In Defense of SL

Dishes are why God created houskeepers. Don't bother me, I'm in SL!

I find SL so relaxing.....

I have a huge house on the ocean

A small shop for the products of my indulgent mind

A weird variety of animals... Alsatian called 'Patrick' and a great white shark called 'Kevin'

I can make my own furniture and almost anything else that I happen to need.

I don't have to do dishes

Lots & lots of hair..shoes...etc

The reasons are endless....

I don't really get that much ribbing from others about the amount of time I spend here, maybe one or two comments such as 'why don't you go out and get yourself a real life'...blah blah. These type of comments mostly from people who think that spending a couple of hundred euro on booze, and getting rat-faced during a night on the town is a 'real life'.. Waiting for hours in the rain for a taxi is a much better way to spend your Friday night??? nah..... I'll take being in-world and trying to build a replica of the Taj Mahal any day....

My daughter nagged me for ages to come play in SL (she plays in World of Hogwarts and also develops land), and finally bought me a computer so I had a decent video card (my last excuse for not playing). I am very glad she did, because she doesn't live in the same city as I do, and I can talk to her more. Her brother has just recently joined heh.

What I really like about SL is the ability to create things. I am not at all "crafty" in RL so this is quite fun for me. I can "rezz and destroy" as I like on my land (you know, that PMS thing lol), landscape to my heart's content, play music as loud as I want on Shoutcast, and wear tons of clothes. Haven't met too many people here, but the ones I have met are quite nice! The bf didn't get it at first but has come to see that, for me, it's a lot like playing Barbies when I was a child (that is how I explained it to him). As for my tiny cat avatar, well that's kind of odd to explain to RL friends but they know how childlike I can be and all accept it as just another of my eccentricities.

I don't neglect my RL. I prefer RL, actually, but until I get my income where I want it, I can do things in SL I can't afford to do in RL right now (like go back to Dublin - incredible sim, by the way). But surely I don't fault people for spending a lot of time on SL - it's a cool place to play!!

Any time anyone razzes me about SL, this is the approach I take and most of them promptly shut up because they waste away a lot of their life just staring at the TV.


If you refuse to cook, there are no dishes and that removes that issue right there.

When I have friends raz me I talk them in to trying it. I help them set up an account, teach them the basics, buy them a nice skin, some clothes, an AO and bits if they ned 'em. Then I ditch them at a strip club

Now when friends want to raz me they do it online

Nobody in RL that I try to explain SL to get it.

They see it as a tremendous time sink and even seem a bit afraid of it. My parents guilted my wife out of playing a year and a half ago. They did not get it and did not want to. To them it was taking away from RL even though we only came in during down times or when the kids are in bed or gone to friend's houses etc. She has just recently come back and though I know she tends to enjoy for a bit, then leave and then come back I am just happy for the time she is here.

Anyway, no need to justify to others. Unless they try it, they will never understand. You get it. You love it. That is up to you alone. If it begins to make your RL suffer then scale back. Otherwise enjoy and know you are joined by thousands of SL addicts that get it too.

to paraphrase a special someones sig:

i can be, do, and create, whatever i want to be in here.

*****************************
where else can you have a spotless house, eat a ton of chocolate, and not gain an ounce, fly, become and or take part in one of your favorite fantasies with that special someone, and do laundry at the same time?

It is perceived as a game, even by many people involved with it, but I see it as the next world wide web. I think of us as pioneers of sorts. Or maybe guinea pigs is more accurate.

At any rate if you're worried over how much time SL is taking, I can reassure you that after a year the addiction has calmed down a lot for me. I still love the platform, but I've gone back to creating art in real life and also to reading for pleasure.

Just make sure you're getting some physical activity. Walk a half hour a day or whatever excercise you are able to do, and focus your eyes away from the screen periodically and you should be fine.

LMAO! i like the way you think!

SL has enhanced my RL. Yes, you read this right. Let me explain....

There are things that I have always been curious about for almost all of my life but have never explored. I'm really not sure why, because it is not immoral, unethical or illegal. Just never could get up the whatever it took to try it. Courage or energy? Not sure why not exactly. Oh well, I suppose I will just have to go ahead and explain what this unsatisfied curiosity was all about.....

Buddhism and meditating. That's right. Not cybering, not S&M, not Gor.... Buddhism and meditating. I found a discussion group here, several actually. Classes too. I attended silently in the beginning, then participated more. Learned how to meditate. Now I have found a RL group of people who meet regularly to meditate and discuss Buddhism. I still attend the SL discussion groups and classes when my schedule permits as well.

Also, I get the Barbie doll aspect of avatars too. My avie is my little dolly. I love to get new clothes. I even made a Ken Avie. I have made a few pieces of jewelry. I have made some shoes. I'm trying to learn how to use The Gimp to make clothes, but it has been a very slow process. In fact, I have shelved these interests for the last month or so. (The traitorous truth is that I was playing another game I like - Pharoah.) But I do plan on renewing these activites again.

And about the dishes? Welll my motto has always been that a clean house is the sign of a wasted life. And that applies to SL as well as RL. In other words folks, don't spend too much time cleaning out that inventory. There's a big SL world out there.

where were all these sage words of advice when my MIL (the white glove queen) was visiting? LOL

The way I figure it, people who park themselves on the couch while their brain waves flatline watching American Idol, Dancing with the Stars, and Survivor have no business rolling their eyes at people who spend their time in SL.

Just sayin....

Many hours on SL can be harmful to your health. Addiction to SL is real and really affect real life. At the end we deal with a new kind of mental health that some researchers question whether computer online addiction really is a mental illness that should be treated. In some parts of the world it has already been considered a mental illness that should be treated.

For more details take a look at
http://www.marketwatch.com/news/story/video-game-addiction-seems-mental/story.aspx?guid=%7B7522C57A-E514-429B-9C0D-FD82BDA3A7D3%7D


On the other hand, I ask myself, "Are digital content artists or web developers on the same boat?" In my case, I am sn SL builder and thats all my time I spend doing in SL, just building and creating.... would I classify that as mental illness?

What are your thoughts?

Hey I watch American Idol and Survivor!

My brain still works.

I think.

My stepdaughter once talked to me as though I'm an alcoholic in need of rehab, so worried was she that I'm addicted to SL. Then she took note of how much time she spends on MySpace (not to mention *her* addiction to American Idol).

I point out what a great creative and social outlet it is; I've even lost weight, inspired by the friends I met in SL.

And my husband does the dishes.

I tape American Idol so that I can watch it faster, without commercials, and get back to SL quicker.

I came to SL as a means of preserving myself, while being a fulltime caregiver for my mother. At 3am, when I could not sleep, my friends were here. They listened, they advised, they cared. Mom died, and my life with other circumstances, crashed....hard.

When my sister died less than a year after, they were there as much as RL people, and more so at 11pm when I ....needed.

SL, and the Lindens, no matter my hammering at them in other threads, gave me a means of support, and a virtual life to supplement the real one. Those cartoons I sat with, were there with me through the very worst moments of my life, and I will cherish them always.

They are my tribe as much as my RL friends, and my partner in SL could not have been closer to me on the eastern seaboard than she was from Europe for carrying me through moments I thought would surely break me.

How can SL be justified ? Real people, real interactions, and I thank the Lindens from my heart fo making them possible. It kept me whole.

A hearty Amen to that

ACK! I hate those shows!! Even worse..... Jerry Springer!!!

Altho I must admit I'm hooked on Desperate Housewives

SL relaxes me.
I have a crazy-busy life in real and SL at the end of the day is a good way to ease out of the demands of a hectic career. It is also there when I am on my mobile/cell phone in my house and at my desk or emailing etc. and I am multitasking. AND I get to talk to the person who is my SL partner who is a clever and witty man.
SL's a private vice that's nice.

I have read many good points and views in this thread. I too found myself struggling to explain it to friends. The name "Second Life" does NOT help the easy jokes people crack at it. In truth the name it self is unfortunate.

The best way I have come to describe it is as a "hobby" and entertainment. Just as I have read here, comparing it to others spending time watching recorded scripted laugh-tracked sitcoms helps to better equate the two. A hobby s something you enjoy, have knack for or something you wish to learn, and do so in your spare time.

In the digital media errea it is definitely more respectable to be educated and employed in the digital media field. To have a hobby you enjoy that incorporates the same talents as a widely accepted profession and seem to help people better understand the draw to it. ... not to mention the most important thing, the live (real time) human interaction factor.

That is... if you are interested in even trying to explain it. Most of the time it feels more like having to justify it.

I recently was diagnosed with prostate cancer (at age 39, the 5th case in my family in 5 years)... and while we are awaiting official confirmation (thanks to the lovely...ummm... I guess we will call it the butt-cam, for lack of a better term) SL has been a godsend to the wife and I. In SL I don't have to think about it if I dont want to... and when I want to talk about it, my SL friends are there. It's a world where I look and feel healthy, in spite of how I feel on the other end of the keyboard... I hate to think how we would have gotten through the last 3 weeks since first getting the bloodtest results if it weren't for SL.