Last Thursday's discussion!

"Me. Myself, my avie and I!" was last Thursday's topic at LnL's discussion. For many people, Second Life creates an alternative reality, but is that reality creating a false sense of fulfilment and accomplishment? Are we becoming our avatar, reducing our life to a set of irreal experiences and choosing a dreamlike world over our RL world? Are we real or are we avies? It is true that Second Life could, for some, create a false sense of "reality" and even accomplishment, but it is also a fact that many of SL's residents learn very real new skills through this virtual world, things like interaction, communication, empathy, or simply how to use image manipulation sofwares. After discussing what the concept of "reality", which proved to be extremely complex, a few discussers debated the notion that by being/staying in SL, people got a somewhat irreal notion of who/what they were; some defended that SL is as much a reality as any aspect of RL. Some researchers defend that a large amount of people who access virtual platforms tend to suffer from depression and isolation, yet many of those present felt that that is an image the Media has created; the amount of people who have those conditions is proportional to the same group of people in RL. There is a fine line between avie and RL person. Some try to separate them as much as possible, others get so immersed in who/what their avies are, the way they look, etc. that that overflows into RL. The avatar becomes, in a way, one of many masks (not in a negative way) we wear daily, one possible "face". Our time was up so London concluded the discussion stating that "Second Life can be very attractive, and we can spend a lot of hours enjoying it, but we must never forget that in order to play the game, we first have to be alive, so let's have balance, enjoy both worlds and be as happy as we can be. Everything in the correct dosage is good for our well being!". Join us next week for a new topic, same day, same place, same time - Thursday, LnL Lounge at 2pm SLT!