Geeky Impresario | New Media, Comedy, Entertainment Insight by Frank McDade

http://www.cnn.com/2008/WORLD/europe/11/14/second.life.divorce/index.html?iref=newssearch

This article kind of follows suit with what I was saying before about being aware of what your goals are in working with social media.  In this instance it is love.  I know of quite a few people who have met their significant other through the internet so I don’t have a prejudiced against it or anything, I think it is a rather good way to meet somebody.  What happens though when the social medium is more important to the user than the person they are interacting with?  In this case it seems as if that is what went on.

So, these two met in Second Life.  Second Life is a social website that allows users to create carbon copies of themselves, named avatars, which are able to take out anything that a normal human would be able to do.  Oh, they fly too.  It is a lot more intricate than that, but the love story is the purpose of this post.  After marrying on Second Life, apparently they did the same in real life.  Now unlike chatting via instant messenger, I feel this is far less personal.  Internet communication cuts out all the key factors in effectively communicating in the first place, so having a fictional character represent you is the icing on the cake.

Wife, Amy, filed for a divorce after finding her hubby had an affair on her – online – with a digital prostitute.  She states that he has never cheated in real life, but if he can do it on Second Life it is just as bad.  So my question is:  What’s more important, your physical wife or digital wife?

Neither, apparently.  Cheating on both is by far most important.  Straight to the point.  People need to get their priorities in check before this leads to an epidemic.  Divorce rates and horrible relationships are already at an all-time high, we don’t need to add any further complications in to these processes.