Reading Radar

Lately at work I’ve been in a mode of this kind of melancholy feeling. The constant having to fight idiots to be allowed to do my job is getting to me. And having to answer questions to people about why I need to do something when they aren’t my boss or even my peer pisses me off. I’ve been told to do something, it makes sense and it needs done, I’m going to do it, so shut the hell up and give me the information I need.

So I understand why certain aspects of real life are happily escaped from with something like second life, or any other hobby or enjoyable past time. A movie, a good book, a hard bike ride, whatever… anything that gets your mind off of whatever’s stressing you out. But I’ve seen a few plurks lately about people who claim they’d like to completely get out of RL and live in SL. Or how much greater their SL’s are than their RL’s. And that really makes me wonder about those people’s state of mind.

It’s easy to get immersed in second life. There are enough cues that the brain picks up on to trick our minds into believing in the experience. When I’m in-world working on something with people and talking to them, I believe I really am there, working on something with them and talking to them. And I am… it’s just taking place in this inner world instead of the outer one. I understand people who get deep into it, then, but I think people who are easily immersed in things like second life need to remember that you are what you are, and you take that with you. The longer I’m in second life, the more I see the view of the “augmentation” view of SL as the healthier view vs. the total immersion view. It’s a part of your RL, it’s a part of what you do, it’s not a replacement. I’ve seen a few people go over the deep end and totally lose sight of that completely. They’d rather BE their avatar than themselves. In essence, they’re looking for the easy button.

By stating that you’d rather live in SL than RL, you’re pretty much stating that you’d like to eject yourself from reality. And yeah, reality sucks at times, given the system we have in place where any idiot can survive without huge amounts of effort, but everyone has to pretty much give themselves over to doing things they’d rather not just to pay their bills. Still, it beats working 15 hours a day trying to grow crops so your family can eat or having to hunt down your own food and hope it doesn’t kill you first. It’s not like we have it any rougher than generations gone by, most of us actually have it a lot easier. We just have it different. We have more leisure time and more time to think about how much we hate our jobs. And our expectations are hugely different now. But reality is reality, and SL is clearly a life where very little income goes a long way, you can always find something fun to do and choose to do what you want when you want (generally speaking), and the banalities of life such as going to the doctor, waiting for airplanes, mowing the lawn, and similar things don’t apply. So expecting realistic comparisons between RL and SL is impossible. One takes place in the inner world and the other one takes place at the most fundamental level. If you check out of that world, you’re done. Your avatar will have *poofed* forever.

In my mind, that’s why the augmentation view makes the most sense. It’s just an acceptance of reality. Just like going on vacation and escaping some of those real life responsibilities for a short time doesn’t make them go away, neither does being in second life. They’re still there, as they should be, waiting for you to get off the computer and get to work on them.

I enjoy second life most of the time, and there’s a lot of things that interest me in second life. Making things work, getting stuff done, getting to do those things with great friends, that’s fun. But there’s no way it’s more than just a part of life. And definitely not the most important part.

So be healthy. Have a fun second life. But don’t forget that you’re not your avatar.