the room they are in. SL can provide a form of “human” entertainment that they otherwise would not be able to get. But, that just causes the shut-in to let go of their emotional self being even greater. This is a hard pill to swallow, no one wants to take a good look at them selves and most do not. But the covert nature of SL allows you to cut loose. Sort of the absolute power corrupts absolutely theory. People that stay too long get lost in it. And yes, justifying all the way, that it is just a game. For the predator, and a predator is weak by nature, it is a place to be free of thought and persecution. To dominate the weak that makes SL their home. And, it is a place for the weak to not be judged, a place that they can feel and accept that who they are is ok, even if it is with the few. Some people can handle the trials and tribulations of life, some can’t and they end up in SL. You start to see a symbiotic circle of relationships in SL. For the people designing objects to sell, they may not interact totally and directly with the person/s and, their sales may come from across the board. The newbie that is playing the “game” to the obsessed, but, the obsessed is a long term customer. Theses business individuals usually get in, add new product, convert their lindens to dollars or pounds and get out.
The tragedy is the weak and broken. Don’t roll your eyes, In the Real World we are always conned with flashy marketing to get us to buy something or believe something in order to buy a product. Magic cream or potion. Don’t kid yourself; Second Life is about making money. Making money off of what? Our loneliness and our lack of self worth in the real world. HELLO, McFly!! It is called Second Life.
It might be simple, you build a club, people come and visit or create a group, and you solicit for members. People get together and boom, you feel wanted and needed. Building your dream home in the clouds and littering your lawn with cool things like jets and swimming pools. That can make you popular. Walking in a park with your perfect Avatar girlfriend/boyfriend, no RL issues so it is a perfect relationship. That leads to good puppet sex. Mmmm nice. All this is accomplished by tugging on your weakness, your emotional frailty. Either you are not getting it in RL or are too afraid to face the truth of how to exist in RL. You can’t handle the truth and if you are a long term SL puppet, you just can’t handle life, Real Life. Don’t get me wrong, we all like to escape from time to time.
In some places it is much darker, like I said before, predators hunting the weak. The Gorean Master and the slaves that he takes control of. This one is unusual, in that the Master has total control over the slave. The “slave” giving not only total control of their Avatar, and who can communicate to them, but also, control as to when they will or will not talk to what they can wear. Believe me this does carry over to real life. Imagine the fun of kneeling next to your Avatar Master and saying nothing. Second life being nothing more then a place to be told what to do, serving fake food and ale. You want to call it guided, or taught? Hey, what ever floats your boat? I know just a video game, right? This setup just allows the predator to get in that persons head and develop a false sense of security. Tell that to your husband, wife, girlfriend, or boyfriend. Why you are glued to the PC instead of enjoying life, REAL LIFE. And, couples also get on there too, as couples, this is a nutty one. Worked hard all week, beautiful weekend, and, you both are on a computer, every free moment, building and designing that special home, having that child you never could have. (Yes, people do play the part of the child.) I find it unhealthy when instead of developing a better real life and real relationship in RL. You take that precious time and waste it. Yes, ok… You are free to do what you want. But there are plenty of damaged people on SL. And your fantasy could be causing them to loose sense of reality, along with your lost sense of reality. Their marriages, get funky, destroyed, their children get neglected. And you get a ridiculous God complex that makes you anti social in the Real World, which just plummets yourself deeper in to SL. Cha Ching! Sweet business you got Linden People.
You have the 50+ couple that spends every “free” moment in SL being the King and Queen. Oh, and so good to their obedient subjects. At their beckons call, at their total command. Or, the sexual perverts. Ok, my opinion….. That can now live out the fantasy of doing it with a farm animal. Or, kneeling down and being the public toilet. Sex is rampant in SL. The anonymous nature of your avatar is something too. You really do not know if the man is a woman or the woman is a man, plenty of men that are living out their desire to be a Transsexual, or a woman. Plenty of women that want to love another woman, so she hides in the body of a man. I guess what you don’t know won’t hurt you. Hey, no one is getting hurt, no aids. Nicey nice. The soul is willing but the flesh is weak. So, the wall that SL provides, allows for an easier transition to experiment. Sad part is as your getting deeper and deeper; you are getting more lost in fantasy then reality and they start to blend. Actually, you probably were lost between the two to begin with. Now you go out into the real world. Take a break; meet one of your SL friends. Break the rule, cross that line; remember SL and RL are supposed to be two different places. People meet up, some get married, the rare few. But mostly it is a letdown, disappointment, and harm to others. It is a dirty little secret. Who wants to tell people that you got into that trouble because you decided to meet your “make believe” friend?
Lips stay sealed, people get hurt. And in the end, the only place they feel right, the only place that people understand is right back on Second Life. CHA CHING!
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