Have you found any evidence of this?

<http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/7138103.stm>

I still can not find a parking spot when I go christmas shopping or have to spend all my lunch hour queuing at the bank!

I think it's still a bit early for some of this story's ideas to be fully expressed in noticeably reduced activity in real world locations.

I saw something about britain being more techy than most countries during my lunch break.

I think I like this article. They are not having a go at virtual worlds like second life. Its more of a wondering thing.

Anyway, I think Virtual worlds will become a huge huge thing. I don't see it just yet though lol. I still find it hard to do my christmas shopping aswell.

To me second life is very important. It's not a life and death matter, but I interact with people other than those I speak to everyday. I can strike up convos pretty easily and meet people easily which is something I cannot do in RL. Plus there is the whole cultural thing.
Sure it is going to impact the world. It is like the internet. That made a HUGE difference when it first happened. But I don't think this is a bad thing. Sure there are going to be people who use it for bad things or people who take it too far, but there are peopl elike that everywhere. I don't see the huge problem with Virtual worlds becoming more popular.

Second life for me is a refuge and an escape. It is more than just a virtual chat room or a game. It is a whole new world which I am glad to be a part of.

I don't think it'll happen, is the basic answer.

The reason why? Some people are victimised or treated unfairly in Second Life, too - and on every other virtual world. There are reasons why there is so much drama on SL!

At first it seems great that a girl who is upset about her body can look beautiful on SL. Then you realise that because everyone can do it, on SL that same beautiful appearance is just average and anything else is often considered ugly - and that ugliness is 100% your own personal fault because, after all, you chose your appearance, didn't you?

I've met the same attitude over and over again - any suggestion that you are not "living your dream" on SL is met instantly with scorn and derision because it seems that many people can't accept the fact that SL is a society, and societies do have limits.

I got a 404 - page not found error. I don't know what you're talking about ...

.. but Claire? We're glad you are part of SL too xx

aww thanx bilbo It's nice to finally meet a hobbit lol.

discounting xmas shopping ('tis the season), i think it has already happened. if you are sitting at your computer playing on the internet for 6 hours a day, every day, then you are NOT out in the real world interacting.

ugliness is a judgement/a subjective observation

i am not ugly unless you think i am
not you personally
i mean in general

in rl too
i cannot be ugly unless someone thinks i am
whether that someone is me or someone else

edited because i forgot to add that everyone i know has a slightly different reason for being in sl
i have yet to meet anyone that i think is truly trying to disappear
i read a post in here that described sl as similar to going out with friends
that's kind of what it is like for me
not a replacement for rl but an enrichment of rl
if that makes sense

The interpretation of interacting with real people is subjective as well. Some of the people I've met in SL are far more real than the people I know in meat space, just in terms of priorities, social abilities, motivation, agendas, etc. Seems to me that more and more the people I know in real life are too busy, drones for the machine, or very stressed out and frankly, in need of some social skills and interaction with "real" virtual people.

QFT!

Escapism = society sees as unacceptable
Refugee = society sees as acceptable?

That’s what I got out of the article and I just don’t agree.
If I appear to others as having a good RL but yet I spend 30 to 40 hours a week playing on the computer or spending time in a virtual world then that’s a bad thing? On the other hand if in RL I am pitied by others and spend that same amount of time on the pc then its okay, because people would just rather not see my ugly fat ass?
No buying it!
I think a more practical distinction would be that most enter virtual worlds for entertainment and relaxation while others are escaping (refugee) to virtual worlds because they see that environment as an improvement over their RL for what ever reason. You can classify an unhappy person spending time in a virtual world as both a refugee and an escapist. Either way their RL issues don’t go away just because they hide in cyber space. There is a problem that needs to be addressed and not ignored. Out of site out of mind is NOT a more acceptable solution!
Plus there is another group to consider and that’s the virtual world student or employee who’s required to spend time in world.
These IU professors…pfft!

I think that the difference between the "productive" and "unproductive" use of virtual worlds is partly to do with hiding from RL issues, but more importantly it's to do with the fact that often the RL resolution of issues is painful. Also, I think it can be a factor in how a person views the virtual world themselves.

Suppose that a girl is born with relatively plain looks; she feels upset and disappointed and longs for the glamour she sees elsewhere; but she continues with her real life, goes to study at college, and becomes a great scientist - while playing a model on Second Life in the evenings. That probably isn't anything anyone would complain about.

Where it's a problem is if she continues to have issues IRL related to her disappointment, whether it's being depressed, or reclusive, or unconfident, or having a chip on her shoulder, or anything similar - because the truth is, the only way she is going to sort out those issues is to admit that realistically she will never be a model IRL, but that hurts her, and SL is allowing her to postpone it. It isn't a case of "we're just putting her out of sight, out of mind, because we won't deal with her issues". It's a case of "her issues can't be dealt with by anything except her settling to do without, and society needs her to do that because it needs her productivity in other areas, in this case science".

Or, if she sees SL in a different way, it could hurt her in other ways. If she becomes a successful SL model she could feel doubly depressed if she believes that proves she could have made it IRL if she'd been born differently. If she fails as an SL model she could also feel doubly depressed if she believes that proves that the failure is with her own choices rather than her looks. The idea that SL could do someone psychological harm is the kind of thing that nobody really wants to discuss in any more than nervous hushed whispers, but it is there.

I thought the article was too simple. Far and above what people do in virtual worlds today,
VR like SL is just a way to bootstrap Augmented Reality. So that things like bringing up profiles of people you meet on the street won't seem so strange to us but it will to people not familiar with such things.

I'd like to see a lot more acknowlegement of this not just from journals and residents but from LL too.

Let's break out of the box.

Virtual worlds have probably reduced the time people spending watching TV, reading novels, playing cards, surfing the net or sitting doing nothing and feeling bored.

No evidence is necessary; its the internets! You can say whatever you want. Half the people will believe its true, and half wont.

Works for bloggers, forums posters, and genuine "news reporters"

Agreed.
My issue was with the article and an Associate Professor who is trying to create some classification that separates good from bad based on whether someone is in virtual world because they are unhappy when they should be happy (a family man ) as opposed to an heavy-set girl who has a right to be unhappy. Maybe its his examples that rubbed me the wrong way. I’m a family man with a wife and two kids. If I get depressed and come into SL for a break or to take my mind off something then my depression should be as valid as anyone else’s. DAMMIT!!!

The article is making future predictions, and is careful to say things like "may" and "possibly," so even the author doesn't claim there is any evidence.

I for one would be thrilled to find Interstate 5 less clogged for my RL commute, and then when I get home and log in, all those people who would have been jamming the highway are in-world renting my apartments and shopping in people's stores instead.

I don't even have to read the article to say it's completely wrong. Yes, the Internets is a great thing.

/me looks out the window......

I get up in the morning, come to work, do a productive day......go home have dinner etc then the time that i USED to sit a vegitate in front of the zombie box, I now log into SL and interact with people from around the world. Becasue i cant physically touch them does it mean i am escaping society or rather increasing the society that i am part of.

IRL .... I know my neighbours at least 5 houses deep either side... I dont drink alchohol and have a very high pressure job with varying hours, Im a school governor so I am active within the community. I dont fit into any particular social group that could be classed as "out of the norm".

Im not escaping anything ..... I just like to go to a place where im not hit with social expectations and i can be the flirty lazy bugger that i so desperatly want to be IRL *lol*