Escape from RL

This question was given to me by my professor. I'm not looking for answers, just a good healthy discussion.

Is Second Life a means of escape from real life for you?

An example: some people have mentioned that they are disabled in RL, but in SL they can run, walk, fly, drive, whatever they want, they can achieve. For them, SL is an escape from a RL that limits what they can do.

How about you?

For me, personally, it's just place to make things. I wouldn't say its escapism at all. This might be more due to the fact I have nothing to escape from.

it's a creative outlet. i spend all day being creative then i can get on sl and um....be creative.....

i think i need an escape from real life.

Yes - of sorts. The more perplexed I am about a RL situation or problem, the more time I seem to spend in SL until I get RL things sorted out. It [SL] re-focuses things for me so that I don't obsess over them. It's sort of a creative therapy for me.

I also enjoy the off topic portion of the forums because in RL, there is no one besides my husband, (in SL also) who I could carry on the types of conversations that we carry on about in the forums.

Last but not least, I get to have things in SL that I can't in RL, like having my dog Max back (he passed away a few years ago in RL at 18yrs old) but in SL, he hangs with me again. I got to re-create my former Canadian home in SL and I get to have acres and acres of flowers in SL.

For me, more than anything, SL represents a way for me to assist college students in fulfilling their clasroom assignments in the most efficient manner possible.

I used to search them out inworld, and offer help over a wide range of subject areas, from suggesting term paper topics, to correcting spelling and grammar in early drafts. On several occasions I even assisted them in getting out of assignment due dates or tests by posing as a bereaved family member, emailing/calling the professor to discuss "Grandmama", who just passed away.

It seems that the forums are so more suitable to furthering my mission, though; after all, here I can offer assistence in class assignments without even having to virtually meet the student face-to-face; I don't have to bother getting to know them or engage in meaningless smalltalk or social interaction, and I can offer assistance from many more locations than just my home computer.

So, I'd have to say that SL is not so much an escape from reality, as a means to an end; it enables me to engage in my most favorite unpaid vocation.

Well, as a (very) new player, I was attracted to Second Life by the idea of an entire alternate world to explore. (I also read Snow Crash recently. >.> Right now, I'm enjoying just walking/flying around, looking at the things that everyone has created. I enjoy the sense of being in a world where creativity is king and the mundane mingles with the fantastic.

Escapism is a little strong, I think, since I'm happy with my real life and I'm also aware that there are real people behind the avatars, but it's definitely a great place to blow a few hours, and maybe oversleep the next day and almost miss class, or something like that. ^^;

ROFLMAO!! Your biting satire is delectable...

As for my answer to your academic query, I would have to say SL isn't so much an escape as it is an environment more conducive to social interaction than my RW. If you would classify that as an escape, then I suppose the answer to your question would be "yes."

I always thought that that was college?

It's a creative outlet for me also. I love to learn new things and SL provides me with the opportunity to do so without leaving my chair OR my computer. Is it an escape? Hmm no.

While my poor brain is concentrating on learning new SL skills, my ignored sub-conscious can rise to the surface, take in some much needed air, and solve my RL problems without
interference of my busy brain. I don't need meditation.....I got SL !

I don't know if I can sound nuttier than I do, but I'll sure try next time a question like one this comes up.

A better question might be what exactly -is- RL?

For me it's just another part of my real life, sort of like an extra room in my house where I can fly When I want to escape it's usually into a book. That's where everything else disappears and is replaced by a different world.

The metaphor is exquisite.
College is my SL!!!
SL is my TL!! (third life)
Now I feel like a cat.

Great replies, yall. Fast, too.

Since I joined with the class I figured SL was just one of many ways of escaping RL. Others have other means of escape-- message boards, chat rooms, an art studio, meditation, drugs and video games are some of the first things that come to mind. But then that begs the question what is RL? Your job? Family? The friends you see face-to-face daily? If so, why do people feel like they have to escape? And why do some select individuals choose to "escape" more than not? I think it may be boredom with the workings of society.

I blow off steam and relax after work.

For a long time I would code to relax -- mostly in C -- pretty much exclusively on Linux.

I spent a lot of time on MUDs -- mainly, again, coding...

For me that is relaxing - I enjoy finding problems, coming up with new ideas, and implementing them.

SL replaced that for the most part -- significantly in that regard -- I spend a lot of time here coming up with new ideas, thinking then through - trying them out.

It's how I relax.

Hey now, I'm generally nice, and pretty gentle. I usually don't do biting satire, I just nibble at it delicately.

Everything I do is an attempt to escape from RL, SL included.

I use sl as I would irc, icq, aim. It's just another way to comunicate with other human beings. Plus i'm a fan of vr. It's also fun to develop interactive worlds.

I play SL to live a dream I wasn't able to accomplish in RL. After college, my plans were to move to the big city and be a career woman. Things didn't go as planned though. I ended up falling in love and getting married instead. So, now I'm a stay at home mom with my baby who is reaching his terrible two's much too soon and I wouldn't change it for anything. SL just gives me the dream to dream. I'm able to have the best of both worlds.

the problem of first life intrude into second life.
there is no bright line between the two.

e.g.:
/120/9b/33585/1.html
/120/db/33303/1.html
/120/05/33555/1.html
/120/cb/32931/1.html
/120/bd/31868/1.html

when one goes to the local bar/pub, is one escaping from one's life?
how is that different than talking to friends on the telephone?
how is that different from being online?

i have always thought it was a pernicious thing to call one's offline life "real life" and one's online life as "virtual reality" when real people are involved. it tends to allow people to minimize the very real people on the other side of the screen, to minimize their real feelings, and often their very real pain. it can have (and often does have) a very dehumanizing effect. and when we diminish the humanity of another person, then we diminish ourselves.

Well said, StoneSelf.

I've never thought about my online time as an escape from real life. I'm still real when I'm online, aren't I? The world outside my door is still there, whethere I'm online, watching TV, or reading a book. Its all real, and all a part of my life... I'm just selectively devoting my attention to different parts of it at different times... where is the escape?

I think the illusion many people hold that their online time is not "real", and therefore worthless, is a subject that would be far more interesting to explore.

BTW, Spat... I apprectiate your honesty up front about this being a subject assigned by your professor. I dislike the somewhat dishonest tactics of some of your classmates that start their threads as if they were just having a regular conversation or they were simply curious newcomers.

I'm afraid I've had just about enough of these questions from "Radiks". I'm not some kind of strange subject, here to be analysed and questioned and interviewed and watched and photographed for a scientific or anthropological study at whatever rubbish uni they're from. I'm a person, and I'm sick of this.

Sorry - that's just how it is!

Second Life has never been an escape of the offline world for me. In fact, I don't call it RL, but OL = Offline Life.

SL is an extension of me.

I will answer your question with more questions:
Is a phone an escape from reality?
Is a TV?
Is a book?
Is "escaping from reality" anything out of the ordinary or sinful?
Why must people freak out whenever something new is invented?
Why is yet another communications medium worthy of such special treatment that we must put up with entire classes of people learning about it?
Would you make an entire university course about phones and the people who use them?
Would you assume that people who prefer to communicate via telephone are somehow disabled IRL, or have any degree of difference from normal people?

Second Life isn't an escape to me, really; it's more like a hobby. I've very little visual arts talents in real life, but for some reason I 'get' the creativity in Second Life. Building's a fun outlet if I'm really bored, but that's about the only 'escape' I use Second Life for. It's just a nice cyberworld to visit now and then, and I've made some really cool friends there while I've visited.

Foruming, on the other hand, may be an escape from real life; when I want to escape my RL drama, I just go here and see what everyone else has to deal with.

<rant>
I don't know why some people are getting upset about students coming here and asking questions saying, "I am human, treat me as such!" I have yet to see any of the students (identified by the last name of Radiks) treat anyone inhumanely or indecently.

They are asking questions, learning about the community, finding out what 'virtual worlds' are and what they aren't, and then reporting that information in a term paper. Muchlike what someone who writes a blog or a journalist would do, except they are doing it for a grade and not money / fame / <insert personal reason here>.

SL, by it's very nature, is an experiment in online / virtual worlds, streaming technologies, and networking and technology, and we are all willing (and paying) participants. Noone is treating anyone as 'an inhuman subject' quit playing the victim.

I have seen some arguements that, "they have already made up their minds about SL long before they came here." Since when is being close minded a crime? These boards would be shut down if it were.

Yes, I understand that true research should maintain some objectivity, but in college, as an undergraduate, one of the ideas is that you are learning to gain that objectivity. You're learning how to do research correctly and maintain that objective distance. One should not fault the student for not having mastered that particular skill long before it is expected of them. If they were graduate students, I could understand the validity of that arguement.
</rant off>

escape remove oneself from a familiar environment, usually for pleasure or diversion; "We escaped to our summer house for a few days"; "The president of the company never manages to get away during the summer" (source: http://www.cogsci.princeton.edu/cgi-bin/webwn?stage=1&word=escape)

Yes, personally, I use SL as an escape. There are things in SL that I can do and be that I could not do and be in the real world.

I also use it to socialize with my friends, to meet people I would not otherwise be able to meet because of physical distance / boundaries.

I also use it because of the wonderful content that is created by many of the skilled residents found within second life.

I also use it because I love learning about the builds, textures, the programming interface, and many of the tools that LL provides to interact with the world. It is a creative outlet for that reason, you can build virtually anything from an economic empire to a realistic looking bumble bee. The versitility of second life never ceases to astonish me.

I think you would be hard pressed to single out any one reason for participating in this growing community. The answers you will receive will be highly individual. Secondly, I think it's highly unlikely that any one person can give you the "one" holy grail reason they participate in SL as many people participate in SL for a variety of personal reasons.

I hope I helped answer some questions, and good luck with your research!

Jessica

edited for clarity

Why see SL as an escape from reality when for many it supplements reality; it's an enhancement.

The wheelchair bound member who can fly and dance in SL is adding to her life, not escaping.

The escape premise contains an incorrect assumption that SL is merely a social environment. Look around at all the very gifted creative builders, scripters, animators and musicians adding content to SL every day. They are successfully blending their creativity with computer technology, a transition which is vital for maintaining creativity as we become more and more immersed into the world of technology.

Is there a difference when I spend my time painting with oils on canvas, than when I spend my time creating a texture in photoshop to use in SL? No the creative process flows. The medium is what is changed.

Secondlife is not an escape. It's creative expression.