Thursday, April 23, 2009

Aaaaaaww... sniff, give me a hanky



"The Internet has an amazing capacity to allow people to self-sort—to find and engage with like-minded others. That will have impacts for courtship and dating that go beyond anything we've ever seen."

That’s not me that said it, but Harvard Law professor Cass Sunstein in an article in Newsweek. (Actually, I’ve said it before but no one was listening).

While there rest of the media world is doing a bit of a collective public circle jerk about Lindens decision to add a new “Adult” category to its previous PG and Mature, Newsweek has gone off to examine love in the virtual world. And not this usual type of reporting.

Instead, Newsweek seems to come to the conclusion that love in a virtual world isn’t all that bad. “(…) getting to know someone gradually, with patience and attention, seems a whole lot healthier than a drunken proposition in a bar.” It is, especially if the boyfriend’s just coming back from the toilet. Not that I’m speaking out of any previous experience.

Anyway, it’s nice to see that some magazines do report on the brighter sides of SL and its opportunities. If you do need a feel good moment when you’re considering that you spend too much time online, just give the article a read.

1 comments:

Miss Mom said...

I wonder if the people who write in Newsweek know exactly how easy it is to get lost in SL and in the long run lose yourself. During my time in SL I encountered so many avas+people behind them that somehow thought that being able to buy stuff: skin, house, clothes, sim, body parts etc somehow made them better than others. And although I agree that dating online has its adavantages it also has one HUGE disadvantage: what you get is not always what you see. And oh one more...chemestry...for me words can sometimes give me a false sense of chemestry...or maybe it is not "false" but it has only to do with the mind and not the heart.
BUT if SL or any other "roleplaysite" or datingsite ever comes up with an idea how to touch via the net...well, then it's a whole other ballgame. Who knows...I might even return. Lol!