Monday, March 17, 2008
Welcome back - and thoughts on civic engagement
Hope everyone had a wonderful break... and welcome back. To get back into the rhythm of things, I wanted to share some thoughts on a discussion I attended last night at Thotica (in SL - every Sunday night, on evolutionary psychology). This group is very engaged and many are very much of the post-humanist school of thought. Last night's discussion included many opinions shared about the evolution of human as "cyborg" via advances in technologies and programs such as SL. As they posed the question regarding the pro's and con's of transitioning to "life" in virtual realities, the discussion moved to the idea of community. Certainly there are many communities forming in SL, as they have via social networking sites, blogs, and interest communities on the Internet. Yet, civic engagement in local communities continues to wane in our culture. Will people choose a virtual community over their neighborhoods, towns, civic organizations, etc? (it appears some already have) And if so, why? And at what consequence? (we still need to raise our children and provide food, clothing -in theory, and shelter in the rl) I have many thoughts on how to answer these questions both from positive and negative perspectives, but thought I'd throw it out to you...
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5 comments:
I don't see myself choosing virtual life over real life anytime soon. There is still so much that is lacking in online communication compared to face-to-face. Facial expressions, hand gestures, touch/feeling, and even voice capability just aren't there. Voice is on it's way, but as we saw in the previous couple classes, it doesn't always work as it should, and can lead to frustration more than anything else.
Maybe I'm just not visiting the right places in SL. Every interaction I've had with another person in SL has felt empty - there's no feeling behind the words on the screen. Nothing about it has made me want to leave the real world and join communities in SL.
I don't see how one can participate in a beneficial civic engagement in a virtual environment. There's a limitation to those who have a capable computer and the knowledge of how to use it. I would assume that more minorities do don't have these traits.
One can do all the online petitions and emailing their congress men and women, but what really counts is what happens on the ground: serving meals, conducting needs assessments, planting trees, etc in the community that you live in. Having a meal with a neighbor is a step in the right direction. Last time I checked you couldn't do that in SL.
On a more positive note, I believe that established civics organizations can benefit by using SL. Instead of going to a conference to all come together they could just hop on to SL. That is already possible with conference calling, but they can do more in SL, create a virtual environment that is conducive to their cause: classrooms, community center, art, etc.
While I still believe in the good 'ol first life, I can see many advantages to being more active in the community activities in virtual worlds. I've found it tough to get involved in real life community activities due to time constraints or being unmotivated because I feel I won't know anybody. I think my best solutions are to make time and to get over being shy, but they are not the easiest.
SL gives me an opportunity to check in when I have the time. Sure there are community events with set times, but I can often attend from my laptop when I am somewhere else. I also don't have the shyness factor because I am pretty anonymous.
There is no competition between quality of SL to real life but there some for ease of participation.
I often feel that I am not getting the full SL experience. The San Francisco Chronicle recently ran a three page article that included the cover of their Travel section. While most of the article was an overview of SL and virtual travel, I did find the idea of groups meeting and engaging in discussion to be a promising idea if I could only find the right group and the time to meet even in world.
I'm wondering if there is a distinct advantage to SL civic engagement versus other chatroom services. Any thoughts?
The URL for the article:
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/c/a/2008/03/09/TRE5V1R7I.DTL
For a lot of people, especially those that are really into the digital world, virtual life is much more liveable than real life. I think it provides a sanctuary & haven to escape from the "horrors" of reality. So maybe if you go to the right places at the right times (as I have yet to do...I don't know how people find these crazy places), you will find people that are WAY more active and WAY more into their virtual lives, because their real lives suck (for lack of a better word).
SL allows you to have (and change) an identity that can either be reflective or the complete opposite of your actual identity. In turn, it allows you to "live" a "life" that is completely unattached to what's really going on. So maybe the place you went to was more "happenin'" than what you see in real life because people have the opportunity to be someone other than themselves, and to have a personality different from their own. Or...maybe they're being themselves in SL, and keeping this weird composure in RL to be different? Who knows.
I prefer much more to live my SL as I do my RL (except for having homework), which is probably why I spend more of my time on iChat or Facebook than SL when it comes to being online (not saying that those of you who do spend loads of time in SL have horrible RLs)...though people have the liberty to alter their identities there too...anyway, I don't think SL will replace RL completely for those that are in love with it, but it's important enough to play a huge part in their social lives.
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