Second life has the potential to be a disruptive technology by giving the individual an ability to create an alternative persona. Human being are complex social creatures, each created with a uniquely combined set of genetic material which manifests as appearance, personality and individual attributes and characteristics that are part of our social-cultural interaction with others. But a person’s avatar in Second life can change one’s appearance, attitude, placement in family or social/community structures and much more. Choice and not natural selection and genetics determine who you will be.
One of my concerns about virtual world, especially when used by vulnerable populations (i.e. children, individuals with medical or physical challenges, mentally ill, etc) may lead to a false sense of reality. For example – a Virtual Ability Island – begins with the narrator being excited that she can walk, run and fly. She also mentions that she can “swim with the fish” and breathe underwater. We subsequently learn that she has MS (Multiple Sclerosis) – therefore the ability to walk and run allows her to regain skills that the disease has taken away. However, swimming with the fish and breathing underwater are not human skills. So….what happens if she believes this is possible and blurs the distinction between the virtual and real worlds???
In another discussion second life is described as a “marketer’s paradise” (Web Link) . A follow-up from the Burlington Free Press discusses the Vermont tourism department using second life to depict a virtual Vermont vacation complete with beautiful scenery, exciting skiing, wandering wildlife, and a visit to the gold-domed capitol. If it really is that realistic, why would I deal with the TSA pat-down at the airport and the travel time to visit Vermont in person?
Finally a more news oriented article from Forbes Magazine outlines some of the down-sides of networked technologies, one of the major one being the loss of privacy and the compromising of what make us uniquely human.
In terms of what second life displaced – I think it displaced the art of intrapersonal and interpersonal relationships. It allows us to avoid learning how to come to know and to be responsible for our own being and for the social impact of our existence and action/inaction on the well-being of others. If I shoot someone in second life, they can repel the bullet, and in the end we may even become friends recognizing that our difference was only a misunderstanding. However, in the real world or our first life – that bullet has a lasting and real impact both on the person who did the shooting and the person who was shot. Having a technology that allows behavior without consequences has the potential for significant disruption within society and on global well-being.
I am not a user of Second Life and have not been able to undertand what it offers. A number of years ago, I did become interested in Second Life and even attended a number of professional presentations, but the consensus of opinion was the difficulty to program the site as well as the cost involved to purchase an island and the associated features. Thus, I lost interest. Also in my field - teaching nursing - we have virtual environment with high fidelity simulators which allow the real person to interact in simulated situations with other real people. In health care - even when the patient and the provider are at different sites (i.e. tele-medicine), the persons need to relate on a human level. Therefore I forsee limited use of second life in the education of health care providers.
