normalizing brutality

While I can see the potential of Second Life to become a major and popular social network forum like facebook is today, I myself am an example of the less tech savvy user who tries, but easily gives up because of the commitment required “to gain your legs” in SL, and I may never be able to give it the time someone like me needs to become fluent. I gave SL a try; my name is Dada Oxygen, and I never made it off Welcome Island.
But clearly SL really can become a part of people’s consciousness, occupying their dream space and potentially existing as a happy place for people—like nothing else in their offline life. I like the outlet it has created for creativity and civic action. It’s hard for me even to grasp the magnitude of SL. I can’t imagine attending a film festival in SL that others may actually be attending. This is the mind boggling part.

Virtual Guantanamo as a game would offer an unusually visceral perspective of being held hostage, rendered helpless, and tortured as our U.S. military currently treats detainees. Watching Unconstitutional, the documenttion of the illegal detention of so many citizens of the world felt way too familiar. How can our culture normalize this atrocious behavior of our government? We just go on about our lives, reading books and watching documentaries like Unconstitutional, but seemingly unable to truly fight back, or just overwhelmed trying to get by ourselves. Craziness!

There is so much storytelling potential in the current crossroads of broadcast Internet technology and I hope that whatever new platforms emerge, they embody the democratic potential so ready to flourish in the Internet medium. I loved the idea of news channels being informed by their users. Sadly, I do not have any exciting links to share, but I’m excited to read up on other posts!