Ya'll, this here is the real Aunty Belle...well, as far as thar' is a real AB....
What I mean is that this heah ain't no ghost written muse by someone who took over mah avatar or that I bequeathed Aunty's avatar to so Aunty Belle can be immortal.
Confused? Ha! Me too.
But it seems that thar' is a whole lot goin' on in cyberworld than poor ole Aunty ever knew. Here are some clips from BrainReserve, a trend predictin' outfit that folks pay zillions to forecast culture waves. Shoot, I could do it fer peanuts, but then, I could be right and not at all as fantastical. Who'd pay fer accuracy when they could buy bizarre?
Predictions:
Identity Flux
"Technology has enabled us to experiment with different personalities, leading to a much more fluid sense of who we are. Having tasted the nectar of virtual liberation, we’re beginning to reject the singularly defined roles we’re expected to play in society."
(AB sez: Role Playing used to be a branch of clinical psych, an' now we's makin' it a cultural trend?)
Virtual Immortality
"Consumers globally are creating fully fleshed out existences in the virtual world-dressing up their avatars, making friends, having affairs and buying property for their pixilated alter-egos. And now that people have multiple lives, who says you can’t live forever?"
(AB sez: Buyin' property fer my avatar? Can a Poark Rind Magnate be happy in a converted monastery ?)
The Future
"While some let their avatars drift away to online purgatory, many more leave behind specific
instructions on how their virtual selves should proceed. Services offering avatar surrogates flourish, and we bequeath avatars to friends and family in our wills."
(AB sez: Aunty is definitely headed to the online purgatory --ain't gonna have no Aunty surrogates, or be bequeathin' her in mah will ...fer mercy's sake!)The Future
"Socially responsible brands make a buck while providing desperately needed services. Communities are revived by Target daycare, Starbucks learning centers, and Avis transportation services for the elderly."
(AB sez: This heah scares the stuffin' outa me. Gubmint ain't enough?? Now we gotta have our coffee shops in a Head Start center? )
BrainReserve anticipates the forging of a new type of identity in the coming years: The New Networked Self. The technological advances of the information age have produced the most powerful tools yet for shaping our collective human destiny. The world has simultaneously become more fluid and more connected, one of both infinite possibility and extreme intimacy.
(Ab sez: I ain't goin' thar'...even iffin' it is the "collective human desitny"....so I'se buyin' property in online Purgatory fer mah avatar.)
21 comments:
You better look behind you Aunty Belle. Something is coming for you.
check out second life dot com, that is where people buy property and cars and have affairs with one another, many men choose to be women and vice versa....
ps whar's yer teen photo?
oh, yes ...
i was gonna mention 2nd life dot com like infini.
you can create an avatar to suit you that can walk around, interact, buy stuff, sell stuff, etc.
i briefly checked out their site a few weeks ago. i thought it was kind of creepy.
oddly enough my husband, who doesn't blog at all, told me about that site.
i know you don't look like that weird cyber alien up there. you look like a pork rind.
Yeah, Contessa, I need ter git that teen scream up...
Second life huh? Mercy, but it is weird, ain't it? Can ya' magine bequeathin; yore avatar and givin' instructions of its life? yeesh.
i heard about second life in an advice column of a weekly newspaper.
Seems some guy had a second life avitar as a woman, and was either having a lesbian relationship or a relationship with a man-avitar that was really a woman, or some kind of confusion like that and wanted to know if second life relationships constituted adultery.
So I went to check it out because I figured if people are having alter ego trists, i wanted to see what the hubbub was about.
My impression?
Super Geeky.
I found an online code and entered it in when I registered, and now I own a virtual automobile, and a yellow duck (?!)
What does one do with a virtual yellow duck?
don't answer that....
I saw the tube tell what there's a few companies that'll put yer cyberself into their cities, and gosh...don't that sound great?
Dang I can't meet up with a local gal t'save my soul and here's some (many bad words here) company tryin' t'set things right with me...as long as I pay, that is.
Nope.
If'n I was gonna pay, I'de have the money t'yravel t'where I could find warm blooded creature comforts....
Not some (many bad words here) money grubbin' rip-off artist lookin' t'suck m'soul....
It's enough t'make y'wish some of them saints upstairs had connection to the web....
"Technology has enabled us to experiment with different personalities, leading to a much more fluid sense of who we are..."
Its funny to see my kids grow up with this online influence. My 14 year old plays a game online and asked me yesterday, if he could "donate 10 Euros" so he could get more XP for his character. He even knew the conversion rate! I think thats great... idk that he is more 'fluid with knowing his personality', but for sure he is thinking of himself in a global world! As for Infinitesimals site, I will check it out(and look for that virtual yellow duck lol), but its really common to see gender switching on online games... As a parent, I try to listen... and learn... and not FREAK OUT.. cuz they will stop sharing the details with me if I do!!!! I wish parenting came with a manual (that had updates like Nortons! lol)
Hey Kate--yore a wise mama ter listen minus the freeak-out sessions--so they does indeed keep sharin'. I can say --wif' some grown up chickens as my lessons (An they is great people!) lemme jes' note that what I wish't I'd done MORE of, is ter use those sharin' times to indicate that certain paths are dead ends--always.
The thang is, folks, doan it seem ter ya'll that the most messed up among is theme who ain't yet figgered who who they actual self is...fluidity is not real, and livin' in fluidity makes fer neuroses...the task of growin' up is ter "know thy self".
This is true too fer gender-- simple truth is that gender ain't only in yore jeans , or yore dressin' styles.
If youse a fella or a lassie, the microscope knows it from looking at yore blood,a strand of hair....other words, youse male or female from the git-go all the way through every cell in the body. Tryin' ter live against the biological grain ain't a healthy path.
ALl this windy-ness to say , it is OK to play the opposite in an avatar--like She-Pup did wif' her K-9 avatar.
But Aunty done looked back in our blog history--ain't never seen a place where K-9 was actin' like a man on the make...ya know? So that avatar's maleness was was strictly in the dawg (Not human). Meaning, I guess, that K-9 was not actin' out some personal fantasy as a fella.
SO what? Well, the "what" is that healthy people are those who live in the real world, not in fantasy land--I mean, they know when the fun & lighthearted play stop, and versus building a fantasy world and moving in--to the detriment to the real life they coulda/shoulda lived.
i think it should be starbucks that sponsors day care. think of the savings you'd get on ritalin.
I totally agree Aunty... Keeping the virtual fantasy in its rightful place is key!
Its such an interesting time to raise children. In reality I am just about 'keeping up' with them in the technology arena. Growing as they grow and trying to keep an eye out for trouble as I let them venture out some. I guess every generation will have different areas of concern. Values and morals are still the same no matter what the playing field.
lol to Shes comment about Starbucks...
Have a great week!
ha! ha! ha! ha! ha! ha! ha!...hee! hee! ( this is my fluid virtual self having a good laugh..)
Good morning Aunty..( or evening..)
I found a cute avatar site a couple ov' months ago..Tried to set me up virtually but can't seem to find just the right eyes or nose or clothes..he! he!..
I've forgotten what site it is..Just an hours play in the night while waiting up for the Hubz...Didn't realize how broad all these could be till I read up here..with the fluid self and buying of cyber stuff..
There was a time years and years ago when I first started blogging that I found myself ( for a short while )seemingly enamored by this online world..It was all new to me..People from everywhere trying to get to know you....and then friends from childhood I haven't seen for twenty years reconnecting..,,and then wow...it was in a sense..at that time.. a fascinating diversion from everything I had to face in my physical world.
Funny...It was also a time in my life when I was experiencing the lowest ebb ever..
We lost a business venture..Lost a lot of money...The kids were just entering high school...Other meat space friends seeming to be happier with more cars and grander homes than we had...Oh' it was a confusing time..
Then I discovered blogging through CNN...lol!
Ah'..It was wonderful..Like falling in love for the first time..I could write and just..write..whatever I wanted...whenever I wanted....whiiiiiich really wasn't such a wise thing to do.
Writing has always been my passion and I thought what a creative way to do it. Now I know better..and good enough I do.
I understand now what happens to kids when they're online...its not much different from what I experienced...Unless a person is truly happy with who he or she is..Unless a person...is fulfilled with the way she lives his or her life...there will always be a need to escape..
alcohol..drugs...and yes even cyber....
All forms of escape when you don't want to face where you are..who you are.
So far as I know..this..here life..where I have to wash my china dishes..is about as real as real can get.
Love the post Aunty!
Yep, Boney...they'll "sell" "you" to whatever--that is the lure and the caveat. Mercy!
Hey Luxious! Jes' so pleased ter see ya...and to read yore experiences and insights. Doan lose sight of them china dishes sweet pea.
oh good, you have an email posted, i am going to email you re: trigeminal neuralgia.
just give me a few minutes to construct it.
OK I e-mailed it.
I need to sidebar here and state that I started the rumor that K9 was a man.
I thought K9 was a man!
And even though she never said she was one, I made the assumption based on an ambiguous comment that could be construes as coming from either sex.
I also said that K9 was African American!!
And K9 never really said that either...
It was over a year ago now, but I had a vision of what K9 looked like, and once I made reference to it, it just kind of stuck.
At least, I am pretty sure that's how it went down.
Remember when Aunty Belle was just an anonymous commenter?
Aren't you glad now that you started up a blog?
I am glad you did.
and PS:
doan go tellin' Pocket ARDLAIR that I misspelled avatar up there, OK?
thanks.
Hey Infini,
wow-thanky fer this blog history--yeah, I does see that we'uns make assumptions about folks--so I can see how youse thinking th t rottie pup was a black fella--but doan it go ter show ya that people see what *they* see, an' not always what IS.
Yep, I guess it is OK that I set up a blog (Though I still doan know how to work it right--I cain't make links work).
I'se off to check mah email from ya--thanky thanky!
I'm trying to remember the name of the author, but I had read a short story many years ago set in this dystopian future. The meatspace world is so bleak, violent and treacherous, that everyone lives out there lives in a virtual reality cyberspace (much like IMVU, only souped up).
What happens is that one blogger is murdered by another blogger as the result of a flame war between the two. The case is solved by a cyber-version of Lt. Columbo. Because there aren't really police in this society, Columbo is the only person who can solve the crime and exact a measure of justice, which he does by banning the killer from cyberspace for life.
If there is a certain mania about cyberspace, then it does say much about our society. If identity flux becomes an issue, then it could only be so when people aren't satisfied with their role in life. This isn't a new phenomenon, of course. Whose grandpa hasn't cursed the missed opportunities in life? It's just that this generation has an option that past generations didn't.
meatspace is a very strange term.
it sounds like a food and a location, not a corpus!
Well, I also thought K9 had a metal plate in his head from Nam!!
and there again it was misconstued from an ambiguous comment either on Q's blog or in an email to me...
regarding links,
do not write a link in compose mode, rather, click on the edit html mode (upper right corner on firefox browser) and then click the "link" icon... if you put your mouse over the icon, it will read what it's function is. The link one is green I think... and so then you click it, and it puts a link code wherever your cursor is... you then fill in the rest of the link... such as "http://" and you add to that www.rotatingchaos. com and then between the two arrow thingies
>< you enter the name of the link, such as:
>infini's blog<
hope that helps. In compose mode, it does not work, you must be in edit html mode.
HEy X.Dell, --wow, wish ya could recall the name of that book--would like to read it--I think "owning" an alternate personality fer yore cyber life is fun...jes' as long as folks keep in mind it ain't real.
I mean, I doan wanna hear no defense atty say his client did NOT kill his boss, it was his client's avatar who killed the boss.
That said, shure, what is said can be quite real--factual or actual emotions of the human behind the avatar..but the "fluid' identity is no cover fer what the real person did or does not do.
Contessa, Sugar Pie, thanks--I'se gonna try it! And Red Mantissa, she has this thang with a plus/ minus whar' ya can "hide" more info and then keep yore combox content sorta short, but give more iffin' any fool wants to go into that rabbit hole you make available. So much ter learn!
I jes' love all ya'll "fluid identities"!
'Tain't always work, gal, t'get "tagged" as it were....
Fer example, guess what you got elected fer?
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