When does the Virtual Reality become Actual Reality?

When does virtual reality become reality? When do the two cross over? Should there be actual consequences to the actions that we take within the virtual?

Having read the Vice Magazine article, 'Second Life Ruins The Lives Of A Married Couple With No Life' I began to question the idea of virtual reality. Surely, as suggested by the phrase 'virtual reality', is cannot be condemned as real?

The Vice Magazine article tells the story of a happily married couple, Amy and David Pollard, filing for divorce after wife, Amy Pollard, discovered that her husband David was 'having sex' with strangers over online phenomenon, Second Life.

For those whom aren't familiar with Second Life, it is a virtual reality online community, much in the same vain as Habbo Hotel, yet it echoes the allusions of reality as opposed to a cartoon. As the official Second life website describes,

Second Life is a 3-D virtual world created by its Residents....From the moment you enter the World you'll discover a vast digital continent, teeming with people, entertainment, experiences and opportunity. Once you've explored a bit, perhaps you'll find a perfect parcel of land to build your house or business...You'll also be surrounded by the Creations of your fellow Residents.... Welcome to the Second Life world. We look forward to seeing you inworld.

Therefore, Second Life is the key to another 'world' so to speak, a virtual online world, which, like the world we live in today, is controlled and developed by humans-its users.

However, when I searched Second Life on Google, Second Life is described in the summary as a game, rather than an online community, or a virtual world. I feel this use of the word 'game' is vital in the understanding and the distinction of community from our real world.

The word 'game' gives connotations of no-strings fun, a leisure activity and non-serious enjoyment. We've all played a game at some point and perhaps taken it too seriously to which people have replied 'relax, it’s only a game!’

Perhaps it is unfair to brand such as Second Life as games?

As the Vice article exemplifies, together with other similar controversial events which have been reported to have taken place on the Internet, this 'game' can, and may, have some serious consequences.

It is obvious that the more the boundaries between virtual and reality become closer, the meanings and results of our actions within these so called games become more and more serious.

For instants, a simple game of solitaire bares no consequences onto our actual existence, yet having cyber sex on Second Life with cyber strangers, for this couple alone, has resulted in the divorce of their own marriage in real life.

Online Persona

As shown by the image above, both Amy and David Pollard bare little resemblance to their Second Life counterparts.

The Internet naturally gives existence to the re-invention of the self and false persona. It is this 'second' lease of life which attracts users to online communities to Second Life and Habbo Hotel.

With the protection of time and space in front of them, the users of Second Life can build a completely different identity from their own in reality. Men can 'become' women and women can 'become' men. A false sense of security and perhaps this distance from reality, and its laws, makes fantasies and desires seem obtainable.

My Opinion

Obviously Amy Pollard was becoming suspicious of her husband's unhealthy amount of time on the Internet-specifically on Second Life. But to go as far as hiring a online private investigator to examine her husband's movements online, I feel that's going a bit too far.

Speaking completely hypothetically, if I found that my husband was having cyber sex online with online strangers I'd probably accept it, like it or not. Having cyber sex online with someone is far less significant than him going out and having sex with prostitutes and the likes. Cyber sex supplies no physical act of having sex, apart from perhaps that of which is enacted upon the self.

Second Life however, may aid the development of a desire into the real-and not just adultery, but murder and paedophilia too. It is when this transition becomes apparent that there is a real cause for concern, as it does actually directly affect your real life.

Maybe the divorce of Amy and David shows just how seriously some people take the game of Second Life and how closely it co-insides and effects real life?

And perhaps Amy and David Pollard were actually living their reality through Second Life?

N/B Both images are taken from the Vice Magazine article