Second Life

I recently heard that men relax more when driving because they consider the car to be an extension of their own body, while women are less likely to do so. I have not sought any evidence to verify this, though I can think of several examples that support and several that contradict it. What it does do, however, is remind me of the idea that any technology can be considered to be an extension of ourselves. A telephone allows us to project our voice and ears around the world; the Internet allows our eyes, ears, and minds to travel just as far.

Second Life takes this a step farther. It allows us to project a visual image of ourselves (as an avatar) into a virtual environment. On the surface it evokes the familiarity we have with typical video games, but when you dig deeper, it allows us to form a deeper connection with our avatar and the others we meet in the virtual world. Perhaps it's because unlike a video game, where we conform ourselves to pre-designed characters, actions, worlds, and activities, Second Life allows us to adapt our avatars, world, and activities to ourselves. We have a vested interest in our avatar and realize that the avatars around us somehow reflect real people, not the engineering of commercial game designers. This reflection of actual individuals also opens the door for tremendous amounts of variation in what avatars look like, how they talk, what they do, and the resulting world and society created. If taken to its full potential, the Second Life world may never get boring.

A limiting factor, though, is that it's difficult to get avatars and other elements in Second Life to do just what their users want them to do. If I want to shake hands, gesture as I talk, or give a certain appearance, I have to remember the mouse movements or keyboard shortcuts to do it. Even if I do remember, it becomes so much work, I don't want to. And then after not doing it for awhile, I forget how to do it altogether, and I'm back at square one. So, while the potential exists for reflecting many aspects of physical life and its varieties, the technological weight of the medium presents a barrier. Thus, as with many forms of mediated communication, many of the factors that give richness to face-to-face communication do not come across yet in Second Life, leaving it somewhat information-deprived, yet still full of potential.

Here's an interesting video that introduces SL (Second Life) and considers its potential for use in education. Note how many people are estimated to be using virtual immersion programs such as this a mere four years from now.

The link to this video and much more information about SL is on the SL Web page at http://secondlife.com/