[Web4lib] The end of MySpace, SecondLife, and Twitter

[K.G. Schneider]

> Why do you think that this can only be enabled via SL?  I think
> there's any myriad of technologies (including web conferences and
> mailing lists) that could achieve this.
> 
> The downside is that you'd potentially have to see how unshapely and
> uncomely the actual presenters and participants are.
> 
> -Ross.

I hope it is not considered too far from the purpose of this list to observe
that my personal hesitations about SL are how real people (who tend to be
unshapely and uncomely, with bulges and wrinkles all in the wrong places)
hide behind impossible standards of representation. It disturbs me that most
of the female characters have bodies that are bizarre caricatures of the
female form from a male point of view, like Barbie Dolls set in a microwave
and stretched out. I won't go into the larger metaphors, but when I think
about the values of technology to everyday lives, I also think about some of
the threats. Maybe I haven't explored it long enough (I do have an avatar
but I made her look like a rabbit, the best I could do), but SL makes me
uncomfortable. 

To tie this in to library services... ever since the 1970s, communities have
struggled with the disconnect between wanting property taxes shaved to
nothing and wanting public services. I woke up today to read that my local
county was planning to eliminate several library building plans, based on
the devastation to the tax base anticipated if the governor's "tax relief"
becomes law. I await with resignation the day when people realize that the
bucks they saved on their tax bill translates to closed doors, shuttered
services, and public works that will never come to be.  Apparently, people
are unable to practice escapism right up to the moment that they approach
the library door and ask, why isn't this place open? 

To what extent is SL a place we go to reinforce our distance from
uncomfortable analog realities?

K.G. Schneider
kgs at freerangelibrarian.com