Creativity and New Media

I decided to utilize new media tools and venture into the use of virtual worlds through the creative use of communication in an alternate digital world and social platform called Second Life. As a child, I had enjoyed playing The Sims series to create entire communities of fictional people. As a young adult, I pondered how Second Life could be used to foster creativity in myself when meeting new people. Although I have a small circle of close friends in the real world and tend to be more of an introvert, I wanted to expand my horizons and meet people from other places on virtual media.

In Second Life, I chose an avatar that best represented my everyday sense of style. I occasionally wear cardigans and have hair that I style like this avatar which really captured the essence of my features pretty accurately. The only fantasy part of this is that I could never look this cool while sitting in an armchair.

I could never look this suave on a chair in real life.

After picking my avatar, I completed the tutorial and meandered around Social Island. I toyed around with teleporting to different places and maneuvering my avatar on screen. Then I was ready to visit a few interesting places.

First, I went to Miami Beach. I saw other users in swimwear, walked under water for a few minutes (which was fun and completely unrealistic), met a few people who were partying, and also got a virtual drink from the nearby Starbucks.

At Miami Beach along with another beach goer

Time for a Starbucks break.

Next, I traveled to New York City. I went to the Hotel Chelsea, Rockefeller Center, and Radio City Music Hall. I explored the lavish hotel rooms, chatted with the owner of the hotel, and even walked around the iconic music venue. It was fascinating to see how other users around the world visualize landmarks around Manhattan in the virtual world. I wish more users were present in the New York areas because it was pretty fun to digitally sight see what I can travel to in real life.

 

At Rockefeller Center with Radio City Music Hall in the background

By this time, I was engrossed in Second Life and wandered around aimlessly for a few hours. However, I wanted to socialize more before writing a blog about my experience. Being a frequent listener of music, I decided to wrap up my day on Second Life by heading to a music club. I teleported to The Velvet. It is a music club that plays all types of music, and users can even DJ and promote their own tracks, whether it be from professional musicians or those who are active on SoundCloud. I engaged with the current DJ, followed the SoundCloud accounts of those who I enjoyed, and honestly had a great night of listening to alternative music as well as popular tracks.

I also met a user from New Zealand who offered some guidance on how to navigate through Second Life. She had noticed that I was walking around quite unsteadily and literally bumped into her more than once and wanted to reach out and help me. She sent me tutorials from YouTube and online guides from the web to make my Second Life experience more fun. She even talked about how she initially joined Second Life to listen to her friends do their music sets in music clubs in the platform. I also listened to a few of her friends’ music, and may go back to the platform next weekend to listen her friends’ sets at another club in the game. We even connected over our shared interests in soft electronic and acoustic instrumental music and 80s and 90s soft rock, pop, and R&B music in particular. I believe that this is the essence of Second Life, which is to connect people from around the world through their shared interests.

At The Velvet dancing to some pretty interesting sounding SoundCloud music

My new acquaintance from New Zealand sitting on the couch in front of my avatar

Second Life is obviously not a replacement for real-life interaction with others, but I think that it is a great supplement to our social lives in this digitally connected world. I was able to meet someone who I would have had an extremely low chance of ever connecting to in person. I may continue to use Second Life in the future if I have free time and want to unwind from the stress of school, work, and life. I am pleased that I was able to use Second Life in a creative way to join new people in their music creation journey and give feedback for the tracks that were played at the clubs.

As I end my account of my positive experience in Second Life, here is a final shot of me chilling at the animal adoption park where one can adopt dogs and cats as pets. I may have spent a little too much time petting all of the dogs there but it was a great way to relax.

Me attempting to pet all of the dogs.