Op/Ed: Looking in the Mirror
by Jessica Holyoke on 18/05/09 at 8:03 am
by Jessica Holyoke
I had a break up last week with someone on SL and I found myself with a great deal of time on my hands. Until I find my next new thing, possibly having Jimbo's love child, I decided to make use of my gym tax and go take yoga.
I used to go to yoga regularly, but had gotten out of the habit. And let me tell you, going to a class for the first time in years reminded me of all sorts of forgotten muscles and everything I used to be able to do but couldn't anymore.
Daily, I would look at my body on SL and see someone that has the look of a person that would go to yoga and work out regularly.
Oddly enough, there are a number of animations stands that make it look like you are working out. Its not like the Sims where you need to work out to keep your avatar in shape. There are working out animations simply to make it look like your avatar is working out. Even when I role played on Gor, I worked in exercising into my daily routine. But exercise has nothing to do with how you look in SL, although it would be funny if it did.
Body image on SL has been discussed from how skinny female avatars that look like Barbie(r) might induce anorexia problems in women, to how women that are plus sized or not cover model ready are making a bold statement or griefing. However, its almost a truism that no one is as skinny as their avatar. And frequently, we as a community make fun of the fact that the 120 lb woman in SL is really twice that in RL.
A SL resident died due to complications from morbid obesity at the age of 35. A reader came up to me and asked what could I do to help prevent what happened to her friend from happening to anyone else. Her friend was very involved in SL; she owned a business, she had friends, she had a full life on line. But she spent all her time on the Grid. So instead of dancing with her friends in RL or as some women do, beside their computer, she sat and talked. Instead of taking walks along the park with her friends, she sat and talked. And instead of taking a yoga class in RL, she took a yoga class in SL.
And that is one of the challenges of SL. We have an active social life that involves dancing , swimming or very long lasting sex that doesn't involve our bodies. Its easy to get caught up with appearances on our screens and not in our mirrors. Here, its easy to shed some pounds or remove some cellulite. But if we don't work the sliders with our real life bodies, eventually we will have to permanently log off.
Downward Dog
May 18th, 2009
Raise this point from time to time. As virtual worlds become more and more compelling, will we resemble characters from E.M. Forster’s 1909 SF story, “The Machines Stops”?
That’s my antidote for too much SL! Tell your reader to get other addicts of online “life” (of any sort) to read the story:
http://www.plexus.org/forster/index.html
Otherwise:
“[W]hat was the good of going out for mere curiosity. . . .The habit was vulgar and perhaps faintly improper: it was unproductive of ideas, and had no connection with the habits that really mattered. . . . Those who still wanted to know what the earth was like had after all only to listen to some gramophone, or to look into some cinematophote.”
Sophia Untermeyer
May 18th, 2009
This is a very timely and needed post! In SL I run around, play En Garde, go dancing at least once a week, take to the skies to battle Air Kraken, all highly “aerobic” activities. In RL, My typist’s activity is mainly confined to occasional lunchtime walks at her desk job. When in SL she sits and chats, or occasionally props up her monitor so she can stand and chat. She’s been thinking of building one of those treadmill desks one sees on productivity blogs, but the expense and effort gives her pause. She has lost or is losing friends and family due to sedentary lifestyles and poor eating, and doesn’t want to go down a similar road…
Jimbo Quality
May 18th, 2009
Dear Jessica,
I’m here for you.
Love,
Jimbo
Bunny Brickworks
May 18th, 2009
Like with all things in life, this is about keeping a healthy balance. As long as SL is a mere expansion of your first life and not a replacement it works fine. As long as you still meet your real life friends for dinner and dancing, there’s nothing wrong about doing the same a few hours later with your virtual friends. And as long as you exercise in your first life, there’s absolutely nothing wrong about having a well-built avatar.
It always surprises me to read comments about the real life people behind the avatars being fat and ugly losers. There’s a bunch of flickr groups that show the people behind the little toons and a lot of them are dropdead gorgeous people – some of them look even better that their pixel version but that’s only my humble opinion. Sure, those who don’t fit into the standard beauty scheme will most likely not post their RL pics but there’s still a great number of beautiful people in those pools.
Make it a routine, don’t log on before you haven’t run a certain amount of miles or attended yoga classes or visited the gym. It takes a little bit of discipline but it helps you in both lives. Thanks for the article.
Sigmund Leominster
May 18th, 2009
Here are some tips for working out in RL while enjoying SL:
1. Use a wireless mouse. When the batteries die, you have to get up and go for new ones.
2. Indulge in a little cybersex. Fapping burns calories – although I know of no learned studies to say how long you have to fap to burn 100 calories. Perhaps Jumpman can help with this statistic.
3. Surf naked. Exposed flesh will dissipate body heat faster than covered, therefore adding to the calorie burn.
4. Use a plastic chair. Being naked and fapping on plastic will make your ass uncomfortable and sweaty, ergo, you will move your butt on and off the chair periodically.
5. Spend time at a Techno club in SL. Research shows that people can’t help moving when they hear throbbing beats so while you are at a club, you will unconsciously be working out.
6. Read Herald comments. Typically these get people angry and lead to an increased heart rate. If you are so angry you have to reply with a 3000-word essay, that’s also going burn off calories.
You could, of course, take up a diet in real life and do lots of real exercise – but then again, who am I kidding.
moses
May 18th, 2009
well, only thing i can see as a good part of second life is chances to do what i can NOT do in real life. in second life i can fly, build huge rockets, set people on fire, live in the sky in a lantern. but my shape is chosen so none would bother me. you will think no one will say any thing sexy to a chubby little girl with horns but…..ya. even in goguen sand box.
Lacie Babenco
May 18th, 2009
I have to make one suggested change to what Bunny just said. A close SL friend and I used to talk of ‘balance’ often between SL and RL. We both had the huge time suck of being new in SL.
What she said was that it’s about how we integrate SL into our lives. Is it a large part of your life and you proudly integrate it in with what you do? Or, is it something you totally try to separate? Integrating it seems far more healthy than trying to lead a total ‘double life’.
Of course, you can have so many things that you can’t in RL when you log into SL but still, the point is, do you let each enhance one another or do you try to replace one with the other? It’s pretty easy to get seduced by what SL offers and allow it to take over to the point where you lose respect for some of the important things of life.
So yeah. Bunny is totally right – do the important things in RL first…be social and be ALIVE! Take a healthy approach and avoid excess – works in both lives. Good article – good to get people thinking about this.
Pappy Enoch
May 18th, 2009
I are the drop-dead, spittin’ image o’ James Dean IRL. I wrassles polecats to stay trim an’ slim.
Since the purty gals won’t ready fo’ me in SL, I bekum a fat ol’ Hillbilly.
PS: I are nekkid in a platick chair rite now, dreamin’ of Jumpman’s butt. Hoo-whee! Jist a-thinkin’ about it made me so skinny I had to eat me a box of Ding-Dongs.
mootykips
May 18th, 2009
> In SL I run around, play En Garde, go dancing at least once a week, take to the skies to battle Air Kraken, all highly “aerobic” activities. In RL, My typist’s activity is mainly confined to occasional lunchtime walks at her desk job. When in SL she sits and chats, or occasionally props up her monitor so she can stand and chat.
ahahaha oh god you people are delusional, “my typist”. jesus christ.
Alyx Stoklitsky
May 19th, 2009
>I had a break up last week with someone on SL
I stopped reading right there.
moses
May 19th, 2009
if pappy enoch is a resident, i hope i do not meet him. and i think it is mootykips that is delusional.
mootykips is a fake name of some one that is making comments on some fake stories in some fake news paper about some fake world. so you can jesus christ about it all you want. so, like all of us if you give a fig about a fake place then you are delusional also. like me.
Pappy Enoch
May 19th, 2009
I ain’t delusional, Moses. I bin tu the doc an’ had all my shots so the sores cleared up rite qwik.
Still, you ain’t seen Jumpy’s butt yet. Sum’fin that fine cain’t be fake! I ain’t had no luck wif gals so I mite as well settul fo’ Jumpy, a papur bag, an a can o’ Crisco!
Ain’t that what SL am about?
Two Worlds
May 20th, 2009
NEWS FLASH: People who spend too much time in a virtual game may not get any physical exercise at all, and consequently may be morbidly obsese. Additionally, new research finds that the sun might be really hot. Details at 11.
Two Worlds
May 20th, 2009
Guys I’m not sure if you know this, but being emotionally and personally invested in a fake virtual world and fake virtual appearance might not exactly do wonders for your social life or physical exercise. Most normal people tend to finish up this phase right around age 15.