Bodies in 2L

Participation Assignment

In 2L this week my group went to a strange playground, a skin mall, a gay oriented night club, and another outlet store containing what seemed to be stereotypes.  These place were body oriented.

I think to have a body means that you have almost complete control over a vessel where you are able to control most of what happens to and around it (this example does not hold true in all situations).  

An identity is what you are showing about yourself.  I think that ones identity can be fluid or fixed.  In real life identities can more easily become fixed.  You most likely could not reinvent yourself one day and completely change your identity.  In the virtual world it would be much easier to have a fluid identity that you can change at you will.  You could decide that you want to be a man and go do it.  You could see this especially in the mall that was selling skins.  This is because there is an element of anonymity in virtual spaces.  Bering is a virtual environment makes you much more aware of yourself.  When you avatar does something it may be because you want to do it.  And the more you work with you avatar the more you think about yourself.  

Your interface in real life is your body and the interface in 2L is your avatar.  I think that using an avatar in a virtual space is an extension of your will.  You can project you wants and needs onto your avatar and then make the avatar do the things that you want.  If you wanted sex in real life, but are too shy you can easily do it in 2L.  But you can also use your avatar for a joke and make it do anything that you want.  I think the level of extension stops here.  The avatar will never quite look like you and it can do man things that are physically impossible for you to do, like  fly.  I am not very attached to the events in second life. 

I think that thinking about bodies is 2L does not really have an affect on real life.  This is because I don't have much of an attachment to the game.  I also do not see much of a connection between 2L and real life.  If I did then the game would have more of an affect on me.   The one thing I think I would get out of this game is you think about what it means to have a body and how you use it.