SecondLife : Cold and Lonely ?
May 14th, 2007 by alexanderhayes
Where are the beggars some would ask ? Dust ? The common cold or indeed where is there evidence that everything is not a clean and sanitised version of reality ? Is this just another digital cult ?
There seems to be plenty of talk around about the loneliness being experienced by those attempting to engage in SecondLife. In fact, there’s a whole range of talk about on the net about the ”empty” feelings that users sometimes experience when bills dont get paid or they lose the enthusiasm to keep up with the latest things occuring in this virtual world.
Even some of our educationalist luminaries seen to think that SL has a long way to go till we see it reach a relaxed integration with web experiences that the majority of users classify as normal and engaged social computing. I for one wonder at the amount of cost and effort involved in learning ways to engage in this rich digital tapestry, however, as our efforts to grow awareness of virtual worlds this year in NSW LearnScope will attest, SL is here to stay amongst the many other virtual domains available for users to engage learners within.
Perhaps if your still dabbling like me on the edge of making this a reality for your life or considering integrating SL into your everyday learner’s timetable you might like to keep an eye on the Secondlife education page or visit the growing SLeducation resource.
Here’s one beggar - http://snipurl.com/1kga5
There’s plenty of grunge in Second Life… there’s even crime.
And the emptiness criticism is a common, although unjust one.
There are plenty of events going on… you just have to know how to find them and turn up when they are scheduled - like real life!
Wandering around Second Life expecting to stumble upon events when you happen to be online is like wandering in and out of theatres on Broadway during the day and assuming there are never any plays on because there is nothing on when you are there.
Thanks for the link to our resource on Second Life for educators, although the correct URL is http://sleducation.wikispaces.com/
Thank you for the link - although this is a more direct one to my post on the topic:
http://infocult.typepad.com/infocult/2007/05/uncanny_second_.html
I would distinguish between SL social problems, or the representation of them for roleplaying (crime, whatever) and problems in finding or establishing social spaces in SL. The former is a topic I’m interested in as part of my larger project about fearsome cyberspace. It’s fascinating to see SL do this intentionally, and to see others report on SL in those terms.
The problems in establishing a social context are different, and I’m beginning to suspect it has to do with time. Compare IM and blogging. If you don’t know anyone’s handle, or none of your contacts are online, IM can be a lonely tool, since it’s largely synchronous. Blogging and other asynchronous Web 2.0 tools archive and present social interest, so this comment feels “live” hours or days later, depending on when you read it.
SL is largely based on the former. Yes, SL IMs are delivered once you login, but I rarely experience this, nor do I hear people discussing it. Would be useful to research. Instead, SL is largely like chat or IM, and user expectations will follow.
Perhaps we can look at buildings as hermeneutic constructs, along Gadamer’s lines?