What is Real?
I’ve been recently inspired by how various virtual tools have changed my friends’ lives.
There was firstly Match.com with Ann meeting, marrying Andrew and producing Tamara, Catherine hooking up with her man and planning to get hitched in April, and now Jennifer finding The Man. It not only gives me great joy but also inspiration on how the internet has changed our lives.
Then I met someone who said his Second Life name was X. “Say what?”. A week later I saw an article on FT titled “Get a (Second) Life” .A virtual reality world; as close as it gets to the real thing. Latest feature includes buying properties. And yes, they have their own currency, laws and police. Intrigued, not only did I read every word of the article, but registered too. Molonese Wardhali was created on (yes, they gave me a surname). OK, so here it comes; amazing user experience, totally great usability, highly intuitive navigation, almost-too-many features but easy to master after a while. I did not like getting dressed up, but got captivated by the scheduled real-life concerts. I checked out the groups – most very sex-driven, cannot get into one of the groups, but I get into the a dance lounge, I’m the only one not revealing much skin, a guy walks up to me asking me to salsa with him. I panic looking for the ‘dance’ function button, fail to find it in time, he dumps me. There are so many functions here, I’m confused! I try chatting with a few people, most ignore me after 2 min. The public conversations going on are shallow and non-engaging, they remind me of the ICQ days. Oops, the guy who asked me to salsa just took off all his clothes and dashed off to the dance floor. My luck, I guess. The background music is great, I can change it on the fly. It all looks so real, it’s amazing. I look at the lounge walls- very empty – the advertisers have not gotten here in a big way yet.
Was I acting any different from what I would have in a real dance bar? Not really. Did I come any close to meeting a ‘friend’? Well, no, but I have not given it enough time (spent 1 hour there).
Overall, I must admit there was a level of fascination I found about Second Life. I will log on again and give it a try, more probably for my geeky internet fascination or part of my job, whatever sounds rig again. For the one experience, I have to also admit I felt rather lonely there, and therefore the prospect of hooking up with my real friends in Shanghai this weekend is a highly appealing one.
Trying to join a group...
Dance Lounge on a Thr nite:
There was firstly Match.com with Ann meeting, marrying Andrew and producing Tamara, Catherine hooking up with her man and planning to get hitched in April, and now Jennifer finding The Man. It not only gives me great joy but also inspiration on how the internet has changed our lives.
Then I met someone who said his Second Life name was X. “Say what?”. A week later I saw an article on FT titled “Get a (Second) Life” .A virtual reality world; as close as it gets to the real thing. Latest feature includes buying properties. And yes, they have their own currency, laws and police. Intrigued, not only did I read every word of the article, but registered too. Molonese Wardhali was created on (yes, they gave me a surname). OK, so here it comes; amazing user experience, totally great usability, highly intuitive navigation, almost-too-many features but easy to master after a while. I did not like getting dressed up, but got captivated by the scheduled real-life concerts. I checked out the groups – most very sex-driven, cannot get into one of the groups, but I get into the a dance lounge, I’m the only one not revealing much skin, a guy walks up to me asking me to salsa with him. I panic looking for the ‘dance’ function button, fail to find it in time, he dumps me. There are so many functions here, I’m confused! I try chatting with a few people, most ignore me after 2 min. The public conversations going on are shallow and non-engaging, they remind me of the ICQ days. Oops, the guy who asked me to salsa just took off all his clothes and dashed off to the dance floor. My luck, I guess. The background music is great, I can change it on the fly. It all looks so real, it’s amazing. I look at the lounge walls- very empty – the advertisers have not gotten here in a big way yet.
Was I acting any different from what I would have in a real dance bar? Not really. Did I come any close to meeting a ‘friend’? Well, no, but I have not given it enough time (spent 1 hour there).
Overall, I must admit there was a level of fascination I found about Second Life. I will log on again and give it a try, more probably for my geeky internet fascination or part of my job, whatever sounds rig again. For the one experience, I have to also admit I felt rather lonely there, and therefore the prospect of hooking up with my real friends in Shanghai this weekend is a highly appealing one.
Trying to join a group...
Dance Lounge on a Thr nite:
posted by Magdalena Wszelaki @ 1:24 AM
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