Quickthink

I had completely forgotten about Second Life until I noticed this post by I Cringley. There was a time when Second Life seemed to offer something new and valuable. As I recall from my one and only effort, that was to take on the identity of an “avatar” and roam about in a brave new world. Sadly, after repeatedly smashing up a car, I never made it out of the testing zone. But now Second Life is more a curiosity than a harbinger of the new. Like a cocktail bar that lost its buzz. Like Geocities. Cringley argues that it is because Second Life is neither real nor a game. I would agree.

Perhaps the issue boils down to the value of managing avatars. When the word first came into use, one wondered. Would we all need one? Or two? Or fifty? I confess that the idea of fifty digital clones autonomously wandering the web, searching out information, connections, and opportunities for me had an odd appeal (perhaps like the replicating Smith in the movie Matrix). My morning routine would start with a report from my army of avatars on their 24/7 roaming.  But the web has not evolved in this way. At least not yet. I still go to my email “in box” to weed out the spam, and check for messages from real people.

As it turns out, avatars, and all the other web based gadgets we have been offered, are not that interesting in themselves. At their worst, they are spam. But even at their best, they seem more like the odd gadgets that car manufactures offer on the dashboard of new cars. For a moment, they are “new” and “fun”. But after a few trips in the car, they are old hat, and sometimes annoying.

It might be a good time to think about standards the “rest of us” to use to test which web gadgets have potential over time.  Here is my best thinking on this. To keep our interest, gadgets must be extensions or enhancements of ourselves (tools), escapes from ourselves (play), or hybrids (combining tools and play). Tools (web based or otherwise) still must be efficient — in relation to the real world. Escapes can be either tiny (minor distractions like Scrabulous) or massive (like World of Warcraft). But they must be fun (something Hitchcock knew well). The more absorbing they are, the less they “fit into” our real world agenda, and therefore consume our leisure time. Hybrids? Well — Second Life may go down as a failed hybrid. Absorbing (game like) but without the buzz, and not efficient enough as a tool. Facebook? The jury is still out (though I am not a huge fan). But, the lesson here may be that we should be cautious of over hyped web hybrids (tools with gaming aspects) that claim to radically enhance our real world experiences, and allow us to escape at the same time.

FOLLOW- I like that word — “enhancement”. How do we enhance our lives via the web? Perhaps there are parallels between how we enhance our lives via work. We are enhanced via work or web when we get access to things we could not get on our own. Such as — Enhanced identity (status), achievement (ability to do), connection (feeling), and/or knowledge. I like these as categories for standards to test web ”enhancers”. Using them, I have to say, the web has not be as revolutionary as its hype claims. Hmmm … games juice these too, but mainly within the gaming experience. And hybrids? They still need to enhance us in the real world.

2d FOLLOW - So what about Twitter? Maybe I am dense, but I still don’t get it. It’s another hybrid — a fun tool. But what does it enhance? So far, I haven’t understood this. Most of the time, the “immediacy” it offers is an intrusion into my immediate concerns. It forces me to multi-task, when I want to single task. So, I see it mainly as a game. In that sense, it’s a bit like carrying around a cocktail party in my pocket. Distracting. Though, depending on the guest list, it can be amusing at times. But sadly, without the cocktails.

3rd FOLLOW - Perhaps Steve Yastrow would disagree with my preoccupation with enhancements, gaming and gadgets. I guess he would consider this as focusing on the “needles”, rather than on the “magnetism” that makes the needles move (read his post if you are confused by my reference). Thus, I am missing the potential of social networking as the next ”killer app” for facilitating community development, nurturing conversations, and strengthening connections. I am with you Steve, in an ideal world. Tools that build better real communities, nurture real conversatons and strengthen real connections would be great enhancements. They also are great gaming ideas (to the extent that the communities, conversations, and connections are fun). My complaint is that this is not really happening yet. For the most part, people are staying in their own neighborhoods, talking rather than conversing, and marketing themselves. Errr —- Isn’t that why Geocities faded out? Let’s see if this changes over time.

This entry was posted on Saturday, September 5th, 2009 at 6:48 am and is filed under Tech. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.