My feelings about Second Life today

hmmm . . . i ponder your words and pretty much agree with them all. plus you have a unique insight that most of us don't have, the internal look at the workings behind sl.

indeed, sl is so new still (like your ref to horseless carriages, which conjured images of the waste products and the metaphor for some journalists . . ) anyway, i digress *hold tight, another ener tangent*

i like your perspective on technology/emotion and sharing experiences. i go off the "deep end" and see sl as an attempt by us humans to become closer to our spiritual side. being able to share with anyone almost anywhere instantly is, to me, getting closer to achieving that higher vibrational form discussed in metaphysics (and actually very discussed in most religion if looked at less literally).

to me, and I think many others, sl rings true with what we are capable of becoming as spiritual beings. thank you for the provocative post

You can extend the paragraph on "professional" journalists being ignorant of what they report on to all subjects.

Encountered this in my time as an IT manager at a television station, asked by technodummy reporters to interpret the rip-and-reads their equally ignorant producers were writing for them.

Only a few noticed the trend of technology rolling forwards and got on board, immersing in it instead of resisting it.

I worked my fingers to the bone writing up dirt-simple step-by-step procedures to perform basic tasks. Some appreciated the documentation, learned the basics, and built on that on their own, never afraid to hit the magical F1 key.

The others, well, one went so far as to throw my documentation in my face, and if that paper cut had cut just a quarter inch higher, I'd have lost an eye instead of getting a slash on my face.

There are the town criers of our age.

Those that get to know the subjects they report on, you listen to. And you engage them in conversation over their experience so you can learn from them.

Those that just beat the drums of panic and doom for the salespeople to stick between commercials, you just open your window and let the chamberpot fly.

If they duck the challenge of genuine direct engagement, preferring to remain one-way broadcast, well, it's pretty easy to shut that channel off and seek out the interactive and community-based information sources which can stand to defend its ever-flowing river of positions and reports.

I couldn't agree more Torley

It is so easy to sit on the sidelines and whinge about things that you have never experienced. The fact is that you could take ANY activity and make it look silly and pathetic if you wanted to – because human beings are all partially silly and pathetic. It's part of our very nature, isn't it??

Imagine something as innocuous as watching a man having an animated conversation in a phone booth – you can't hear what he is saying, but he is gesticulating wildly and looks decidedly absurd. without knowing the context of his conversation, it would be all too easy to conclude that he IS decidedly absurd.

It's the same with Second Life – peeking in from the outside, it would be too easy to conclude that it is silly and pathetic – but only because you have no context. We all know better – the richness of SL is something that can't be explained – it can only be experienced to be understood. The experiences, feelings, friendships, and learnings that we have in SL are very much real and valuable.

I think you are right – in future times, we will look back on virtual interactions like those in SL as the first steps toward defining a whole new way of interacting and communicating – or maybe more precisely – a significant step in the development of a new world of possibilities in interacting and communicating that is already underway! Like all innovations, it will suffer the slings and arrows of the entrenched, the ignorant, and the frightened.

It's a paradigm shift, in the way that term was meant to be used – a new set of assumptions and technologies that are changing our understanding of each other and the way we explain the world around us. Physical presence becomes less and less important with the passage of time. Younger generations think nothing of communicating important decisions and information in a text message – that 20 years ago would only have been considered in a face-to-face meeting.

Thing is – those generations GET it – it's part of their ethos and their world already – and I suspect that as SL and other virtual mediums develop, they will slide into them like into a comfortable pair of shoes. Second Life is simply making a more robust medium for what they are already doing in chat, text, voicechat, Facebook, etc. etc.

As for the entrenched, the ignorant, and the frightened – they will eventually be dragged along behind us – by the time Second Life is mainstream and established widely – they will be telling us that they knew it all along…

dd

Pretty good assessment, Torley. I have had the odd experience of anger at LL when reading lists and lists of comments by residents, often quite off topic, until I finally got it that it makes very little impact or has little effect on LL or SL for that matter. I also realized that these lists of comments more often than not echoed people's frustrations at all general SL problems, and not just the issue a post may have discussed or announced. Reading them would then work me up to the same level of frustration, and just before I splurge forth a similar response to the post listed responses, I would catch myself and think it through to a point where I realize its the old peer pressure that triggered the anger, not the actual post! Now I try and avoid the responses altogether if I can. Second Life is singularly unique in the user's experience, and though many point to new virtual worlds out there, few in my opinion have managed to do what Philip, you and others have achieved.

To have been allowed to be a part of this world has profoundly changed my life, as I discovered a whole tranche of creative ideas within myself that has led to a rediscovery of coding, a rediscovery of animation and 3D art born from the days when I plonked about with my Amiga computer, and generally a new appreciation for reefs and conservation and the whole concept of education through entertainment, all uniquely encompassed by the world of Second Life!

So despite moments of frustration the reality remains that SL made a lasting junkie out of me, and come what may, I am more excited today than I was as a noob. Hmmm, actually I find I am more a noob today than when I first started playing, as SL has all these layers for creativity that only time reveals Keep up the great blog.

oh also, i agree with delicious' analogy…:)

Torley, I still have it set to: secondlife OR "Second Life" ; comprehensive; as it happens.

I've considered making a change but … instead i created a folder & filter and I've gotten pretty good at knowing if it's worth the click by reading the description. Also, I just don't get to everything … w/o guilt ;p

I do find the "as it happens" useful … even tho there are more emails … scrolling to view all the items is seldom needed. So, it is possible to make at a glance decisions.

Enjoy have fun,
Marilla <– first became interested in SL after reading about some autistic "chick" LOL … then i had to wait a year to afford a decent pc!