Second Life -- Disruptive Change

In Second Life avatars develop social relationships with one another, communicating, interacting, learning, gaming, buying, and selling virtual properties using virtual money and creating a virtual existence created and controlled by the individual. The avatar itself is an online manifestation of the real world person who has chosen to be whomever he chooses, whether male or female, tall or short, attractive or not, passive or aggressive. The reflection of the individual is usually how he perceives himself and may have nothing to do with reality. Second Life just gives the individual a stage on which he can act out his fantasies wthout a great deal of restrictions. That behaviour in itself may portend the existence of a technologically disruptive influence.

The creator of Second Life, Rosedale (2008), admits that because of perceived reflections of their other selves while in the virtual world, individuals may prefer being away from reality and immerse themselves in the virtual world which may become an unavoidable inevitability. Garvey (2010) says that dissociative behaviour may occur where individuals have "out of body" experiences and actually feel that they are someone else (the avatar) as they interact in the virtual world.

Familiar "play stations" such as Nintendo, Xbox, Wii, Game Boy, and Play Station have virtual worlds with graphics that far surpass that of Second Life at the moment, but it is conceivable that Second Life will displace these as active social networking experiences because users will not only be able to participate in these virtual worlds, but will also be able to mainipulate them as well, creating their own environments. As the Edutechtalks Blog states, "it could displace all of these virtual reality platforms, educational, training classrooms, office meeting, work collaboration areas, a streaming server, and even Skype...with comparable, in come cases, superior audio and visual 3D experiences."

The technology that may displace Second Life will make it possible to work in conjunction with emerging holistic technologies to immerse oneself on a physical level in a virtual world where everything mirrors reality. Participants will have sensory experiences in the virtual world which may cause addictions equivalent to chemical dependencies and a propensity to just live in that other world rather than deal with their own real world. The timeframe for displacement of Second Life could be anywhere from 15 to 20 years in the future.

A social benefit of Second Life is that individuals do get to socialize with strangers with whom they would not ordinarily interact. In some cases that will probably develop social skills that could be translated into real life experiences, but will they? I do see this virtual world socialization more as a negative than a positive in the development of social skills. Why bother socializing in real life when one can be whomever one wishes and boldly say and/or do whatever one wants in a virtual world.

In the case of my industries of education and business, there are a number of professional contacts that coudl be fostered to further ones career and those contacts could be subsequently developed in the real world. But I wonder if that will happen in a world where anonymity seems to reign supreme and one can falsify or exaggerate ones skills and abilities to satisfy the needs of the moment.


Garvey, G. P. (2010). Dissociation and Second Life: Pathology or transcendence? Technoetic Arts: A journal of Speculative Research, 8(1), 101-107. doi: 10.1386/tear8.1.101/1

Jones, C. (2009). The economies of virtual worlds: Lessons for the real world. Policy, 25(2), 27-31. asi: 43154219

Rosedale, P. (2008). Second Life. [Video]. Retrieved from http://www.ted.com/index.php/talks/the_inspiration_of_second_life.html

Sanchez, J. (2009). Facing realities. Library Technology Reports, 45(2), 5-8. asi: 37251465

Second Life. (2010). Edutechtalks Blog. Retrieved from http://edutechtalks.wordpress.com/2010/07/29/second-life/

Thornberg, D. (n.d.). Disruptive technologies. [Vodcast]. Laureate Education, Inc: Walden University

Hear Ye! Hear Ye!

Thornberg (n.d.) describes "rhymes of history" as a reawakening of the impact of an older technology in a new form. During the 17th century the "town crier" would travel through different villages shouting out the latest news dispensed by the king or ruling gentry to large crowds since most people of the time could neither read nor write. I imagine it may have been quite hard on his vocal chords to project his voice and, until protected by law, on his person as well, from whence came the term "don't shoot the messenger," since news brought was often unpleasant to hear.



Previously, in sixth century Greece, a funnel-type device, incorporated into the actors' theatrical mask, was utilized to project their voices to audiences. That eventually developed into the megaphone (also known as a bullhorn, speaking trumpet, and loud hailers) which, being a practical instrument of voice amplification, is still used today in varying forms.



Using the lessons of ancient voice amplification, E.E. Wente of Bell Labs (Budham, n.d.) developed a condenser microphone in the 1910s which transformed funneled sound waves into electrical impulses. The technology inherent in that microphone forged the way for sound in film....but then that leads us to another "rhyme of history."





Budham, L. (2010). Microphones: History and development. Retrieved from http://www.lloydmicrophoneclassics.com/mic_history.html

Evans, K. (n.d.). Facts on megaphones. EHow.com. Retrieved from http://www.ehow.com/about?5063561_megaphones.html

Kelly, K. (2007). The next 5,000 days of the web. TED: Ideas worth spreading. [Vodcast]. Retrieved from http://www.ted.com/index.php/talks/kevin_kelly_on_the_next_5_000_days_of_the_web.html

Thornberg, D. (n.d.). Rhymes of history. [Vodcast]. Laureate Education, Inc.: Walden University.