Media Meditation #4: A second life?

Do you ever get sick and tired of your daily routine? Overwhelmed with your job or school? Do your parents call you too often to check up on you or are you mad at your friends? Are you not happy with how things are going right now or do you maybe just want to have some fun? Well I have the perfect solution for you to get out and forget about everything that is going on. SECOND LIFE!

Second life is a virtual world that is accessible over the internet and has become very successful and popular with marketers or just every day people that like to play. 'Residents' of second life can interact with each other, socialize, explore, do activities or participate in trade. This computer game is equivalent to real life only that you are looking at a computer screen.



Second Life is a perfect example of some of our tool sets such as Technological Shift because it is all digital. You can only play on your computer which shows that times have moved from analog to digital. Production techniques also plays a big part because the producers of this game spend massive amounts of time to create a game that almost seems like real life. The effects and colors in this game are phenomenal considering internet games have advanced so much from when I used to play them.

I found this article from the New York Times about a couple that have met on second life and got married that same year. They build a house and an entire existence in the game but had major issues when the husband died and their island/house got erased. It is a fascinating story because these people had an actual life on second life. Read more

If you go on 'Second Lives' website you can get a feel of how this game works and to me it is absolutely incredible. I cannot believe technology has come so far that people can life different lives on a computer screen. Businesses and marketers also have discovered the benefits of using second life to promote and establish customers relationships. Nowadays there are so many different ways of how you can get to your consumers as long as you have the right strategies.



I wonder how far second life will take this game and how many people will participate. As of now I think having a virtual life is ridiculous but you never know maybe one day I will be convinced of the benefits of this too.




Even Facebook has created their own version called "Farmville", an application that you have to download. You can build farms, grow crops and visit your neighbors ( if you have any). Sometimes when I am on campus I hear people, and teachers, talk about the game and how they need to water their plants or find neighbors. I personally like to live my real life instead of playing with digital people but everyone has their own thoughts on this :)


All I know is that technology, its benefits and downsides has become very overwhelming and hard to keep up with. There are new advancements and new versions of products out every day and I find it very interesting to find out what it is all about.