Time for Therapy?
Well, it's afternoon, and that means... time for a blog entry. When the job slows down a bit, I feel the need to post my babblings up online. I'm sure I could go through years of therapy to try to figure out why. But... um... I'm already paying a fair amount in tier... and I don't really... I don't have the time! Yeah, that's it! No time! :D Because I need to use the time to write in my blog! (Don't you just love circular reasoning?)
Hmm. Part of my downtime yesterday was spent reading Tao Takashi's blog entry about what consititutes real life. Very well thought-out. Kinda marches with my opinions, except I'd take it another step further.
I'm not at all sure that you can separate your Second Life from your "first" or "real" life. I vaguely recall some book that called it "meatspace." Um, no. "Offline life" works, I guess. I mean, you, as a person, are affected by the people you interact with, whether online or off. Henrietta and I had a great chat about this a few weeks ago, and one of the things that came out of it was the realization that some people on SL who were complete jerks when you first met them, become really decent people as a result of being socialized. They learn what is and isn't acceptable and approved and enjoyable behaviour in the community. The social mores.
And that spills over into real life. I constantly find myself thinking "Oh, I must tell so-and-so this" (except, of course, I use their real names), and thinking that I should point some website out to someone else. And I find myself using phrases in offline (outloud) conversation that people on Second Life use. Which is kinda weird, since one is written and the other verbal, but whatever. I've even noticed that I pause before swearing now, to make sure I'm not in the Shelter (PG rules enforced). Um. Even out loud (see above, re: therapy).
Maybe I'm weird to think that friends are friends are friends regardless of where you meet them? I have a ton of folks that I met online in my MUD days that now are constant fixtures in my offline life. My best friend in Boston, for example (who is due to give birth to her first child sometime this week! Ack!). But the particular MUD that I spent a lot of time on was prone to throwing parties on a regular basis, which people would travel long distances to attend. And boy, it's weird meeting people offline that you've talked to every day for months. Years even.
I just realized... 95% of my friends are really good typists. Heh. Man, you know you're a geek when...
But I digress. :) I agree with Tao that it's kinda disturbing to think of folks I like and see regularly online vanishing without a trace. I would worry, and wonder if they were okay. And, because we're all so paranoid about preserving our privacy, I'd have no clue how to even begin checking to make sure they hadn't fallen off their bike into the path of a semi or gone to jail for possession of narcotics (although, I can't really see anyone I'm friends with in the latter position...). I mean, it could be nothing, it could just be that work got busy, or the city dug up the phone line so they have no internet access (Oh no! Send help quick!). How the hell would I know? Worrying, really.