One of the biggest problems facing Second Life is the sheer amount of people who participate. Typically, individuals join interactive social networks such as Second Life to meet others or to keep in touch with friends. Examples of this include Facebook, Myspace, or blogs. Due to the fact that Second Life doesn’t seem to be popular among the college age generation now, there are not many young users. This causes a problem as then the motivation to join this network is low. The motivation behind Second Life now is for educational purposes that are most likely a requirement.
Just like individuals often deny friend requests from people on Facebook that they are not familiar with, individuals are also confronted with unfamiliarity when talking to other avatars. The whole concept of not knowing who is actually behind an avatar can be a bit daunting. I feel that if young users joined to have fun and game together or learn together, then this interactive program would enjoy more success.
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I feel like I'm even more unfamiliar with people in Second Life because from what I've encountered not many people have information in their real life section. Atleast when I'm on facebook I can see someones picture and other information. I also know that I'm talking to someone that's my age. I definitely agree that Second Lifes problem is the amount of people that participate.
ReplyDeleteChelsea nails down an essential difference between social networks and virtual worlds.
ReplyDeleteWhile not everyone conceals his or her identity in SL or reveals a lot on Facebook, the purposes of the two technologies are very different.
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ReplyDeleteOne aspect about Facebook that I am more comfortable with is that if I am friends with someone, I look through their pictures and if they only have one tagged photo or one profile picture of themselves, I feel as though this is a little skeptical because they do not have multiple pictures of themselves that prove they are the person that they say they are. I usually do not accept friends that I do not know, but if they are from my high school or someone I have mutual friends in common with, I will look at their profiles to see how reliable their page is.
ReplyDeleteIn Second Life, this is not even possible and that is why I question who I interact with a lot more. I do now know what these people look like and they do not know me. I think this is why Second Life is not as popular like Chelsea said.
I agree with your idea how Second Life's biggest weakness is that there are so few users because it has not really hit the college students yet.