Second Life

After downloading and installing second life, which was pretty easy, I connected to the network to find out what this thing is all about. After the load screen finished, I was taken to a grand imaginary world. People flying around, odd looking things placed in odd places, and chaos and confusion were this first things that came to my mind. I knew that it was going to take a while to get used to this new world. I started walking around trying to find something to do and eventually gave up. I was board and frustrated at my lack of understanding as to how people can be entertained by this seemingly pointless game. Eventually, I decided that I should give it a shot and start taking to someone. I walked up to a house, and a lady told me to come in. After we said hello, we sat down and started talking. She said she was a mother and that she had been playing Second Life for a while. She mentioned another game similiar to SL called Moove, but she said that she prefered SL because you can do more. After this and a little more chatter, I decided that we didn't have much in common. I left her house and left my SL.

Last Thursday, we met for class in the UT section of SL. I thought that this was kind of odd. It was hard for me to pay close attention to what was going on and I got easily distracted. In way, I feel that it is difficult for me to take a classroom setting as seriously in the medium of SL. Joe even had to tell me to come back and listen to the speaker a couple of times. I didn't think it was rude when I left the circle for a second, but if I had done that in real life, it most definately would have been taken as rude. I feel as though I can engague myself more in the situation if I am in the presence of someone speaking or someone I'm trying to talk to.

Second Life is great because it levels the playing field for everyone. Initially, no one knows what you look like so they may get to know you on a different level than they would have gotten to otherwise. It is possible that a persons bias for somones looks may interfere with the content that person has to offer. As well, the span and ability for communication of a more diverse group of people is offered by second life. For example, I can find someone who speaks spanish and start talking to them if I want to work on my spanish speaking/understanding skills.

This power can also be taken for the worse. Creepy old people could lie about their age, gender or their complete existance. When you actually go to meet them, you may be in for a surprise. If used to replace a serious setting like a class or a meeting, SL opens up the possibility for more side distractions. It could be the avatars flying around or the music you have playing on iTunes or the environment of your "first life" that could throw you off and make you completely miss the point of whats going on.

www.secondlife.com