At age 19 I can honestly say I am not sure whether I have been in love. Teenagers in general think they have “found what, or who, they are looking for” and then the next moment they are chasing after “the next best thing”. Love is blind, love is foolish, but most of all, love is a game for nearly all teenagers who think they know everything. Literally, Second Life provides a place for their users to love and experience countless other emotions because they can act on the slightest impulse.
Second Life is a complete virtual world, accessed online, and complete free. These three dangerous forces make Second Life incredibly accessible and appealing to those with hectic lives. It is good to have outlets through which one can relax or explore, have fun or be daring. Yet, is there a point where outlets become a dangerous addiction, a tantalizing distraction, so seductive that one wishes to escape completely and thus altering their own reality? This melodramatic run-on sentence may seem a bit overwhelming, but it is not the first time that a lifestyle has become an addiction. In Second Life, you can run and walk but also fly. Second Life is you, but better. Users are able to create a version of themselves, their own avatar through which they live their ‘second life’. After starting ‘fresh’ users interact with real people in a very unreal place. This is incredibly appealing to 30 year olds and older because they are a time of their lives where they tend to look back and regret. The feeling of regret can motivate anyone to escape such anxiety. Through their avatars they have the ultimate power to decide what they look like and how they act without any physical, financial, or emotional responsibilities; or so it seems. Second Life virtual world is perfect. It is everything that is ideal for those that use it. So much effort and time go into the creation and maintaining of the world that “users” become “civilians” of a new reality.
An important debate in the sociology world is whether or not the actions users make in virtual worlds (i.e. Second Life) hold real merit, or can anything be done without actual consequences. This idea is particularly important in the context of love. In class, we watched a video in which a family was torn apart by the mother’s addiction to Second Life and adulterous actions inside it. But does adultery apply to characters made solely of binary code? Many people actions speak louder than words which invalidates any actions made within the game. However, I believe love, pain, and sex that occurs in the digital world are very much real and therefore makes the users responsible for their actions. Actions are emotion based. Users need to remember that Second Life feels as real to them as it does to everyone else playing the game and cannot be treated as such.
In my opinion everything we do comes from a place that has resulted from some level of cognition. All of our actions, or inactions are motivated by something, whether it is for ourselves or for others. There is no way to distinguish the behaviors in virtual worlds, like Second Life, from reality because there is such a fine line between the world, often causing others to cross over. In virtual worlds, the avatar and life created often is a reflection of who the person wants to be, almost like an alter ego; often embellished and ideal in comparison to reality.
ReplyDeleteI think that there are consequences to people’s actions in virtual worlds, especially when their actions affect other people. I don’t know if I can go as far as to say that adultery can be applied to virtual characters because real physical contact is not a factor. However, there are real emotions involved because there are real people controlling those characters. I think that it can still be a form of cheating. It can be as hurtful as if the person was cheating in real life because I think that the sentiments and intentions are the same.
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