Virtual Nightmare

Scared me!

Anyone else concerned about bad press coverage?

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/pages/live/articles/news/news.html?in_article_id=506162&in_page_id=1770

(Sorry, not sure how I make the link hyper)

Velda.

Espresso?

lol... Like I need the caffeine!

Please try to stay with the thread though, please!

Velda.

Concerned that he wrote it or concerned that he's right?

Was rather mild compared to some of the "DOOM" coverage SL has gotten in the past year. At least it didn't have pictures of child AV's standing next to greasy looking older male AV's.

/me shrugs

It's a pretty bland article overall. Jes some old guy goin "oh, I scared cuz people is havin' fun!"

Mari

Velda - as far as negative reviews of SL goes - this one is pretty tame, plus, any kind of press, negative or positive, results in increased signups for SL.

The reviewer states that "Already it is estimated that the average Briton spends 5.3 hours a month on one of the sites - far more than in most European countries" - crikey, some people spend that much time a day !!

So...this bland review will only be free advertising for SL........

Hi Sindy, both I guess?!? Concerned that SL is reported in press as a VIRTUAL NIGHTMARE with links to real child pornography!

Velda.

he forgot to mention about those who SL becomes a way to walk again, dance again, talk again, be part of society again

Generally speaking, 'good' press doesn't sell papers or encourage readers to revisit your website - and Fleet Street/UK newspapers have the unenviable reputation in media circles of being the gutter press of the world. All media reporting should be taken with a large pinch of salt and a questioning mind.

It qualifies in my book as a 'fluff' piece - no serious, indepth reportage; no meaningful message; rather, a mishmash of selective and superficial observations. This type of article is very useful as a 'filler' - it typically takes up a lot of space without saying much - and can be given undue prominence when the writer is a household name (Humphrys is a BBC Radio 4 presenter).

So to sum up the article he says children have imagination but they're supposed to get over it when they grow up? Having imagination is a childish waste of time? There have been narrow minded pragmatists like this fellow since the dawn of time. If we paid attention to them, we'd still be making stone tools, eating grub worms, and living in lean-tos.

But he isn't being overly mean spirited in the article. I feel sorry for him that he is one of the masses who are puzzled and concerned when confronted with imagination and change.

I agree. This guy deserves only my pity. He'll never grow into something more beautiful, because his imagination has shriveled up and.. if it's still alive, it's sitting in a corner of his mind all by itself, trying to remain happy. I really feel sorry for him.

Without my imagination, I'd have given up and committed suicide years ago, because to stop growing pretty much means death in my book.

Poorly written, too.

However, there is no doubt that SL has its share of some very creepy people who probably should be in therapy of a more professional sort. We've all had our moments with them, I'm sure. So why wouldn't an "outsider" paint us all with the same brush?

Earlier, I was hopping around looking for music venues when I ended up in a club which is basically a strip joint and certainly advertises the fact with a great big sign.
In the entrance stood a young boy, about 10, dressed in winter clothes. He wanted to see strippers. I told him to scamper along, there was probably a carnival in town somewhere. But then one of the strippers came up and said something like "you got the money, and I'll strip"

So, very creepy. Perhaps I'm naive, but even as pure PR, what would make someone dress up like Dennis the Menace and hang out in mostly-empty strip clubs? And what was that woman thinking in actually offering her services?

While I can understand people's needs to play out their fantasies, it would be incidences like that which get people, like the writer in the OP, worried about what goes on online.

I think it's sad that this dude is overly worried about virtual worlds. Weren't people afraid of the radio, the TV, and the telephone when they first arrived? He's just a worry-wart and has said FAR fewer negative things than others have. Like others have said here, he's blatantly ignoring the positive sides of virtual worlds in favor of popular press. I wouldn't worry. It's fluff writing.

Is the Daily Mail owned by Rupert Murdock by any chance? This article appears to have been written by someone who knew exactly what he was going to say before he made any pretense of gathering facts.
He doesn't seem to realize that university classes are held in SL, money is raised for rl charities, real life projects are discussed and advanced and tens of thousands of us get to express creativity in new ways and interact with people we'd other wise never know.
He didn't even do a good enough job of reporting to find out how much sleazy stuff goes on but he still comes across as someone who thinks he's superior to SL residents.
Which is pretty funny considering he's a guy who's work is published next to a long column of celebrity scandal stories.

Sound like someone that is worried that in our "modern" societies peoples find more satisfaction in a world that doesn't exist than in the world they are living in.

while(alive)
{
work();
pay();
eat();
sleep();
}

For some peoples this sort of life is not what they want for themselves.

In our society, 80% of the population dream to have the life of the 20% remaining.

I read it yesterday. If I have any concerns it is centred on the misrepresentation of SL in what is a newspaper with a very high circulation in the UK - I'm not sure, but I think the Daily Mail is one of the two newspapers with the largest readership in the UK.

Having said that, it did read rather like John Humphries (beter known as a TV newsreader and presenter) was struggling to find something to write about. The Daily Mail is a newspaper that has built a reputation for well writtten journalism and every Saturday they have a "Saturday Essay", which purports to deal with a topical issue in a serious manner - and quite often they are well written. This one, however, is most disappointing - very weak with poorly presented arguements IMO. I guess the Daily Mail was hoping for a more "sensational" sort of piece, but the evidence simply was not there.

The Daily Mail is one of the many tabloids in the UK with high readership - but also everyone in the UK knows to take everything written in a tabloid with a 'pinch of salt' as very few articles are 100% true/correct/honest. ...and personally I never buy them, not even to use as Fish 'n' Chip paper!

I am amazed that anyone could write such a slanted article, focusing on the negative aspects of the online community.

The equivalent online article would be taking a position where the off line world is a dangerous terrible place, because theft is more common, and death is a condition which will eventually occur to all participants.

Oh wait...

Recipe:

1. Take a bunch of googled news items about the topic
2. Log into several places for a couple of hours, barely scratching the surface
3. Lard with a good amount of personal opinions, based on preset assumptions
4. Mix and match, and throw in the occasional quote, and pepper with some 'bold statements' found in the google mix.

And presto, your instant, 'article on virtual worlds'.
They did it in 2005, they did it in 2006, they did it in 2007...

The meal is starting to become a little stale by now...

No, it's not a Murdoch paper, but it definitely leans to the right

People are always freaked out by change.... radio, television....the phone! Even computers made people nervous. But the world we live in is about nothing, if not change. There's freaks walking the streets in far greater numbers than you're gonna find in SL. I couldn't resist writing a little response to the article tho *snicker*

I agree. I saw it was the Daily Mail and was expecting ... well, more really.
I don't find this very well research and it is very slanted towards the negative aspects.

I wouldn't worry too much Velda. There are bound to be negative aspects to anything, this article has highlighted them, but it stayed firmly away from and of the good things. In addition to what Rhaorth said, SL is a way to be creative and imaginative.
I can't draw for toffee, but in second life i may be able to design and create an outfit which many people will love and live my dream of creating clothes. Or not. It is completely up to me.