Comments on: Breaking a habit: No more RL for me

By: Tateru Nino

Tateru Nino — Tue, 21 Apr 2009 04:33:00 +0000

That’s *great* news! Congratulations!

By: Fogwoman Gray

Fogwoman Gray — Tue, 21 Apr 2009 02:24:00 +0000

Hooray! And thank you. I have been struggling with this – especially since I met the man I am going to marry AFK in Second Life

By: Patchouli Woollahra

Patchouli Woollahra — Sun, 19 Apr 2009 16:18:00 +0000

I wish I had one iota of your bravery – still looking for a RL job instead of throwing it all to the fishpedoes.

By: adric

adric — Sun, 19 Apr 2009 04:09:00 +0000

It's a tough call.

My tier in RL is insane, but great in SL.

Noobs don't come up to me in RL asking for 30L cause they are new and..oh...wait...the homeless people. They are much more persistent than noobs who run off crying when I verbally abuse them as opposed to breaking a Mad Dog 20/20 bottle and slashing at me over the fifty cents I wouldn't hand over.

Well - SL it is. See ya there.

By: Rob

Rob — Sat, 18 Apr 2009 21:51:00 +0000

I think the single biggest failure Linden Labs made early on was calling Second Life “Second Life.” I completely agree. Real life IS online, at least a decent portion or it, and not just for the edgy early-adopters, for everyone these days. Being on the phone is a very real part of being engaged in real life. For many, being in SL is no different than being on the phone. I’ve been sitting on a draft about this for two weeks now since meeting some real friends at Disney World after meeting them in SL. Thanks for the post. Time for me to finish it.

By: Botgirl Questi

Botgirl Questi — Sat, 18 Apr 2009 19:44:00 +0000

Hi Tateru,

It seems to me that this kind of question is not trivial, because the words we use are the building blocks for the way we think and how we perceive "reality".

Since (from what you've shared) your daily activities, livelihood and relationships are focused on virtual activities, the implication that the domain is less-than-real demeans and trivializes the incredible work you're doing and the life your leading...I think it might be fair to call it a vocation?

Thanks for sharing your personal wrestling match with semantic incongruity! I could go on, and on, but I'll spare you here and probably post something on my blog in a day or two.

bg

By: Tateru Nino

Tateru Nino — Sat, 18 Apr 2009 16:12:00 +0000

You know, I’m sure that some day soon, some marketer who earns as much as we do combined is going to come along with some online platform or virtual environment and name it RL, just to cash in.

By: Uccello Poultry

Uccello Poultry — Sat, 18 Apr 2009 16:03:00 +0000

RL? Meatspace? How does one get there? Can someone shoot an LM to me? It is not in Search.

By: caliburnsusanto

caliburnsusanto — Sat, 18 Apr 2009 15:59:00 +0000

I'm all for it, being of the same mind that my virtual self **IS** me (when I'm online), not an unreal fakery that is inferior in any way.

As a man thinketh, etc. and calling the non-digital "real" implying the digital somehow doesn't exist, or matter, has always concerned me. It's almost an apology; not good.

So I will give this a try. Now, please provide your declensions. ;-D

By: Tateru Nino

Tateru Nino — Sat, 18 Apr 2009 14:29:00 +0000

I’ve been using RL and IRL for more than 25 years now. Once, it made some sense. Not anymore.

By: dandellion Kimban

dandellion Kimban — Sat, 18 Apr 2009 14:29:00 +0000

Good luck with that. I tried it too, trick was to find some other expression for that meaningless RL. “Being in meatspace” was too cryptic even for most of the SL people, “FL” sounds ridiculous, “off-line” had some success but sounds a bit…. weird. “AFK” misght be to good one. Will try.

By: radarm

radarm — Sat, 18 Apr 2009 14:23:00 +0000

What I find even dumber is when people talk about knowing someone in twitter vs RL. Uh. It’s twitter. A web page.

OTOH, I do know or have seen a lot of people in SL for whom the “RL” thing makes sense, because they’re essentially acting as though RL doesn’t exist. You see it a lot. It’s fine if they are playing cowboys in tombstone or star trek geeks somewhere, but it’s kind of creepy and scary when the majority of them are pretty avs playing dolly and pretending that’s the sum of who they are. Yick.

By: Jenn Hienrichs

Jenn Hienrichs — Sat, 18 Apr 2009 14:18:00 +0000

I’ve been grappling with this one for a while not too, and will join you in breaking the habit…you know it only takes 23 days to break a habit, be it a good one or a bad one.