It's bugging me.

You know, I'm going to be honest here, friends. I don't usually integrate myself into the politics of the community of Second Life. I am determined, for the most part to remain neutral and diplomatic about most every topic that makes it's way to my doorstep: Not because I feel my opinion is invalid, or because I feel it lacks weight, but because my opinions concerning things/issues/people not directly related to my Second Life experience are my own, and not for public consumption. If I feel something is remarkable, I say it. If I think someone has a beautiful avatar, I say it. If I think otherwise, I keep it to myself - why? What purpose does it serve to hurt someone's feelings? To belittle another individual enjoying their *own* SL experience? To humiliate or lynch someone whose tastes/opinions/interests/ideals differ than my own is not only needless, but it fosters a hostile, over-dramatic, painful environment. Regardless of that fact that our Avatars are hollow - they are operated by real people; People of every color of the rainbow, people with strengths, people with flaws, people deal with very real challenges in the real world just moments before logging in to "get away." These people, You, myself, every green speck on the grid represents a beautiful diversity that only an environment like Second Life can exemplify with such clarity and truth.

I am disturbed by the influx of negative blogs that have seemed to pop up recently. Blogs intended to tear people down, deconstruct targeted individuals, vilify them and negatively impact their Second Life experience... and this new media fad serves no purpose other than to rally a bunch of Hive minded people to draw the same conclusions and conduct themselves in the same remorseless, unsympathetic fashion.

It seems to have become more popular to be renown as "The great antagonist" than to be a champion of the efforts of our gridmates. It's easy to say "Phaylen, if you don't like these cold blogs, don't read them!" And I don't intend to, most certainly, but I'm most certain I can't be the only human being sitting behind my desk asking myself why... or how someone can ethically justify such behavior. Do we really discredit the power of the internet that much? Do we enjoy the tabloidesque aspect so much so that our own humility has taken a backseat and we enjoy seeing someone stoned to death with words? Is it the fact that we are sitting behind avatars, for the most part anonymously, that makes us believe we don't have to accept accountability for our actions and impact on another person?

Second Life was once about a collaborative experience. It was about celebrating your efforts and the efforts of those with whom you shared the experience with. It was about learning, about discovery, about being awed and certainly, sometimes about being offended, but more than anything about our shared world and what it represented in the greater scheme of things. We are in this together. Our world is not exclusive to us, but our experience is entirely and we control our own destiny in Second Life- why should that privilege be used to create negative, disruptive, hurtful blog posts about a person or people aside from the fact that one simply can. Anyone who has been the target of another individuals agenda understands that the implications and effects don't stop at the log-off screen. The consequences one pays for hanging off your sword are very real. In my own past I've been targeted - AND accused of targeting others in what has fortunately been my only experience with such things. It is so hard when something you love so very much, a world you depend on so much for enjoyment, for relief from day-to-day Real Life trials, becomes ugly and marred by the callous efforts of an influential blogger with Hive minded readers.

To that end, I say to those who don't feel compelled to write about only the things and people they despise, congratulations for remembering the world and it's contents consist of more than just you and yours. To those who communicate solely with the intention of imposing yourself and your negative reactions on another person to cause them strife, embarrassment or humiliation, I believe your talents are grossly misused. It is one thing to be constructive, it is another to exalt yourself as you deliberately and cunningly step on someone else just because you don't particularly enjoy their brand of participation or creation in Second life. Your mother wasn't incorrect when she said, "If you haven't got anything nice to say, don't say it at all."

I'm not so naive that I think we should all run through a field of tulips holding hands. Part of what makes our world so enigmatic and thoroughly addictive is the fact that it is cohabited by hundreds of thousands of other DIFFERENT people. We may not subscribe to or approve of their choices/tastes/expressions/endeavors but that doesn't give any of us grounds to obliterate someone who possesses those differences. We certainly don't have to take to our blogs and celebrate them, we don't have to lie if asked what we think - but what purpose does it serve to step out of our way, out of our experience and into that of another just to wreak havoc on them? Is that what Second Life is about now? Rather than creating and customizing our own unique experience, has it become about affecting that of another persons in a public, hurtful way?

Look, this is my opinion. It's the last I'll share so publicly and indiscriminately because I don't think the weight of my words hold any more value than another writers, and I don't want to risk this blog post being perceived as an attack on any one person or persons out there in the metaverse. It's not. I respect what people choose to do with their efforts, and I'm quite liberal - but somewhere there has to be a line. Somewhere, at some point, someone had to ask why.

~Phaylen