What happened in class?

On Thursday 11 October, Mark was absent from the class and instead we had a guest lecturer who came to speak to us about Second Life and Virtual Worlds. I didn’t attend the class as I arrived late to uni, however when I met up with Eddie she didn’t seem too happy with the lecture and although she briefly mentioned why, I was quite intrigued as to her reasons and was glad that she wrote about this on her blog (http://boringchocolate.edublogs.org/2007/10/12/i-object-to-second-life-virtual-worlds/).

Her entry was so passionate and it’s great to see such an opinionated view of the topic. In part of her blog she wrote:

“by the end of 2011 80% of active internet users would be using secondlife. i seriously hope i would be part of the minority 20%. i believe human beings need physical attraction and interaction to be able to create relationships of friendship or whatsoever. the guest speaker mentioned that many users on secondlife create their avatars as images that look nothing like themselves. Second life gives people a life out of the normal environment, but what would happen when everyone begins to be too indulged into this secondlife.” (Edelweiss Chan)

I agree with her in that human beings need theat physical element to be able to function properly. She started off discussing social networking sites and I must admit that I have become addicted to Facebook, which is hypocritical of me especially when I used to bag out people who used Myspace. But I have found Facebook to be important in keeping in touch with people who I have befriended and learned to love over the years. Also it helps me to better understand my friends, to know their interests, goals and so forth and also to remember their birthdays. Furthermore, I use Facebook to update my university club (85Broads) of events that we have coming up and to post recaps of events as well as to get in contact with our members as my role as the media executive in this group involves me promoting the club and disseminating information. Furthermore, being on Facebook we are exposed to millions of people and so this helps with the promotion side of my role.

Thus, I can see how social networking sites can enrich our relationships but returning to the topic of second life/virtual worlds I can understand where Eddie is coming from. I remember watching a 60 minutes documentary on the topic and I remember laughing at the idea. Creating your ideal self in a virtual world (your avatar) may fulfil fantasies but it should never replace your reality. I think when people become too involved in these virtual worlds you lose touch with the real world, which is a great shame as there is so much of this world that is left unexplored and unexperienced. The idea of having online relationships is also a scary thought because to me the most important things about relationships is the physical, emotional and spiritual aspects that the people we meet bring to our lives. Nothing beats a hug from your mum, dad, friend when you are down or enjoying a laugh after you’ve done something stupid.

But then again I do understand that it can be an escape from the pressures of the real world. But I still can’t seem to think that it can bring out the worst in people as when I think of virtual worlds as fulfilling fantasies, what happens when a fantasy involves abuse, violence and so on. Sometimes what appears to be technological advances are not necessarily advances in society.