On the Internet, Nobody Knows You're a Dog.

I've been amused over the years to discover that on SL, there are none of the barriers that exist in RL. Regardless of age, wealth, class, education, experience, or country, we are, for the most part, equal. We are all merely disembodied minds.

This means we meet people we would never meet in RL.

Normally, I play "immersively" but as I've said, a little RL always creeps into the mix, and I think a little RL can bring depth to our online persona. I give, from time to time, if the situation calls for it, my "RL spiel", detailing my city and country of origin and my age. The city tells people my time zone, and my age, well, that gives a perspective on the disembodied mind.

I'm 69 years old from Toronto, Canada. [Note: 71 in 2024]

Last week, a young lady, a twentysomething I guess, told me I was older than her dad. Ha, ha!

All of this now has a different perspective. But that's the RL me saying that. How often in real life would a 20-year-old woman talk with a 69-year-old man?

Then again, in SL, we remain our avatars. What's behind the curtain doesn't really count. (My Wizard of Oz reference for the day.)

It is still curious, interesting, maybe amusing to contemplate the disembodied mind. We are our avatar, in general, a good-looking, physically fit twentysomething. However, as well as meeting people from all over the world, I've met all age groups, and most people are not twentysomething. 40, 50, 60, I once danced with an 85-year-old woman!

Could I argue that age is a state of mind? Once upon a time, I was chatting with two ladies in a clothing store and thinking, based on their avatars, they were young, probably in their twenties. It turned out that one was 55 and the other was 61!

As I said, for the most part, age, like the other attributes I listed above, education, country of origin, etc., do not crop up in conversations. I deal with the avatar in front of me. But once in a while, in a subsequent conversation, we may decide to give a little background information, hence, my RL spiel. It is a unique opportunity to talk with someone I normally wouldn't converse with in RL  It is interesting to discover that we all are the same, human beings with hopes, dreams, and aspirations. In an era of great political divisiveness and in recognition of June as Pride Month, I want to point out that we're all in this together; inclusiveness is a good thing. In SL, strip away the RL and leave the mind, and we all get a chance to see ourselves as part of the human race.

Aside: In another posting, I will discuss what may be the elephant in the room for some people: Men with female avatars. I'll leave this posting just about age.

my blog: Why do guys role play girls? - Jun 15/2022
It would seem that about 10% of the population is gay. That’s RL, Real Life. In SL, Second Life, the percentage is higher, a lot higher. In fact, I don’t think I can take ten steps without running into a lesbian. What gives?


References

Wikipedia: On the Internet, nobody knows you're a dog

"On the Internet, nobody knows you're a dog" is an adage and Internet meme about Internet anonymity which began as a caption to a cartoon drawn by Peter Steiner and published by The New Yorker on July 5, 1993.

2021-06-16