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Is Second Life morally wrong?
By Celebrity Trollop | March 17, 2007
My Google Alerts filter caught that Fashionista’s been linked by the TimesOnline contributor Michael Parsons. He writes about
the moral threat posed by new technology in general and virtual worlds in particular.
As for the shoppers in Second Life, he writes:
What does it say about consumption – its eerie immateriality, its fantasy nature – that it can be as satisfying and pleasurable to buy a pair of virtual shoes, such as the Jeepers Creepers rolled-cuff Riggers Boots for your virtual self as it is to buy a pair of 8-hole Doctor Marten boots in the material world? What does it say about where we’ve got to as a culture that millions of people in the affluent world find satisfaction and delight in this kind of virtual consumption?
Should you feel guilty about enjoying shopping in Second Life? Should you feel moral shame at being able to participate in Second Life when others cannot?
It’s a topic I have to take a pass on for now — I am actually on the way out the door. It’s probably not fair to make a judgment just on a couple of blockquotes from a longer piece, so read the whole thing and ponder it along with me. We’ll revisit this topic soon.
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i have been spending a lot of money on sl :)
Posted by: Sandrine Beauchamp on March 17th, 2007 at 10:44 amand i dont feel guilty about it at all :)
a lot of people , as my bf, told me it was only “pixels” but heyyy it gives me pleasure :) and i love to change my avatar hair or clothes :) and i do appreciated the work of others, like builders :)
the morality for me in sl is not against the monney coz we are having pleasure and we are trading money against a work :)
but for the sexual stuff .. they dont wonder the good problems , and by the way i love ur blog :)
Wow Celebrity what a great find! I’m not surprised at all at his reaction to Second Life culture. Personally, I found SL browsing for my next big online game on mmorpg.com. I had always dreamed of a world like Second Life, I imagined and used to say “I wish there was an MMO with a real life feel” and I stumbled on SL and here was this world with limitless posibilities. Where literally your imagination is the limit. Naturally, the responses on Second Life at mmorpg.com were negative and just recently residents have been defending SLs entirity. I figure a lot of the people browsing mmorpg.com and any kind of virtual existence are gamers and gamers are most likely looking for a “game”.
IF YOU ARE BORED AND MINDLESS IN YOUR FIRST LIFE OR BITTER AND CYNICAL YOU WILL ENTER YOUR SECOND LIFE JUST THE SAME.
Everyone I know in my 1st Life thinks SL is either plain out bizzare or a waste of time. Look at the reaction of the reporter on NBC when ESC tried explaining SL to those who have never been exposed. The first topic that always arises is when SL is first introduced anywhere “Is this virtual world a danger to our First Lives?”. Any other person or big time media first exposed to Second Life can only begin to fathom our communities possibilities by actually immersing one self inworld with an OPEN MIND and discovering and learning and socializing. Not judging, If you walk down the wrong street and find Cheap Porn or some kind of Raunchy Entertainment. When in fact, you havent visited Danze Zanders Garden of Apollo or Baron Graysons RELIC or Tableau. Find the deeper virtual community; the artisits, the freespirits, the “real” people and the “real” community that makes Second Life.
Who knows where Second Life and Virtual Platforms with practically limitless freedom will take us? Some say SL will revolutionize the Web. Think of what people said when the telephone and internet were first created . . . what theyre saying about SL isnt much different. As human beings we love comfort, but there are innovators and inventors and creators and designers like us who know differently.
Posted by: Lucas Lameth on March 17th, 2007 at 11:27 amI don’t see that having fun in SL is any morally worse than immersing oneself in, say, a novel, or a film in RL. They’re all ‘not real’.
You can look for the best in them or be content with the more superficial aspects. It’s the choice of the individual.
Denying oneself a bit of fun on t’internet isn’t going to help anyone who doesn’t have that opportunity any more than refusing to pick up a book would.
Posted by: Aeslyn on March 17th, 2007 at 12:49 pmFolks’ first reaction to things they don’t understand is fear. It reminded me of the way people used to view the novel, or the movies, or the automobile. All of them brought with them the temptation of new ideas that might bring humans down a road they ought not to go.
Oh no! Ideas - imagination - mobility!
Posted by: Lillie Guildenstern on March 17th, 2007 at 4:06 pmThis cannot be good!
I’m glad you saw this piece; I was going to drop you an email but your Googlefoo beat me to it :)
To answer his question directly, what it says to me is that adults enjoy the opportunity to indulge their inner child or pamper their inner prom queen.
I’m in my 30s. I can’t dress up my Barbie dolls, or buy trucks for my GI Joe anymore. But I can buy shoes for my avatar or a tank for my driveway.
So, frankly, I think it says nice things about us, rather than utterly consumerist things. Plus, you know, nobody ever pays attention to the crafting of those shoes and those vehicles, and the fact that without enabling creativity, SL has no products at all.
Posted by: Sabrina Doolittle on March 17th, 2007 at 5:46 pmIt’s not our fault he couldn’t get laid in SL
*catty meow*
SL is an awesome creative outlet, I pay for CD’s, books, and DVD’s, why wouldn’t I pay for clothing, shoes, furniture made by artists in SL? And for a lot less real world money.
Posted by: Beckie on March 18th, 2007 at 7:21 ami agree with Aeslyn. what’s the difference between spending money in SL and buying a book or movie? both of them are spending money for things that “aren’t real” for entertainment. in fact, i spend a lot less money on SL than i did on the last book i bought!
why is this guy so threatened by SL anyway? it’s hardly the worst way you could spend your money for entertainment. at least we’re spending our money on SL instead of spending it on drugs…
Posted by: Katie on March 18th, 2007 at 7:59 pmDude! Becky! That’s what I was thinking! LOL!!!
Lucas, beautifully put. You guys have all said it best.
Posted by: Catrina Corleone on March 20th, 2007 at 9:20 amSome people spend their dollars playing “World of Warcraft”, some play on-line (or real) poker, some go to NASCAR, and I buy fabulous shoes in SL. I’m not sure how a simple choice of recreational pasttime can be spun into such a tenuous comment on consumption or social mores.
Posted by: Jane on March 25th, 2007 at 6:39 pm