Talar Kazanji- Real, but not so Real

My avatar is a mermaid in Vintage clothing. Her name is Nayiri. Her tail is made of a bunch of pearls, and changes colors according to her mood. She has hair like Marilyn Monroe, but in red, wears black-framed glasses, has long eyelashes, rosy cheeks, and wears red lipstick. She has green eyes and wears a pearl headband. She is an Algebra, Biology, and Chemistry nerd. She only eats pasta and pizza and never gains weight. She lives in the Caspian Sea, in a beautiful underwater penthouse made of pearls. She specializes in fashion designing, kung fu, dancing, composing music, and presenting in Caspian’s number one underwater channel called, Casmania. She also has her own line of Vintage clothes, and face products. She plays the violin and drums. Her best friends are Snow white, Esmeralda, and Jasmine. Her means of transportation is a pig covered with pearls. She has two abilities. The first one is her ability to snap her fingers and change into any clothes she wants. The second ability is her power to change into a Galah parrot, a parrot with 3 colors, pink, grey, and white. This is how she gets to live in the sea, and the sky. She travels all around the world, and sits on the highest mountains in the world, watching people while eating cotton candy.

As good as my avatar sounds to me and as much as I would like to live this fantasy world, I can’t seem to find Second Life important to me as it is to everyone else. It is a good way of escaping the real world and getting engaged in an easier life for a couple of hours, but at the end of the day, it is all just an imagination, an illusion. Second Life is a world given to people to create their own life in a better way and maybe improving it somehow, but to me, it is just another virtual game, which is entertaining and fun. I can shape my life the way I want it to be, without the help of a game. I could have my red Monroe hair and learn how to play various instruments. In case of “never gaining weight” or “turning into a parrot”, these are nothing but imaginations that can never become true. I believe it is always better to start and improve your life in reality, and make true money in tangible life, than become a successful businessman in Second Life and earn money through that method. So, what is the point of believing in Second Life for such unrealistic things that many people want?

One of the videos we watched in class shows how interaction is in Second Life. It is very robotic and 100% computerized. Not only are we fake creatures in Second Life, but also have limited functions. In real life, we are absolutely free to do what so ever. Our body is functioned to do any movement or any facial expression. In Second Life, we are all somewhat the same, as if we are clones of some sort. It is limited, and it has boundaries. In reality, we are God’s creations and are given the best lifelike gifts, our 5 senses, and I don’t think Virtual life can compete with that at any point.