Why do you need a Second Life?

This week in class we have been learning about Second Life. Second Life is an online virtual reality game where players create avatars and live a literal "Second Life." For the most part it is the same as real life, with a few minor exceptions such as you can fly. Second Life, to me, seems like a waste of time. I already more or less have a "second life" just by having all of my social networks that I have to constantly keep up with.

However, some people have taken Second Life to the next level by making a living off of it and almost made it their first life. Take Anshe Chung for example. She managed to take Second Life and invest her time and money into being a realtor to other avatars on Second Life and she is now a millionaire. In Second Life, you buy money using real US dollars and then can also make money by selling things. Anshe has built an entire world around her real estate and her Second Life homes go for big money, making her in turn a millionaire.

The fact that this is possible absolutely blows my mind. I do not see what these people are doing with their money, why they are spending it on a fake self online as opposed to investing it in their real lives. However, if they enjoy doing it more power to them. The world will always baffle me.

Just a quick blog to try to win a contest!

The beauty of the internet.
I have just got to win this contest, the cutest clothes and accessories in the world.

http://www.milkteef.com/2010/11/spoiled-rotten-giveaway.html

Do You Digg?

The World Wide Web keeps growing every day and keeps allowing us to make it more personal for ourselves. With each new creation there are ways to incorporate yourself more into the web and take part in the Internet.

Social Bookmarking sites, such as Digg and Reddit are a perfect example of this personalization of the Internet. Social bookmarking is a way for Internet users to "bookmark" or save links that they are interested in. From there, they can share their bookmarks with other users. Some social bookmarking sites have a ranking system where people can vote the story up or down on the social bookmarking sites page, and then the stories with the highest ranks are the ones featured on the front page. This is where the sites above come in.

Digg is considered to be "the largest focus group." The top stories that are featured are (supposed to be) chosen by the rank of how many "Diggs" they get.  Digg's website explains, "Everything on Digg — from news to videos to images — is submitted by our community (that would be you). Once something is submitted, other people see it and Digg what they like best. If your submission rocks and receives enough Diggs, it is promoted to the front page for the millions of our visitors to see. "

If you look at it that way, essentially us, the users are deciding what we deem newsworthy. This definitely has it's perks. A complaint throughout the ages has been that the news community never really has the readers in mind and only reports on what they want to. This system is controlled by the readers, who vote for  what they deem newsworthy and hopefully get that featured for all to see.

Now just because something doesn't end up on the front page doesn't mean no one reads it, there is always  to each his own. You can also personalize  your Digg to categorize posts and make it easier to browse the news.

Digg and other social bookmarking sites, such as StumbleUpon which literally brings you to a random website at a click of a button based on basic preference information you gave when you signed up, contribute heavily to the info snacking age we seem to be a part of.

Will Digg and such sites completely trump the news for people's sources of information? Probably not for a while, if even ever, but it does give the consumer a fresh new way to consume and create their news.

The Internet Celebrity

This week we read about "Dating on the net" among various other things. It was discussed how people often make fake personas to seem more appealing to other users on the internet and that got me thinking about the new era "celebrity."

So many people you see in the magazine and obviously the internet can be deemed "internet celebrities." They somehow caught the publics attention enough (or shoved themselves in the public's face enough) to catch on like wildfire and make a career out of it.

That being said, I decided to google "How to become and internet celebrity" and found a couple websites. They are a bit sarcastic and joking in some areas, but still pretty accurate none the less.

Instructions for being an internet celebrity 1

Instructions for being an internet celebrity 2

Instructions for being an internet celebrity 3

It is kind of unreal how some of these people skyrocket to fame. Take Tila Tequila the claimed "most popular artists on myspace." With a myriad of bikini clad pictures and music she became everyone's "friend" and now she has a record deal, multiple tv deals and who knows what else. Some people even become internet stars accidentily. Through the easy accessibility of the internet and websites such as Digg people's stories and viral videos can spread twice as fast and be brought to the public's attention, making whoever or whatever is the subject of the video a star.

Before internet fame

After

That being said, be careful what you post on the internet (or not), or you just might end up being the next internet sensation.