Stop and Smell the Pixels

Alicia Chenaux Plurked an article on Cracked that was focused on bizarre ways online gaming is affecting the real world, found HERE.  I was reading it and getting annoyed, as I always do every time an article about SL pops up, at how the authors do zero research and use incredibly old, and often false, information.  Any time someone comments and says "hey, it's not that way at all," they basically just get the "lolz u r a loser get a first life," response.  Basically super clever and original ad stuff, don't ya know. For some reason today it really bugged me.  I started thinking about it too much I guess.  Are we losers?  Is this whole thing really, really stupid?  Should I just quit?  I went and made a yummy dinner for my lovely family, found out about a sister's pregnancy, ate cake, sneaked a quick make out session with the hubby, played with my daughter and snuggled her to sleep, then came back to the computer and thought about it again.  I'm not a loser.  I have a first life.  And it's good.  And, you know what?  Second Life isn't dumb.  Just look at this:

Someone spent their time making this world where every detail can be changed and altered and viewed how we want.  It can be seedy and ugly, yeah, but those places are easily avoidable.  This place I just stumbled on while looking for a sweater.  With the right lighting most of the places I go in SL look just about this nice or better.  I talk to, or just listen to, hundreds of SL users a week on Plurk.  Just about all of them are so great.  Funny, kind, intelligent, creative, beautiful, successful...definitely not losers.  There is the occasional bad seed but compared to other virtual worlds of any sort I have visited the people here are the nicest ad the likeliest to stand up for someone, rather than kicking them when they are down.

I logged on to my SL BFF/store co-owner chatting to me, another long-time friend giving me a gift I was super excited about (Yay valentine's KittyCats!) and then seeing this gorgeous, peaceful scene.  There was no violence.  There were no prostitutes.  There was no bestiality.  I was dressed like a hamster because it makes my daughter laugh when I log on and show it to her.  I was surrounded by love and creativity and peace.  My SL is good.  My RL is good.  I am definitely not a loser and SL is certainly not dumb.
-Picture taken out in front of Tram
-Hamster avatar by Beetlebones