Push Me, Pull You…
September 8, 2010
Image from saltairealpacas.com
If you know me in Second Life or have followed this blog at all, you’re likely to know that I’m prone to periods of reflection. I’ve been nosing around one of these reflective times for a little while now; asking myself “what do I want from my Second Life?” What has come of this latest round of thinkiness you ask? I haven’t come up with good answers yet, but I have found myself asking “why am I here?” If I’m being brutally honest when I answer that, I would say that I’ve been a little like I’m Doctor Dolittle’s fabulous pushmi-pullyu in Second Life. On the one hand, I’ve found myself affirmatively exploring all that Second Life has to offer; drawn like a moth to a flame by the creativity, people and potential of Second Life (and don’t get me started on the concept of the potential of SL at the moment, I might get ranty. Perhaps a blog post on that will follow.) Yet on the other hand, part of my Second Life has been about avoidance of some complicated first life issues; the sort where this is not really a right or wrong answer, but likely to have some different sorts of ache no matter the direction (and if you *really* want to know all of the details of this, go ahead and ask; I’ll share them conversationally.) So I am in SL for multiple reasons, some good, some less good; I’ve flipped back and forth between the two several times, but am not really certain if I could articulate how or why it has changed for me.
Leaping from the personal to the general, I’ve noticed that the same is often true for others in Second Life. In one camp are the people being pulled into Second Life; drawn to the fun and creativity of a virtual world. The other camp are people being pushed; taking to the comfort of a digital life as a distraction. Of course, like all generalizations, these distinctions can be fluid; one is not inherently better than the other, but certainly lines can be crossed into negative behavior and your mileage may vary. So the question is this, dear reader, what is it for you? Do you feel pushed or pulled into your digital life?
Avatars in Wonderland 
Interesting post!
Every choice we make to do something is also a choice not to do something else. I think everyone has a lists of things we “should” be doing that we avoid or at least postpone. These range from mundane responsibilities like cleaning the cat litter to critical issues such as working on a failing marriage.
I personally don’t feel like my digital life is used to avoid dealing with other issues. But there’s certainly some compulsion involved around feeling pushed/pulled to continuously create and publish new work.
Which begs the question…. why do people login to SL to clean a virtual litter box? Is that a Push or Pull thing?
I wasn’t pushed or pulled, I fell in to SL and can’t get out. I think I may need the clapper.