Second Life
January 22, 2009 | Just me
I watched a documentary last night called Living Twice, a glimpse into the virtual world of Second Life. I have to admit I reached up and gently shut my gaping jaw a couple of times. In the end, the narrator said, “For some, living twice will never make sense.”
And she’s right. Not in that sense, anyway. Second Life is a virtual second identity. You create an avatar (a graphic version of your self or what you want to look like). You interconnect with other avatars. You can be as witty or as beautiful or as exotic as you desire. You can spend Linden dollars by investing real dollars. The ratio is something like 250 to 1 real dollar.
You can dance the night away. You can build a mansion. You can be a do-gooder or a humanitarian. You can live out your sexual fantasies. You can purchase designer clothes and gowns. You can even fly.
According to the documentary it’s not unusual for some to spend 10 to 14 hours a day living life in the graphic skin of their virtual world.
I guess my question is where are the real-life people in your life while you’re hanging out in Second Life? How are you connecting face-to-face? Where is your accountablity? What happens when every fantasy is available online — whether good or bad — and you wake up to the normal person the next day?
I recently went bowling with family. I had a great time. I stepped up to the line with confidence. After all, on wii I’m a PRO! ♥ But within three or four frames, I realized I was still plain old Suzie when it came to real-life bowling. It had sharpened some of my instincts. I was better than I once was, and that brings me to one more thought.
If we live a Second Life and that leads us in a direction that we’d never pursue otherwise, how does that affect our instincts, our thoughts or viewpoint, our heart?
Just asking questions, because I don’t have the answers. I want to live twice, but in a spiritual sense. Here — full! And secondly, I want to live as a child of God.
But something deep inside of me pushes against the idea of living any life but the one I have right before me right now, surrounded by those I care about, investing my time, my energy, and the precious amount of time I really do have in the real world and in a real faith.
RSS feed for comments on this post.
The URI to TrackBack this entry is:
http://www.tsuzanneeller.com/2009/01/22/second-life/trackback/
Wow, I haven’t heard of that. If someone is willing to put so much time and energy into a fake person he or she wishes to be, why not be that passionate about your real life? It seems so odd to me. I think that seems like such a waste but I suppose that’s what makes the world go around. Everybody is different with their own opinions.
January 22nd, 2009 at 12:23 pmOur church has a church in second life. We have seen people come to Christ there. Our prayer is that people will know God and live in their Identity in Him. This just shows what an Identity Crisis our world is having (my 1st book – if I ever finish it!).
It also brings up webkins. I think it’s sweet, but a gentle nudge into giving children a peak into what it’s like to live a 2nd life. It feels like conditioning. Credit card companies do this when they give visa cards with kids sized cash registers. They are conditioning them to “charge-it.”
We have banned webkins and any kind of 2nd life conditioning in our home!
Don’t log on just to “check it out!” It is not worth what you will learn! Very dark place.
Love,
January 23rd, 2009 at 12:14 pmsheri
ps – lifechurch.tv is our church.
January 23rd, 2009 at 12:15 pmThis was a fascinating post, but one that burdens my heart. TO think that people spend days creating a virtual life, most likely due to the fact they have no joy in real is so counter cultural to what we desire “the church” to be.
January 24th, 2009 at 12:13 pmI love how you ended your post…one of our core family desires is to impact the world…in real life. That is one of the challenges in balancing blogging and real life ministry. Encouraging on line is such a wonderful tool, but there are times I need to check myself and ask myself, “have you spent two hours encouraging someone IRL” lately. It’s easy to sit in front of the computer on my time table, when I desire to reach out…quite another doing it when He asks me to reach out to the least of these..when I don’t want to. That’s sacrifice.
Lots of food for thought. We dont have cable, so I miss out on some of these interesting subjects.
I spend time on the computer, when my girls go to bed or aren’t home and dh is working. He works a lot of hours so some times I need adult interaction. BUT I am very picky about where I spend my time. Most of it is spent with fellow police wives on http://www.wivesbehindthebadge.com because they understand how lonely it can get after the kids go to bed and dh isn’t home, night after night. We have some great discussions and even a bible study section to get involved in. I go to cafemom to check on the Proverbs 31 Woman forum I moderate and I go to facebook where most of my friends are Christian friends. A few nights a week I might also play a game or two on pogo.
I can’t say I haven’t create an avatar of myself but I never thought of creating anything but something that represents ME. But now I guess I’m an oddball yet again in my life. But I don’t care. I’m who I am whether in real life or in anamation. And proud of it because this is who God created me to be.
January 27th, 2009 at 1:55 pm