Love Stinks! Yea Yea! (SL again)

http://thetyee.ca/Entertainment/2009/01/28/SecondLife/

Up for your reading pleasure is an article on Second Life titled "Second Life's Losers". As we all know, Second Life is a venue where people all over the world get together online and misrepresent themselves as the beautiful, sophisticated person they are not like in real life. Thats why they call it Second Life - they want another shot at the first one.

This article writes about a TV show that documents a "quartet of SL residents who fall in love with other players and ditch their real life spouses". It also examines the emotional adultery that takes place on this "chatroom with graphics" every day.

This article is important to post to the class blog because people need to know that there are internet users who are too obsessed with their online video games. We're not talking about the sad substitute for a social life that is Facebook. Here, we get down to individuals who spend time and money customizing their appearance on the internet to showcase to strangers all over the world. It is sad to read that "about 30,000 "partnerings" have taken place there [Second Life]. This article continues by saying that it is not unusual for people to get married on this website. What kind of sad world do we live in when we have people on a video game posing as some avatar getting married to a person theyve never actually met? I mean, the concept of marrying someone you dont know isnt that old - look at arranged marriages. Also, look at marriages today in the 'real world' where you think you know a guy, but you get married, and then they change into a monster. I dont mean they literally turn into a monster, but their personality changes drastically. Have you seen How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days? That kinda thing. Physical transformations dont happen in the 'real world' - but on SL, it could, because you can be whatever you want, whether it be an animal, a box or a glove..

To add to this sadness, quotes like these speak for themselves "Sue grew tired of the 17-hour days Ric spent in front of the computer living large as biker-businessman Dutch, with his wife Ten, on their private island (costing about US$500). Soon headlines proclaimed Sue the first North American woman to get a divorce over virtual adultery". Translation: losers. A real-life person divorced their real-life spouse because that man had a different life on the internet on an ISLAND that he paid real money to be on with his 'spouse' named Ten. With a name like Ten, even Julia Robert's kids get jealous. Sue divorced her husband over an internet obsession. The world that we live in. I dont even know if I can say that anymore.

Second Life? Ha. Get a first one.

James A
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