Thursday 25 April 2013

ME AND MY AVATAR LILITH HEART

Living with, or perhaps it would be more accurate to say living through an avatar, in a virtual world like Second life can be a fascinating and revealing experience. One of the things I've noticed over the years is that Lilith Heart, my Second Life avatar, is an all round better person than the real life me. The real life me is a little more cranky, more cynical, less trusting, less patient.

The strange phenomena I am speaking about is that Lilith brings out the better parts of me. Lilith is very patient, Lilith is trusting, Lilith is easy going and rather transparent, possibly too transparent, she shares her thoughts and ideas easily ..... Must try to cut back on that ! I'm starting to think I maybe shouldn't be so open. I may encourage Lilith to be a little more reserved :-)

For some reason this medium, the virtual world Second Life causes me to manifest a better version of myself through Lilith. In fact over the years I have come to love Lilith, my avatar persona, and try to be more like her.

It truly is an unusual situation. Even though I am Lilith I often find myself referring to Lilith in the third person, as if she has a life of her own. I will often say to myself .... 'What has Lilith got to do today ? ' Lilith has her own diary to keep track of events, meeting, correspondence, and general to do list.

The way I am starting to see it now, maintaining and living through an avatar, is a future experience that soon everybody will have. Avatars are our virtual agents, our virtual representatives. Everyone now has email and it's quite possible that in the near future the virtual barrier will be broken and everyone will maintain avatars for different purposes from MMO gaming to virtual businesses, remote working/learning and all kinds of digital doings.

The experience of sharing virtual space with other human beings has a powerful magic, the fact that behind every avatar is a real person provides unlimited possibilities.  It's a remarkable thing to be able to share space and time with someone who can be on the other side of the world.

Working and playing in Second Life over the past 7 years I have met countless people from every corner of the world. And Lilith has grown from a simple explorer of virtual worlds to a fully fleshed out individual that has her own life above and beyond my own RL duties and responsibilities.

All of the above does sound rather crazy now I am re-reading it but true none the less. I'm sure thousands of other people are developing similar relationships with their avatars.

I love Lilith, I have learnt more than I could ever imagine from her. Working and experiencing a virtual life through her, is making me a better person.