Second Life: Reality not escapism

I absolutely agree, particularly as relates to my own experience. It’s not escapism at all. My wife and I get together in SL when I’m on the road as a way to “see” each other, and my other experiences have been meeting people I know in my First Life, mostly other podcasters. There’s nothing escapist about it for me. The beauty of SL is the ability to make of it what you want.

There’s a difference between working in SL, and working with SL. It’s a huge difference, and it shows whether or not you respect the community and the people you know and work with in SL.

I know enough people in there, and try to get on time to time (it’s a huge program monster on my computer). I talk to people, have friends in there, meet-up, like in RL. And, if I talk about PR with SL, it’s in a way that respects the community and works with them, not horse-shoeing SL into a presentation because it’s the latest buzzword, or another wagon someone is trying to hitch his horse to.

And, yes, I’m Ezekial Goodllife in there. I can share my name, and I’m wearing my American Apparel hoodie, and have to post my special tour with Aimee Weber in SL, where she was showing me what she’s done as of late, and we were talking about how things work and don’t work in SL.

Yep, not a shoehorn. But, trying to be part of the community. Some people get that – us three – and other’s don’t, but are going to put themselves out there as experts. Again.

I am intrigued by but not yet fully to “get” SL.

I understand the attraction to business. With the population it has, SL has economic gravitational pull – like any of the social networks. And the cost of marketing to SL’s millions of citizens is substantially less than then marketing to a physical population of a comparable size.

What I am yet to grasp though, is the attraction of meta-universes to the individuals themselves – they can’t all be there to make a buck – some of the comments above are good pointers.

Shel, I am intrigued by your use of SL. What is it about SL that gives you and your wife a better experience than say chatting on the phone, or video-calling with Skype?

Neville, you are right-on about real business being done in Second Life. It’s fascinating and humbling to see the experimentation and visionary work going on there. Of course there is a lot of escapism and just plain fun in Second Life – like the MLB Home Run Derby or U2 concerts. But that’s real life too.

Jeremy, you are so right-on about respecting the culture – thank you for making that point. You can’t just visit SL and become an expert. You have to “live” there a while – you’ve got to move in. SL is as much a culture as any country or neighborhood or coporation. And to do business there you simply have to be there, and learn, and respect the people and the environment – and learn.

I hope everyone interested in this topic will join the SL Business Communicators group (in SL). The first meeting will be in mid-August.

Oh, and I’m Znetlady Isbell.

Neville, you put your finger on exactly the issue I am thinking about from the standpoint of digital identity. There seems to be this widespread assumption that virtual life (whether it be very constructed, such as in SL or in the everyday day to day interactions we pursue online or via some kind of digital device) is somehow less valuable, less authentic than “real life.” (I really dislike the term real life also – it implies that everything else is fake in a sense. Maybe physical life is better.) I think this holds true for business and for personal communications.

If we start from the point of view that digital life/self/identity – whatever we want to call it – is equally valuable and authentic as real/physical life, if different, I think some very interesting things can happen. Let’s face it, the future of humanity is intricately tied up in technology. We are, many of us, already cyborgs. It is potentially dangerous to our sense of self-worth to be denegrating so much of our activity as somehow “less than” other parts, depending on where it takes place.

As you know I am spending a lot of time thinking about this. I MUST get on SL too. A goal for September!

In response to Chris Knowles:

I know I can’t answer for Shel, but when my fiancee and I were living 2 hours apart, we enjoyed meeting places like SL and other similar venues for the interactivity.

Chatting online and seeing each other on video can only go so far towards interacting with each other, and places like SL bridge that gap. I can see what she is doing just like she was sitting beside me, but I can also make a response that would be meaningful in just about any situation. Places that offered interactive games, such as EA’s pogo, did take a step towards that interactivity, but it just didn’t feel the same, in part due to lack of environment and ‘live’ representations of ourselves.

I think that its mostly about the environment, flexibility, and bonds between people that make SL what it is. I know that I would rather meet someone in a VR type environment than chat on the phone any day…it just makes me ‘feel’ better about the conversation, as well as my connection with the target of my conversation.

So, there’s a secret here. The escapism trumps the reality by a landslide. It’s part of the fabric. I’m disagreeing 110%.

I live in all the levels, and reality can’t touch it, except for a fleeting moment.