Tuesday, October 12, 2010

Practicum 2 -Krista

After spending more time on second life, I thought about what we discussed in lecture and tried to decide if Second Life would be considered a "community" by standard definitions. From what I experienced, I would definitely say that Second Life is a "community". I feel that one of the reasons second life is so popular is because people who maybe don't really feel like they are a part of any community in the real world can find that sense of belonging on second life. One of the common discourses about the Internet is that it is bad or addictive to users, and I think that Second Life could definitely be addictive to some users. So do you believe that living in a virtual community online can replace being a part of a community in real life?

2 comments:

  1. I would agree with you that Second life is a community based on your presentation on Tuesday and the info we have been given in lecture. Much like my "virtual community" in media fandom, there are aspects that can be considered a community and aspects that set it apart, but overall I would definitely consider it a sense of community.

    To answer your question, I don't think that living in a virtual community can substitute for real life experiences and communities. To an extent, it gives those who would be considered more shy, or those who are uncomfortable in real life interpersonal conversations, a platform to converse with others. However, at some point, you need to get off the computer. Perhaps having an outlet for conversation online can lead to more developed social skills and more of an interest in participating in "real life" communities rather than virtual.

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  2. I agree that Second Life could be seen as a sort of virtual community. Regarding the question of whether it could substitute for community in the real-world, I believe that for some people, it could. For some, Second Life is a means of escaping reality and constructing a completely different identity as well as building connections with others. Second Life has been known to destroy marriages, as people put more time and effort into their "Second Lives" than their first ones and reveal to other avatars intimate details they keep hidden from their spouses. I think that virtual worlds have the ability to suck you in sometimes, like the recent movie, Tron, where the main character literally becomes part of the game.

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