Wednesday, March 31, 2010

escaping reality in 2nd Life

I had heard of Second Life in another class prior to reading this chapter and was pretty amazed by it. The virtual world in which anyone can become whoever they want is really captivating. I thought that the "Linden money" concept, which is directly related to actual U.S. dollars. Therefore businesses such as amazon are able to make money off of books that Professor Levinson created in his virtual bookstore to actually be purchased. In turn, the new new media of 2nd Life connects to the new media of Amazon.com, to the media of the book created. What is truly amazing is that all of this can be done from the comfort of ones desk at their computer.
I appreciated the option to create town centers, seminars, islands and very specific cities such as the Victorian one that included a planetarium, which is a way to gather information and explore fantasy realms. These locations have the benefit of moving graphics and audio that other social media can not provide.
However, I did not understand the point of sex in second life, considering the entire point of sex is physical intimacy. I think that the purchase of "love furniture" would be a complete waste as well.

1 comment:

  1. Good to see that you're open minded. You are right about physical intimacy, but there is also much loneliness out there, and I think this falls under the heading of half a loaf for some people, maybe a loaf and a half for others.

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