Second Life

Second Life creator Philip Rosedale presented a side of Second Life, an online virtual world, that claimed "Anything is possible". His invention evolved from the idea that everyone has great ideas but may not have the means or the materials to act upon them. Second Life, he claims, is a place where those ideas may be brought to life. 

I had explored Second Life for the first time last semester. I entered into this world not knowing anything about it, except that it was a virtual world. Second Life to me was confusing and foreign. I did not know what to do, where to go or who to talk to. I felt lonely and isolated. There were people all around me, but everyone just stands there, solid, quiet, barely interacting, in their own world. 

Second Life to me lacks human relationship and interaction. Companionship to humans is like food and water. Great literature such as Gilgamesh and the story of Adam and Eve show the intense need for humans to have a physical human relationship and companion. Second Life did not give that to me. It felt as though I was in a 9th grade chat room, where everyone wants to hit on you and talk about a whole lot of nothing. 

Second Life is a place where you can explore imagination. You can look anyway you want, you can have whatever you want, you can make whatever you want, but it all has a price. Everything in Second Life is bought, unless someone gives it to you. You buy hair, skin, eye color, body language, pregnancy, intimacy, etc. It is a place where anything is possible, if you have the money to buy it. 

What also outcasted me was that I had no idea how to do anything I wanted to do. I would not call Second Life user friendly. There are endless amount of buttons on the bottom of the screen that I know nothing about how to use. There are 3 or 4 different ways to talk to someone, group chat, private chat, public chat, speaker. I simply did not know what to do with it all. So maybe anything is possible to those who understand the program and know how to use it. 

I do not hate Second Life. Its fun to run around and see where you end up and see the weird things that people create or look like. But it is not something that I feel like I could take seriously or invest a lot of time (or money!) into. And unfortunately, I can not do "anything".