I've been an active visitor to Second Life for only a couple of weeks now but I've noticed a few disquieting points in regards to the avatars. In conversations I've had I've used the phrase "monsters from the id". It should be recognizable to fans of old science fictions films. All the avatars running around SL are the creation of someones imagination. How closely they resemble their creators is the question. I'm not speaking of physical resemblance but of their behaviour. I'm also concerned with the difficulties some people seem to have in keeping SL distinct from RL (Real Life). One of my first friends in SL was actually in a bad mood when I met her. She was experiencing jealousy regarding the avatar of her real life girl friend, a dancer in SL. She had also become afraid she was taking SL too seriously. Indeed, she probably was. It was in my conversation with her that I became aware of just how much playing with these avatars is like kids playing with their action figures. Only these action figures are hyper accentuated Barbie dolls for the females and GI Joe on steroids for males. Actually these represent only a portion of what avatars look like. The population really is a massive collection of monsters from the id.

In conversation with another SL friend, she reports meeting an avatar that started asking very discomforting questions and making assessments of her real world persona. My friend denied the accuracy of these assessments but was in fact quite disturbed by how close they came. Do characteristics of one's avatar provide enough clues to allow an accurate real world assessment of the user.

I've got a lot more thinking to do about this. I've ordered a copy of "Coming of Age in Second Life: An Anthropologist Explores the Virtually Human" by Tom Boellstorff. I caught part of a talk he gave on the NMC Campus in Second Life. I was struck by one of the comments made by a member of the audience in regards to a site they had been developing in SL and a location in the real world they had just moved to. When does the virtual world of start overlapping the real world of the user. What is the nature of this feedback mechanism. Could this possibly be dangerous for unstable people (thinking about recent events in Tucson, Arizona).

Food for thought.