Wednesday, June 4, 2008

First Post

Hello all, this is my first post so there probably won't be much to it. My goals here are to 1) have a good time, (2) provoke new patterns of thought in society and (3) attain feedback and differing perspectives from the brilliant minds who will read this. How does that sound? Eventually we can get into the "hot button" topics of religion, the approval rating of congress, the economy, the impending election and more. Today, we should start with something light. I read an article today on "Second Life (a fantasy world populated by digital representations of real people)." I am interested to hear your thoughts and experiences with this new level of online gaming. The article goes on to describe young people turning to this medium as an alternative for summer work. There seems to be a way to make actual money here. One high school junior claims to earn $4,000 per month as an online architect. He mentions spending 12 hours a day on the computer to accomplish this. Admirable from a monetary standpoint (approx. $16.60 per hour working 5 days per week), but that much time in front of a monitor cannot be good for the eyes. This from a blogger.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

i hope this kid knows how to create female in his virtual world because he may not get within 10 yards of one in real life. i would pay 4000 / month not to have to look at a computer screen all day, so keep these blogs pithy.

Edison said...

I know for a fact that staring at a computer is bad for the eyes. I did web design for a while and in those two and a half years my eye sight got worse and my eye doctor was getting concerned for a time.

While it seems this kid is making good coin doing this, is he really gaining valuable people skills? Will the next generation even need the kinds of people skills we deem valuable?

Rider159 said...

Both good comments. First, my feeling is that the young man I mentioned is probably having better luck dating in the virtual world than the real one. Second, that is the real question: "Will the next generation even need the kind of people skills we deem valuable." In the current and future environment, maybe not. We email and text more than we talk, more and more business is being conducted online, and we are part of online networking communities that do not actually require us to network in person.