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Second Life: Is it a virtual step too far?
HAVE you ever wished that you could just run away? Set up another life where you are brighter, braver, better looking and more successful?
A world where what you say actually counts for something and dreams really do come true? A place where harsh realities don't get a look in, bosses can't drive you nuts and where the mother-in-law doesn't exist?
Of course you have. We all have. And that's usually as far as it goes. But things are changing.
The internet is revolutionising lives in ways that people never thought possible. It is creating whole new worlds – and a whole new set of problems.
The Second Life virtual world gives people the chance to play out their fantasies by creating an alter ego – an avatar – and setting up a whole new life where you can be what you want, socialise, set up businesses and buy land using its virtual currency.
Members decide what their avatar will look like – it's a bit like those characters you design on PCs to best represent the way you look.
Of course, human nature being what it is, there may be a bit of spin involved. Let's face it, if you're going to create a new existence, you may as well improve your image too. I mean, who's to know?
But sometimes fact and fiction collide.
Once upon a time there was a decidedly chubby bloke called David Taylor who created a super-macho goatee-bearded avatar called Dave Barmy. He had a helicopter gunship and a winter chalet. Very glamorous.
Dave met a foxy club DJ called Laura Skye. Gorgeous, willowy and prone to wearing tight-fitting cowboy outfits, she didn't quite look like her creator Amy Taylor. They eventually became virtual-world partners – and David and Amy met in real life.
As in all the best romances, David and Amy fell for each other and all was going well until she found him at his computer one day watching Dave Barmy having sex with a prostitute.
The virtual relationship fell apart but David and Amy stayed together and, eventually, Laura took Dave back too. There was a Second Life marriage, quickly followed by real-life nuptials.
But all was not well and, when David's avatar was spotted chatting intimately with another woman, enough was enough. Amy filed for divorce claiming that if she could not trust her virtual husband, she certainly couldn't trust the real one.
He, of course, couldn't see the problem. He wasn't even having cyber sex, he said.
It might be an extreme example but it does highlight a problem. I know at least one bloke who is using the internet to cheat on his wife. Cyber sex has led to a real-life rendezvous with the online mistress. The wife knows and let's just say she's not best pleased. Hopefully, the mistress will see sense when she is confronted with the weighty and thoroughly unattractive reality.
They do say be careful what you wish for. Perhaps they are right.
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Saturday 11 February 2012
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