Second Life
December 12, 2009
Second Life was a very different experience. As part of a class assignment we had to endeavor into Second Life and report our experience in it. A lot of people in my class were appalled by the idea of a “second life” and they refused to do it. I was hesitant at first, but I gave it a try anyway.
The character I made for myself was green and had purple hair and no shirt. Making a character that looked exactly like me was not something I was looking to do. A lot of people in Second Life embellish their character to do things they don’t get to do in real life. I can remember one guy in my class who added wings and expensive jewelry to his “avatar”. The things that happen in Second Life are never ending. There are strip clubs, restaurants, really anything you can think of. This was something I only did for the assignment. I have not continued to partake in Second Life and I don’t see myself ever playing it again.
I just believe that there are too many things to enjoy in real life than to be stuck in a virtual world interacting with characters that people make. I believe things like Second Life contribute to the decrease in interpersonal communication. If people spend hours interacting with a computer screen they don’t get the same experience talking with people face to face. Sometimes this interaction is not needed and this is where Second Life has the slight potential to be something people would use in the mainstream.
I would venture to say that the majority of students don’t like getting up in the morning to go to lecture classes of 350 students. If they could hear the lecture from the comfort of there room, it would be so much easier to listen to the lecture. This is already done in the form of online classes where students listen to teacher lectures. With Second Life the same classroom could be built and a recreation of the real life situation would exist and the teacher could interact with students as opposed to just lecturing to them.
I don’t know what to think about Second Life. It has the potential to do great things, but there are so many bad things that come with that.
