Bella Post Class 2/28

Starfish, now that I know who you are, I’ll be posting on you all the time! In my last post, I talked about how ‘without my technology, I’m not sure I know who I am’. After our discussion in class, I realized I may not be as bad off as some other people in the world–you mention your fear of the Second Life world and how bizarre it is that real money and real identities are created and lived out in a virtual world. After class, I went and checked out Second Life, just to see what it’s all about. I see it as a grown up version of The Sims (my only, and favorite computer game growing up). The reason these worlds are so attractive is because they allow you to create a persona, maybe someone that looks like you maybe what you wished you looked like. That person can have any job, fulfill any dream at YOUR command, and behave any way you like. If you’re an uptight, shy, lonely man that joins Second Life, your character maybe the attractive, flirtatious, loud and funny business man you always wished you could be. It’s bizarre to think about, but, as Eco said, the fake world is sometimes more entertaining and rewarding that the real world. In the fake world, we have everything we want at our control and for many people that is appealing. If I had time between everything I do on campus as well as my seemingly infinite pile of homework, I might get back into the virtual world. For me, however, I found it so addicting that it took up too much time. It’s like watching your favorite TV show and being able to control the ending…you can’t get enough. I had to hide my games from myself so that I would stop playing them and actually live my life, like you said. It was scary to think that I was spending more time pretending to be someone else than I was enjoying who I am. You said that last class made everything 'click' for you, and I have to agree. Since the last class, the last essay (which I actually understood), and our exam, I have really come to understand a lot of the basics about post modern society. We live in an age of instant gratification, constant development, and scarily obsessive tendencies. We are obsessed with making things new and better, pushing the boundaries of technology, and revolutionizing the world we live in. I feel like technology is just snowballing forward, at a pace that's almost impossible to maintain...what could happen if it crashed? What would happen if our society just...crashed. It seems to me that we can't keep this up forever, and that it has to stop some time...but when?


http://secondlife.com/