*Flashback to somewhere in 2006*
On the large projected image on the wall, my avatar flew around idly, drawing gasps of surprise from the batch of Secondary School students who had just stepped through the door. My partner took the chance to gather them around us and begin our well-memorized presentation.
We were midway through the second day of Ngee Ann Polytechnic's Open House. To promote our course, my partner and I were in charge of demonstrating Second Life on some of the many laptops hooked up to the projector, explaining how such programs could serve to benefit businesses.
I had done my homework (sort of). I had...
1) browsed around the Second Life website.
2) got myself an account with a not too cheesy username.
3) tried downloading Second Life on my own laptop (and giving up because it made my computer lag very badly).
4) spent a fair bit of time exploring Second Life on the school computers.
5) created my avatar.
6) attempted to make it look as much like me as possible, (long and tedious process, so I decided to be contented with the default avatar).
7) been wowed by the teleporting and flying abilities.
On the lecturer's orders, I had also...
1) familiarized myself with Anshe Chung (the lady from China who became a millionaire selling virtual property on Second Life).
2) navigated my way around Dell island (pretty interesting concept, not so much the virtual PCs part but the part where you get to test out their products in the virtual world and purchase one to be delivered to you in the real world.)
3) visited IBM island (apparently IBM holds employee meetings there, and there's their virtual health island).
4) generally acquainted myself with Second Life's world, creations and most interestingly the marketplace.
I was good to go, all prepared to seriously impress the students. Except...
That particular day, the teleportation function was down and I was stuck at landing area. To maximize my demonstrations, I started a conversation with a friendly female character in the area whom I dubbed Green (due to her striking bright green ponytail).
Before long,, a young man with long spiky hair (thus unoriginally dubbed Spiky) walked over to Green. In the bottom left corner, where chat messages usually appeared, rows after rows of words started appearing. I squinted a little at the words, unsure as to what I was seeing...and then it hit me.
Spiky was actively engaging Green in...virtual sex?
My partner was blissfully oblivious, his back to the screen, animatedly explaining Anshe Chung's unique business to the group, and in my shocked state, I spotted a few students turning their heads around to look at the screen...
I hurriedly directed my avatar into the air and away from the engrossed pair, tried and failed (again) to teleport myself away, attempted to call up different windows, and then the whole program seemed to hang when I tried to log out...yet the rows of detailed descriptions kept appearing.
In desperation, I held the power button down.
The laptop went out with a noisy whirl that ceased abruptly, and that, combined with the sudden lack of image projected on the wall, drew all attention to me. My partner gave me a bewildered look and the students began nudging and whispering to each other.
"Tech...technical glitch..." I mumbled, red-faced as someone, somewhere, burst out laughing.
*End of Flashback*
I never ventured into Second Life again after that fateful Open House.
I had no reason to.
The idea of virtual reality sounds awesome enough. If you imagine yourself literally in another world, with abilities one can only dream of, meeting people from all walks of life, living an alternate lifestyle in contrast to what might be a dreary real life, virtual reality ought to blow your mind away.
Yet, at the risk of sounding like a brainless buffoon, at that time, Second Life seemed very much to me (the average layman stripped of coding skills and business inclinations) like a highly glamorized chatroom doused with gimmicks. The thrill and excitement of having an avatar flying and teleporting around wore off after awhile and certain aspects of it just seemed kinda dumb.
What really killed the excitement for me, apart from that virtual sex incident, was when my avatar flew past this brightly colored patch on the beach and landing on it suddenly equipped me with 'dancing' abilities. As I watched my avatar twisting and gyrating away to the music, I wondered what joy I was supposed to derive from that. In the chat area, the other dancing characters were going on and on about how, "This is so fun!" and "Your dance moves are amazing!" and I'm like "RIGHT~!"
Presuming the other people were like myself, sitting down somewhere in front of a computer screen and directing avatars using keyboard and mouse, I don't get the thrill of watching an animated character dance when the only part of my body I could claim to be dancing at the same time were my fingers.
Social media such as Second Life and Skype have brought us so much convenience: work and project meetings conducted beyond space and time IN a different world altogether; the ability to meet new people and keep in contact with old friends all within the comfort of your home; the wonders of acquired abilities that we'll never have in a lifetime; the miracle of financing yourself through jobs in the virtual world, etc.
But what of real life?
In class we heard about how there are embassies being set up for Second Life and how people sue or get sued over Second Life. The thought running through my mind was: are humans so far removed in their search for better, ideal lives where they are in control of everything that they would much rather live a second life staring after an animated representation of themselves?
Social Media is all good and amazing, I don't deny my reliance on and enjoyment of the various forms of social media. But when it gets in the way of real life, when you begin to think its something you can't live or function properly without, (think addiction), then its high time to hold down the power button like I did that day and shut it all down manually.
And at least I know that in real life, no real people are ever gonna walk by when I'm talking to a bunch of students and attempt to educate them in certain matters beyond their school curriculum. I'll gladly be inconvenienced to keep things that way.
