Is second life effective as a means of activism?
The second life video on camp Darfur brought up poignant questions on the role of virtual worlds in real life. without giving opinions, it raised questions about the effectivenes of online activism and the possibility of online activism actually distracting from real-life problems. I do not believe that virtual activism is an effective means of change for a few reasons. The first being that second life does not reach enough people and does not involve enough people to even begin to make an impact. Second, even if second life was more broad reaching, this information is already all over the internet and the news. The people that are interested in human rights issues and others who are seeking information already have numerous other sources available with even more information and photographs than second life has. third, Second life is too time consuming for your average citizen to get news and information from. One must develop an avatar, log in, earn "linden dollars", build virtual property, find and wait for the right people to talk with, navigate the world, do mundane life activities, etc. All in all second life seems very involving and most people dont have time in the day to explore this world so it really does not reach out to the general public but only a small niche of internet users. It is more of a social game not a news source and certainly not a practical way to learn about current events. Fourth, sitting in front of a computer for several hundred hours may give somone a false sense of philanthropy and may replace someone's real life efforts that could bring an actual change.
A better way to encourage change is to participate in or donate to organizations such as engineering without borders, doctors without borders, peace corps, red cross, and other aid organizations such as these. A person wanting less involvement could even send out an email to friends informing them of the atrocities in Darfur or post links on sites like facebook.
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Good points -- Though I would point out that while Second Life does have a smaller reach, it reaches a crowd that is more likely than some to have disposable income or free time to give to causes. One argument some people have made is that even with all the information available in the news and on the internet, it is hard to figure out how to get people to care about causes. It's almost like there's so much info out there, a person can't process it all. That's why, even though I, like you, sometimes doubt the effectiveness of Second Life for activism, I wonder if it's unique ability to created embodied (and therefore emotional) experiences might be useful in getting a potentially influential group of people to care.
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