Living a 'Second Life'

I have a confession and I’m actually a little ashamed of it.  In my final year of high school I was addicted to… Farmville…

Well there you have it, out in the open for everyone to see.

Games such as Farmville, Second Life and The Sims use simulacra which according to Plato is a term used to describe a false copy of something (Mann).  These games provide a copy of society in an online environment where people are substituted with avatars.  thefreedictionary.com describes an avatar as a moveable character the user controls (Farlex Inc. 2013)

In Farmville I created an avatar in my likeness and through my avatar I built my farm from the ground up, building fences, acquiring animals and planting and harvesting crops.  The crops themselves depending on the plant would take from a half-hour to three days to grow.

Theorist Baudrillard argues that ‘in a world dominated by media and the internet the idea of a ‘true’ or ‘false’ copy has been destroyed and all we have left now are simulations of reality which aren’t any more or less ‘real’ than the reality they simulate’ (Mann). 

Though I was quite addicted to the game I didn’t feel the need to push my obsession to the next level and actually pay for additional things for my avatar.  It is argued that these hyper reality games are simply replicating our consumer driven society, however I think it is a little more complex than that.  It’s not uncommon in these games for people to exchange their hard earned cash for the equivalent of the game’s currency.  Julian Dibbell (in the documentary You Only Live Twice) (2007) states that people become that invested in the game socially and psychologically that they are willing to pay for these fake things and actually perceive it as an investment (Four Corners 2007). 

You Only Live Twice explores this social and psychological investment in the game Second Life where people become quite attached to their avatars living through them and value the social relationships forged with other people’s avatars (Four Corners 2007).  The documentary’s presenter, Ticky Fullerton experiments by adopting her own avatar and soon becomes attached to the avatar taking the insults and compliments it receives quite personally (Four Corners 2007).

Businesses and chain stores are starting to move into games such as Second Life taking advantage of people’s attachment to their avatars.  People such as Veronica Brown have found Second Life to be quite lucrative for them and are able to draw a substantial income from it (Four Corners 2007). Brown became quite successful designing bridal and evening wear for people’s avatars (Four Corners 2007).  Chain stores such as American Apparel have also set up shop within Second Life where you enter the store, click on a piece of clothing and two images appear, on your left a piece of clothing to purchase for your avatar and on the right a version for you which can be purchased and delivered to your door (Four Corners 2007).     

 As great as it is for businesses to take exploit people’s attachment to avatars it’s important to examine what this is doing to our real world relationships.  On games such as Second Life, users’ avatars can meet each other forging social relationships online (Four Corners 2007).  Psychologist, Sherry Turkle (2012) explains the implications of these online relationships she states that people are afraid of intimacy and that ‘people can’t get enough of each other as long as they can have each other at a distance in amounts that they can control and an effect of this is that we sacrifice conversation’ (TED 2012).

One may argue that through games like Second Life people can converse with other users however, these conversations can be edited and retouched; Turkle emphasises that with conversations that take place in the real world you can’t control what you’re going to say, you can’t edit or retouch (TED 2012).

Taking this all into consideration will we all end up living a ‘Second Life’?  Will the way people work, play, socialise and develop relationships all move online?  In a way I think this has already occurred people often work and communicate through email, people shop online,  play virtual games with each other and socialise and develop relationships through Facebook and Twitter.  Conversely, my job (in banking) is customer centric and internet banking has not eliminated my role (for now) and I much prefer the instant gratification of shopping in a store and I communicate with family, friends and my partner through technology but I will annoy them if I haven’t seen them face-to-face in a while.  I can’t imagine living in a world where people all live a ‘second life’ to be honest I have a hard enough time navigating my first life with work, university and different relationships I haven’t even been on Facebook today.

***The author of this blog would like to disclose that she does not use Farmville anymore and this was just a phase***  

 

(iPad News Daily 2002)