Coming of Age: Chapter 9
In the last chapter of Boellstroff’s book, he goes on to give a conclusion about the book as well as what he wanted people to get out of the book after reading it. One main point he brings up is that humans are now able to create a new human sociality through the technology that we have today which would include second life. I think that this concept it something he talks about a lot, how one person can be someone else, meet new people, and be social outside of the real world.
This ties into another main point Boellstroff talks about which is that he thinks SL should be treated as a culture with many subcultures in it. The culture of SL can be seen based on the people they become friends with, how they create and showoff themselves through their alts, the groups they join, etc. In a way, they are created a “second life” because they could be essentially someone or something else they were not in the real world and get satisfaction out of that. Dubbing culture was also another important concept which touches on different cultures coming together where, at first, they did not quite match up but through SL they were able to come together. Overall, SL took on three forms; the blogs and websites outside of SL, the relationships between residents and other virtual worlds and video games, and the relationship between the virtual world and the real world.
Simulation was also important concept seen throughout the book is simulation. The main framework surrounding SL and other virtual programs such as The Sims based their games off of what they would describe their programs as a simulation of the real world. There are distinctions of the real world and virtual world. For instance, if one does something in SL it does not do anything to them as a person in their real life through techne but it may have consequences to themselves in SL. The same goes for the objects, clothes, etc that only exist in SL and not in the real world. Finally, the main distinction is that one can log off of SL if need be where in the real world you cannot. Therefore, it can be said that what one is doing on SL can be fictional because it is not being done in the actual real world. Since companies and businesses can now go on SL and create places for people to go it is now becoming more distinct where individuals land is compared to businesses which is creating a segmentation of SL. These ideas are blurring the actual and the virtual. Since thousand and thousands of people are logging on to SL it is created not just networks of people but places. Boellstroff says that one connects relationships through networks but lives relationships through places and this is exactly what I see, it is just like a community.
Overall, the conclusion of this book goes on to talk about Boellstroff wants people to get a sense of wonder about virtual worlds after reading this book. He talks about how virtual worlds can be used for different things such as griefing or inequality in a sense by which you can be whatever and who ever and no one knows you as something else that you may be in the real world. In the end, Boellstroff talks about how it is important to understand virtual worlds by being inside of them and not viewing from the outside. Also, the the world where things can be unreal are just as important as the real world. We can learn all of this and experience this through ethnography by how we view a virtual reality ourselves which will hopefully help out in our understanding of virtual worlds Boellstroff says.
After reading this book I definitely got a better understanding about what is in Second Life. It has taught me about what people go there, How you can create a new alt other than yourself, and how you can meet people and obtain relationships. What fascinated me about this book was that it was about to talk abut experiences that people have had, good or bad, that allowed me to understand that it was not just a place where people were bored and needed something to do but rather a place where people could escape from their real life and get acceptance here. For instance the chapters about griefing and have love relationships interested me because this is where I could see that people found happiness, which is something I never really got. Overall, the book did not really help me navigate and help me how to do things in SL it helped me see the bigger picture of virtual worlds and why some people use them.