Second Life Marriage, Real Life Divorce

I never heard of Second Life until Electronic Communications class this year, but now it seems that every news web page I bring up has a headline about this popular virtual world.  Most recently I read an article on CNN.com titled "Second Life affair ends in divorce."  Naturally, I was intrigued.  This is a relationship that started online, turned into a face-to-face relationship, which resulted in a face-to-face wedding as well as a virtual one, and then events occurred online that caused it to end for good.  This woman caught her husband's avatar having an affair with a female avatar prostitute.  Is cheating in a virtual world equivalent to cheating in the real world?

Recently in class, we watched videos about the adult world in Second Life.  We heard about a female avatar prostitute, who kept her actual identity hidden because she was a PTA mother-of-two and a wife.  She keeps her two identities completely separate and hopes that she will never

 be discovered.  During an interview with her avatar the woman said her job on Second Life is a "stress reliever."  However, she never said whether or not her husband knew she is a Second Life prostitute, so only assumptions can be made.  Suppose he didn't know, there is a strong possibility that he could view her actions as being unfaithful.  If an avatar, who is in a relationship, pursues sexual relations with another avatar, isn't it still considered cheating?  The avatars are able to talk to each other and state exactly what they are thinking, dirty thoughts and all.  They are also able to purchases beds that allow them to have "sex."  If avid Second Life users want people to take this virtual world seriously, shouldn't the users accept that their actions have repercussions?  If a person can have wedding ceremonies in Second Life, then they can be unfaithful there as well.

Although everyone has his or her own opinions as to what cheating consists of, Second Life is a gray area.  There is no actual contact between the two people; the only intimacy is from words and the actions between the electronic characters.  However, since there is a person behind every avatar, I strongly believe that cheating in Second Life deserves the same consequences as to when someone cheats in real life.  The intent, the desire, and the disrespect to a spouse are similarities between the two that cannot be ignored.

Let's Get Political

When I think of election night, I picture Americans glued to the TV screen waiting for results to be announced.  I imagine news reporters biting at the bit to get a good story.  I think of large groups of supporters of a respective party meeting to cheer on their candidate.  What I don't think about is what is going on in a completely different environment.  During election night, I never stopped to think about what was going on on the internet, that is, until I read this article.

Not everyone was sitting in front of a television screen, simply waiting to hear the results of the 2008 presidential election.  Some people were expressing their emotions, their success and their disappointments online.  Whether through blogging, video, or other means of communication, people were expressing how they felt about Barack Obama being chosen to be the 44th president of the United States.  

In class, we have been questioning how future generations will be affected by the age of the internet.  In addition, we discuss how the internet is already affecting our lives.  If the amount of CMC (computer-mediated-communication) related to the 2008 election was compared to the amount of CMC related to the 2004 election, I wonder what kind of results would be found.  Although I can only guess at the results, I would be willing to bet some high dollars that during this election, there was a vast increase in people who expressed his or her feelings about the election online.  People are becoming more comfortable using the internet as an outlet for expression.  The fear of putting your feeling out there for the world to see, are minimizing, as more people are sharing their thoughts with not only their friends and family, but with the entire world.  Who knows how this will change in the future, but if more people start using the internet as a device to state their political beliefs, the election of 2012 should definitely be an interesting one.

Feds Get a Feel for Facebook

Facebook can determine citizenship.  Plain and simple, authorities can use sources like Facebook and MySpace to determine if a foreigner should be granted access to the United States.  Also, airports can check these sites for security measures when a passenger buys a one-way ticket.  According to this article from foxnews.com federal authorities are not required to use any other sources to make decisions about a person in question.

We have spent a vast amount of time in COM301 discussing and debating the pros and cons of social networking.  Is it beneficial or not? How does it compare to other types of communication?  What is people's obsession with it?  This article suggests one possible theory to the last question.  People are lazy.  Since there are no laws telling federal authorities that they must have a more reliable source than Facebook to make a decision, they are not going to put in the extra effort to find more verification.  In class, we have often talked about people's uncanny abilities to create a different persona online.  If college students are able to figure out that on social networking, not all is what it seems, shouldn't the feds realize it too?  In addition, everyone knows that the security on social networking sites aren't exactly top of the line.  User's accounts can easily be hacked into or created by someone else.  There is no telling if there is any truth to what is found a person's social network page.

Honestly, I find this situation somewhat bizarre.  Americans trust homeland security to keep our borders safe, and now I find out that Facebook is being used as a "reliable" source for this?  There is an enormous amount of people trying to get into this country, and security could deny them because of a picture on his or her MySpace page from five years ago.  I don't even remember what kind of pictures I have on my Facebook from last year.  Who knew that a site like Facebook, which is supposed to help "you connect to people", could determine what country a person makes those connections in.