Discussing her approach to her Atlantic Monthly feature on Second Life, Leslie Jamison wrote:
I also wanted to be upfront about my own visceral reactions to Second Life over the several months I spent there, confessing subjectivity rather than pretending to be a neutral observer—in that particular sense, perhaps, I was representing an experience of SL more akin to the 200,000 people who show up each month and leave, rather than those who stay.
Inspiring this reply from reader Irihapeti:
This is a pretty important point. As a long time player I do find it odd sometimes when the long time are a bit dismissive of the stories of the leavers. Like somehow in leaving, the leavers have some personal failings or something. As Leslie also mentions the article is also highly subjective from a particular leaver's POV. Altogether I thought it was a good article. For sure there is quite a bit in the article that I don't see as relevant to my own understanding/experience of SL. But that's the point really. It's not my story that's being told here.
Subjectiveness is a good thing in storytelling. Context also.
Seconded by me. Not only is it unfair and unfeasible to expect that a journalist fully learn and understand how to use Second Life before writing about it, that expectation can easily lead to an inaccurate depiction of the actual SL experience:
Roughly 10-30 million people have created one or more Second Life accounts over the years. Of that number, I'd estimate 2-3 million people have used SL for an extended period of time. But of that number, only 600,000 currently use Second Life on a regular basis -- which is something like 2-6 percent of past and present users. The unspoken stories of the 94 to 98% who left also deserve to be told, and should be respected by the steadfast community -- not to mention Linden Lab.
I have approximately 7 years login in SL daily, but now I do it from my 2nd account. I had an unpleasant experience with a malicious person who deleted my account. The important thing is to understand that SL is like a barrel where we submerge and another barrel are the people who live in SL, this barrel must be drunk very carefully, because you can get to the bottom, it has an unpleasant taste. SL is a beautiful place, the platform is not really to blame for what users do in it, you have to live in it responsibly, with caution, to violate community norms that hurt the entire community because the only thing that The violations to the rules brings, they are more controls and restrictions. We users who love this place must be the first observers that things go well. If we do not do that, the day could come (I hope that NEVER happens) that we lose everything. I for my part after losing everything I have committed in this second account that I have made to be the first to denounce those who violate the rules, a person who attempts against the community and his act is unpunished will surely do so in the future and very probably will make things worse and worse. SL deserves honest people, responsible, worthy of being there. I am not talking about "morality" in SL, it is a place to be and act with freedom, but freedom requires responsibility.
Posted by: fakename | Wednesday, November 29, 2017 at 08:30 AM
Perhaps. But if this is all we expect of journalists covering Second Life, all we'll get are retreads of the same old ground. Second Life is either about sex, or about people either escaping their real life, or expanding their life in ways they can't in real life. As both a journalist, and someone who admits to having been in Second Life for several months, I'd've expected more from her.
Posted by: Bookworm Hienrichs | Sunday, December 03, 2017 at 08:08 AM