Assignment 2: Creating an Avatar

My avatar is named Aurora Pottzen, and so far I have had a lot of difficulties with Second Life. Creating the account was fine, but as soon as I tried to personalize my avatar, things started going down hill. As of right now, she is wearing two sets of clothing, the original of which you can see whenever she turns around. This happens often, as I have absolutely no idea how to view her from the front. Also, sometimes when I am trying to move her forward, I all of a sudden zoom way out, or end up (what I am assuming is) underground. I also have not been able to figure out how to get off the beginners island, see other people's profiles, or basically do anything beyond walk, which does not even work out every time.

I am not really sure what is good about this technology, or what it could be useful for. I suppose it might be good for socially awkward people who need a way to reach out and meet other socially awkward people, but other than that I cannot think of any other reason to use it. I was never into video games, the sims, or anything else where you might be communicating with people who you have never met, so I am probably not the targeted user.

So far, I have two "friends" on second life, one of whom is Professor Broderick. I have no idea who the other person is, but he/she instant messaged me and asked "What is map?". I responded "what?", and that was the end of our conversation.

As for drawbacks, I do not know if there really are any beyond stopping people from communicating in person, which I would think is a healthier method of communication. Before I made a second life account, the only things I knew about it were from The Office and Law and Order SVU. Since neither of these shows showed second life in a positive light, I may have been biased before beginning this project. Seeing as I had zero desire to ever make an avatar before, this, I understand its lack of popularity. Most people that I know would rather use the internet to communicate with people who they already know (like through facebook), and to meet new people in person. This is probably because of the stigma attached to meeting people on the internet, especially through programs like second life, where you are not even looking at a picture of a real person (who might not be the person they claim to be anyway).

I really do not see myself using this program in the future, especially since I have been removing it from my computer each time I use it, incase some else borrows my computer and sees it on the dock.