A Field Trip Into Second Life

In the latest New Communication Technologies tutorial we were meant to take a field trip into a virtual world. At the beginning of the year in that extremely long break between high school and university, I created a Second Life account which I used for approximately two days. The following is based not on the classes "Field Trip" but from what I experienced with my avatar, Tally Trafalgar.

Presuming that you are a user of MSN, or other IM programs (or have used it before, or at least know about it)...
Besides the obvious differences (such as ActiveWorlds is 3D and MSN isn't, etc) what are the qualitative differences between the regular IM program and a 3D environment?

• What is different about the kinds of socialising that happens in these spaces? Does the 3D aspect make much difference?
  

In other words, are there things that are possible in one space that are not possible in the other? Could you think of where this sort of application might lead us?

There are many qualitative differences between using IM and 3D worlds. From my experiences I believe that using IM such as MSN which I use, is better. I used MSN before I created a Second Life account and I still use it now. Everything in Second Life is a mystery, you do not know who the people are that you communicate with, you do not know their name and you do not know where you are. Its all make believe and personally, even though I used it, I think it is pretty sad. For someone who has many friends on MSN, I believe that it is unnecessary to experince virtual worlds. It may be more qualitative to experience a virtual world if perhaps you didn't have a "first life". It may be an oppurtunity for one to do something time consuming or it may be their own way of socialising. MSN is much safer and is a better expereince. You able to decide who is and is not in your world of MSN, by blocking or deleting people. You are able to talk to your friends and overall it is a much better way of socialising.

There is a major difference with the socialising aspect of virtual worlds and IM. As mentioned above, when you are socialising with IM you are commonly socialising with people that you know and that you want to have talking to you. In a virtual world the socialising experience is completely different. You are meeting new people which may for some be exciting but often it is just stupid and pointless.

So are there things in one space that are not available in another? Yes. On MSN you cannot meet new people, unless you are really dumb and add people that you don't know or accpet adds that you do not know. In virtual worlds, you are able to do this and of course the 3D aspect is a different way of socialising.

So where is this application going to lead us? Who knows! Virtual Worlds will probably keep growing and become even more pointless and ridiculous.