Second Life

The empty corporate building that was featured in the video we viewed in class last week is located right around my father's house in Westchester, New York. The building, from the exterior at least, is an extremely interesting piece of architecture that clearly was meant to be used by important corporations. But in the same way it was described in the video it is now a ghostly structure, with overgrown foliage and empty parking lots. However, I do not agree that this is because of the turnover to virtual at home business websites such as Second Life.

In my opinion I do not fully understand the benefits of websites such as Second Life. In my opinion it is a waste of time to view a group of avatars sitting around a table, during a conference call. Although participants say it makes the meeting more positive and productive, I truly don't see how. It is not like the avatars are attached to the users body and could tell if they truly were paying 100% attention to the meeting shown. They are not physically in a meeting with their partners even though their avatars are, they are all still at home in their private places, where they can easily be distracted from the work at hand.

I personally would never be able to be apart of Second Life as a business woman. I would feel like I was playing a game, and fooling around, rather than actually getting anything done.

Social Networking Groups

Our discussions this week on various media networking websites, sparked my interest because just recently I viewed a documentary called "We Live In Public". The movie, which was released in 2009, is based on the internet mogul Josh Harris whom created Pseudo.com, the first online television broadcasting website. Although the film is aimed to reveal the negative effects the web is having on our society, it contains a segment about media networking websites as well. Josh Harris, the films focus, decides to have his entire life at home taped and broadcasted online, while allowing his online subscribers to communicate with him via chat room. During that time Josh had a wife living with him and although she agreed to be recorded as well, it ultimately caused them to break up. The reason this happened was because the people online viewing their lives started to turn Josh and his wife against each other, by posting their opinions of their every word and action. The people online took sides in the former private relationship, and even created their own networking websites to show either Josh or his wife, who was in the wrong. Eventually this caused the couple to separate and get a divorce.

This extreme example of a negative effect of a social networking website shows how influential this technology can be. I personally think that people should choose carefully which networking sites they should belong to, because they are more powerful then people think.