I hadn’t been in Second Life for several months. But I was invited by a friend to visit his class on Social Media Marketing and talk about the psychology of website design (I’ll post the talk when I get it cleaned up–we had some technical issues), so I was forced to go out and go shopping because my avatar had absolutely nothing to wear. Gosh, I was still in my “newbie skin.” (The uncustomized, out-of-the-box avatar look is a marker of a newbie.) It’s amazing how brave I am when I’m shopping.
So with this new found bravery, I thought it would be fun to go exploring and see if there were any fireworks displays.
The thing that always impresses me in Second Life is the amount of creativity and skill displayed by the range of resident-generated content. Heady psychological issues like social connection in new media and identity aside, I was struck by the idea of Second Life as a continual participatory art piece. People are spending huge amounts of energy creating all kinds of experiences–visual, aural, interactive, social, real- and other-worldly. And like all art, it is being created to be shared with others. In this sense, Second Life is an example of humankind at its best.
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The fellow in the tall hat is the firework Marshall. The people behind him are holding sparklers that actually sparkled. The other thing that is cool about Second Life is that you can look at things closer, farther way or at different angles without moving your avatar. You can stand very far away and see things very close up. This means you can fly up and examine the fireworks exploding in the air. I have always wanted to do that!
Dr. Pamela Rutledge is available to reporters for comments on the psychological and social impact of media and technology on individuals, society, organizations and brands.