Second Life Experience

Last week my friend Lauren and I got on Second Life. It was pretty much my second time and Lauren had been on a long time ago. We were in two different locations when we started. I was placed on a learning island and could not seem to get off. I changed my appearance and walked around a little trying to learn new things I wasn’t able to do in the past. Finally I learned how to get to another learning island through our teacher’s help. Lauren landed there as well. I found my teacher, chatted with him and then started exploring this better island than what I was on (apparently there are several learning islands and one is placed randomly on one of these when first entering Second Life).

Lauren and I eventually hooked up. We had so much fun learning how to move certain ways and how to express ourselves. We were sitting across from one another and even did a dance together on the count of three. I learned how to sit down, how to talk via the talk button so Lauren could actually hear me and I her, how to fly, and many other things as well.

We had so much fun. We both were supposed to meet my husband after class for drinks and we ended up being late. We stayed about fifteen minutes past our regular time that we get out because we had so much fun. Class usually gets out way earlier than that.

I learned many new things there and look forward to learning even more this week when we try it again. I know it is not a game, but it feels like it in that if I ever had to learn new things or take a class in Second Life, I would absolutely love it. It does take some time to feel comfortable walking and doing things, but it is just too much fun and can’t wait to do it again. I find that it could become somewhat addictive.

Online Gaming offers Social Networking positives

I was searching for new social networking tools when I came across this article titled “Online games meet social networking tools” from a USA Today online article written around 5 months ago. What I liked about it was that a 41-year old lady used the Internet to play a game called Kaneva (never heard of it before) and loves it for socializing. It sounds similar to Second Life (even though it’s not a game) in that she runs a virtual nightclub and hosts parties in the game. She says “it helps her interact with people, not provide escape from them as traditional games often do (Slagle).”

This struck me as a pleasant difference than what we usually hear about how gaming keeping us from socializing with people because it isn’t face to face. Because a lot of people play these types of games instead of watching television or using other media, the people who partake in this type of activity could be considered to be socializing more than they would otherwise.

I had never thought of socializing like this before. One could say they were socializing when playing online games like WOW or other similar games because they are chatting with each other and actually socializing, even though it might be about the game itself. These people are doing more socializing than I am when watching television in the evening, right?

There is always a lot of negative talk about how online gaming keeps people from actually socializing. For once they talk about how we would not be socializing regularly anyway, so evening online gaming is a good way to socialize. I don't know, I just feel they are absolutely right, at least for me. It doesn't make me not want to socialize at all. I am a social butterfly in real life. Online gaming is fairly new to me and I don't do much of it, but not because I don't want to; because I haven't had time since going to college. I am looking forward to doing more of this type of thing after I graduate.

I like this different take on gaming. It’s nice to hear something positive come out of it.

Here is the link if you want to check out the article:

Online games meet social networking tools

YouTube Proposal

I could see YouTube being used for promotional benefits for myself after I graduate. It would be a video of my resume, basically. I could videotape myself talking about my skills, my degree, my interests in both a career and hobbies, and my volunteer work I have done in the past.

I could then put it up on my website and share with potential employers as well as family and friends. With everyone having access to it, it may help me get a job quicker. This also would be another resource I would have for employers to get to know me better.

I haven’t seen any other promotional student-type YouTube videos. Even when I ran a search, I didn’t see any that were of students promoting themselves. It may be an untapped area that has potential.

I think it would be fairly simple to produce. I could set up a tripod and videotape the whole thing by myself, or have one of my family members or friends videotape it for me. I might play some light background music to jazz it up a bit. When I edit it in imovie, I could cut in scenes such as showing my diploma, have words come in stating what my degree is in, and show pictures of some of my work, my skills, and my hobbies. I would design the script to go along with my pictures and talk in the background explaining what the things they are seeing are.

I think this would be a wonderful asset to my website as well as something fun and creative for my potential employers to watch. It would show them just how innovative I could be. I am not sure if I could produce it before classes are over, but I think I might try to get it done shortly after graduation if not before.

YouTube

I love YouTube. It is entertaining to watch the funny videos that are out there. People do some crazy things. I remember one of the first ones I watched was a girl lip sinking some song (sorry, I can’t remember which one it was). It wasn’t the song so much as it was how she was singing it. It was hilarious. I was hooked after that.

I also like how it is being used more and more by politicians this year. This is the most fun I have ever had during a political campaign. I love seeing the jokes about Hillary and Obama, all the new music and support for Obama that has come out of YouTube, and just the new feel of how campaigning has become. People are doing things because they want to help. It is more real than having all the rich people and other politicians buy who they want to win. It seems to be more about what the people want this time. We can see this in all the new music videos out there that musicians were not paid to make or asked by any politician. They just did it to get the message across about who they want to win. Then they put it up on YouTube for everyone to view. I don’t know, it just seems to be less of “whoever has more money will win” and more of “look what I think about this politician” which, for me, makes it more about the public deciding.

I think businesses could use it more and this is an area that seems to be untapped so far. I know I would try to use it to my benefit if I were a business owner or consultant. I think I would try to make it funny so it would grab peoples attention and get spread around. The comical ones are what I enjoy and seek out the most. It’s kind of like the funny commercials during the Super Bowl; it’s half the reason some of us watch the game.

Social Network Profile Analysis

The purpose and focus of my profiles on the two sites and then the twittering I do occasionally are to let my friends, new acquaintances, and potential employers get to know me better. I have written all of these sites so that any and all of these people can read and hopefully enjoy learning more about me.

My audiences so far are other colleagues mostly. Just a few are starting to come in to My Space that I didn’t meet in college. All of my twitter friends are from college and in fact were the ones who turned me on to it. I enjoy it, but don’t get to it as often as they do. I think now that I am using it more, I may invite more people to join with me and seek out others outside of college.

The three services are different; especially twitter. My Space, from what I have gathered so far, allows much more creativity than the others. I love that you can change the background and add music that you like. This may be the reason many like this service. Facebook is good if you don’t want to mess with all of that creativity. Lots of my friends are on that one, so I may end up using that more than My Space. Twitter I try to get to at least once a day, but find it hard because of the demands of my life. I guess this is true with all of these social networking sites.

Personally, I prefer My Space over all the others. Twitter is easy and fun if one has the time. This is probably my second favorite. Facebook seems a little dull so far, but maybe I haven’t learned about it enough. Maybe there is more creativity to it than I realize. So far it is my least favorite.

I think users would choose My Space if they want to be more creative, Twitter if they just want to chat randomly, and Facebook if they just want a social networking tool that is easy to use. Of the three sites that I chose, I believe the main thing that makes people choose a particular site is if their friends are on that space.

All of these social networking sites are new to me and I am glad I am forced to try them out. I am having a good time learning the new technology and look forward to exploring each one further.