Simulacra: Second Life Hyperreality

Philosopher and cultural theorist Jean Baudrillard developed the concept of simulation. Simulation is the process whereby the lines between original and replication become blurred or, as Baudrillard puts it, the truth/falsity differential is weakened and the simulacrum is the sensation it ultimately produces. Baudrillard defined this blurring of the lines between the original and its replication as the ‘hyperreal’ (1988, p. 166). Sherry Turkle argues that ‘we are moving toward a culture of simulation in which people are increasingly comfortable with substituting representations of reality for the real’ (1995, p. 23).

While Baudrillard’s ideas were written over twenty years ago such evidence of a hyperreal existence has never been more accessible than in the form of computerised “virtual reality”. The powerful lure of these virtual worlds is that they offer the opportunity for exploring identity (Turkle, 1995). Many forms of social media use avatars as digital representations of the users. Websites such as Second Life provide an identity workshop allowing you to put aside your physical self and reinvent yourself as you desire; recast your life, create avatars and live out multiple aspects of self.

Second Life is an online virtual world developed by Linden Lab in 2003. Second Life allows users to interact with each other through avatars who can explore the virtual world, meet other residents, socialise and participate in individual and group activities. Second Life promises that ‘you can create anything you can imagine and add behaviours to the objects you build… sculpt a butterfly, then write a short chunk of code that lets it follow you around as you walk’ (Second Life, 2007).

 Users can also create and trade virtual property and services with one another. Second Life has generated a thriving internal economy with residents buying clothing and artefacts made by other residents, using the game’s virtual currency, Linden dollars. In an average month an estimated 10 million objects are created and 230,000 are bought and sold (The Economist, 2006, p.99). In this imagined community the line between ‘reality’ and cyberspace appears thin; they seemed to ‘mirror one another’ (Sinha, 1999, p. 142).

Turkle argues that participants in virtual communities increasingly view ‘real life’ as simple one window through which a personality is developed and expressed, and that computer-mediated communication constitutes a constructive and potentially liberating space through which ‘the obese become slender, the beautiful plain, the “nerdy” sophisticated’ (1995, p. 12).

(Source: http://www.dailygalaxy.com/photos/uncategorized/2007/04/25/secondlife_main_485.jpg)

Digital technologies have become so embedded in our everyday lives through ‘anywhere, anytime’ connectivity (Green, 2002) that we now live our lives through them, form relationships, express feelings and form identities. Digital technology has advanced from connecting people to people, it’s become a part of us and offers a new world with new opportunities. Miller and Slater conclude that virtual worlds are in integral aspect of people’s lives, not something that ‘stands against and defies or supersedes something else we call the real’ (2000, p. 193).

References

Baudrillard, J 1988, ‘Simulacra and Simulations’, in Poster, M (e.d.), Jean Baudrillard: Selected Writings, p. 166-184, Polity Press, Cambridge

Green, N 2002, ‘On the Move: Technology, Mobility, and the Mediation of Social Time and Space’, The Information Society, Vol. 18, Issue 28, p. 1-292, Taylor and Francis: United Kingdom.

Miller, D and Slater, D 2000, The Internet: An Ethnographic Approach, Routledge: London.

Second Life 2007, ‘Create Anything’ accessed 6 February 2014 <http://secondlife.com.whatis/create.php>.

Sinha, I 1999 The Cybergypsies: Love, life and travels on the electronic frontier, Scribner, London.

The Economist 2006, ‘Living a Second Life’, The Economist, 30 September, p.97-99

Turkle, S 1995, ‘Life on the Screen: Identity in the Age of the Internet’, Simon and Schuster: New York.