August 29, 2008
Who needs a second life? I have enough trouble keeping track of the first one. Seriously, who--once safely past the solipsistic shores of adolescence---would be interested in creating an online fantasy life? The mind reels at the thought of aging 20-something troglodytes crouching their parents' basements while inhabiting some virtual fantasy life of unlimited power and sexual adventure. My God. This is the "community" with whom one is supposed to interact in the opportunities offered by Thing 15.
Still, learning about the popularity of such activities is endlessly amazing. I am struck by the sheer mechanical, quantifiable aspect of matters that in real life are soft-focus and indeterminant. On the Internet nobody knows you're a dog, but in fact you can calibrate with mathematical certainty the exact degree of your non-canine life.
I've been reading Benjamin Nugent's American Nerd: the Story of My People, a weirdly fascinating account of the kind of people who spend inordinate amounts of time on game sites like Second Life. The quantifiable aspect of online human relations (Charisma Level 14; Wizardly Powers Level 6 etc. etc.) is exactly what appeals to them about the virtual social world. Not that "anything can happen in your second life" but that--unlike the life they were born into--their second life promises control and predictability in that most unpredictable of arenas--human relationships.
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