Takin’ it outside.

Oh, yeah. Hat tip to Pajamas Media.

SecondLife. A corner of the metaverse where you’ll encounter some of the best people you’ll ever know. Where’ you’ll see astonishing creativity on display, side by side with the most wallowy Gatlinburgesque banality. Where Goreans intersect with vampires intersecting with furries intersecting with club kids. Where honesty is prized in people who are mostly fictive objects, where 3D avatars sometimes project personalities that are surprisingly one-dimensional, where, if relationships get seriously dramatic, you can choose to resolve them or you can just disappear. Poof!

Pretty weird, huh? Yeah, but it’s also compelling, intoxicating, addictive.

What if you’re the kind of person who naturally lives in your imagination? What if you’re a dreamer? Really creative? Mentally ill? Or just prone to suspend disbelief to an extraordinary degree?

It doesn’t really matter where you fall on that continuum. If you invest almost any amount of time and energy in sl, you are going to find your imagination fueling a unique kind of experience. You’ll participate in a kind of alternate reality that is made up entirely of projection and perception, and that seems, on the surface, to be fun and innocuous.

But. What if you suddenly realize that your self, not the virtual “you” of your self-consciously realized av, but your very own self, is being subtly shaped by your life in sl? We all know that we bring ourselves into sl, but what do we take with us when we leave?

See, when you log outta sl, you don’t leave your imagination behind. You bring it out with you. And what you’ve done with your imagination effects you in your rl. Subtly and profoundly. And that’s because the way you think and feel about yourself changes you. On the deepest levels. And in sl, you almost certainly will think of yourself in very different ways than you do in rl, at least than you did before you got a secondlife.

This might seem like such a “duh” moment. You may be thinking if you’ve stayed with me this far, “Dork. Of course the way you think effects the shaping of your self. All of your experiences do that. Virtual or not.” Or you may be thinking, “Meh. You’re wrong. What happens in sl stays in sl.”

Well, maybe so to the former, but I disagree with the latter. Sl is a very powerful tool for personal transformation. It’ll change you whether you want it to or not, whether you want to admit that it’s changing you or not, and whether or not you choose to be a conscious participant in the change.

First, let’s talk about the superficial stuff. We’re all beautiful in sl. I sure am. Everyone is. ( <digression:> Well, almost everyone. I’ve seen a few supergross avs, but those are exceptional. I’ve also got one friend who, contrary to usual sl practice, has an av that is quite overweight; this reflects her appearance in rl; she’s very happy in her skin, and wants to reflect that in her av-choice. I think that’s pretty cool. But it’s still exceptional. </digression:>)

But that kinda veracity isn’t me. In rl, I’m average height, pretty average build. I’m pretty fit, but I’m not a gym junkie, and I don’t look like it. But my av sorta does. And he’s tall. Really tall: usually over seven feet, although I sometimes diminish his height a bit when I’m dancing with one of my friends who is very short. Ridiculous, isn’t it? Oh, and I’m also fair-skinned, with kinda brownishreddishblondish hair, pretty ordinary. My av, though, has very striking silverwhite hair. And he’s black. And spotted. And has fur. And has a long swishy tail. Most of the time. ‘Cuz I’m a cat in sl. Most of the time. I gotz feline grace in sl, a quality that’s pretty much escaped me in rl.

So, what does this have to do with the subject of bringing sl out into your rl? Well, when you’re in sl, you’re always among beautiful people, you see. I found myself being changed by this. After I’d been in sl for a few weeks, I noticed that I was paying more attention to what I was eating, and I started to lose weight. I didn’t go on a diet, or develop a lightning eating disorder or anything like that. In sl, I’m always in the company of lean, fit peeps. My theory is that I became subconsciously aware of my weight because of being in the sl environment. I lost about 15 pounds, and it happened without any real effort, I think because I shifted my perception of myself away from my rl self to the one I am in sl. I let my unreal reality intrude on my real reality, and it literally changed my shape, without any unpleasant exertion on my part. Pretty cool, no?

Another, more subtle sl effect I’ve experienced is that I’ve become more socially aware and less inhibited with strangers. In sl, it’s pretty easy to strike up a conversation with someone you think is interesting. For me this is especially true if there’s something cool goin’ on in the other’s profile, like something very funny or something moving. But sometimes it’s cool just to say “Hi” without any of those kindsa inducements, and see what happens. It’s a bit of a crapshoot. Most of the time I have interactions that are just fine, and many times they’re awesome, and sometimes they suck. But in sl it’s so painless to just move on if there’s nothing there. Nothing bad happens. Nothing at all.

This experience has made me, again in a short time, much more open to people I don’t already know. It’s made me less obviously self-protective. Again, without any conscious effort. I don’t think, “Hmmm. That person over there looks fascinating. I’d like to walk over and start a conversation, but that’s kinda scary. Who knows what’ll happen. But wait: it’s always okay in sl. Okay. I’m gonna do it.” Not at all. Again, the shift has been without conscious effort. It just seems more natural than it ever did before, to be more open than I ever was before. Again, pretty cool.

Dancing. What about that? You know, I have exactly the same kind of ability to dance in sl that everyone else does. That means that in sl, I’m a freak. So, has my ability to dance in sl carried over into rl? Erm, no.

How about the not-so-cool stuff? There is that, too. And it can be pretty dark. Sometimes sl is a mirror that reveals to me things about myself that I wish were not true. Am I gonna make personal disclosures about what I’ve learned from blinking in front of the sl mirror?

Ehh. Not right now. Mebbe some other time.

~ by argyleboi on October 11, 2007.