Tom Boellstorff’s introductory chapter in Coming of Age in Second Life shed some light on the future of interactions in SL. I identified most with the first page of the chapter where he describes initial reactions to arriving in this new world. Indeed, I felt rather stranded and overwhelmed, despite tutorials and other guides. Interestingly, Boellstorff argues that virtual lives possess the same humane qualities that we exhibit in “actual life.” Thousands of SL users live their lives and interact with other users around them in almost the same way that they do in First Life (FL). In SL, users make decisions that have the same ramifications in FL. For example, he cites getting married or starting up a business. I agree with the author when he says that at this point of analysis, the boundaries between FL and SL become quite blurred. I particularly liked when Boellstorff described living in SL through the same “prism” of learning about and participating in culture. At this point, I started to adjust my perceptions about SL to view it as an extension of how we participate our FL, or “actual life.” He goes so far as to say that even using the term “world” is dangerous when applied to SL, because of its naturalistic undertones, that essentially removes the potential for human agency in its development.
The author describes the potential difficulties in getting a “big picture” understanding of the complexities found in SL communities. I thought about that issue when applied to libraries in SL – is it possible to have specialized libraries that users can visit, that are uniquely useful to them in their SL communities? Perhaps this can be discussed in our meetings to develop an understanding how we can make libraries fit most effectively for SL users.
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