What do your Second Life belongings mean to you?

[Kittyrissa]

I'm one of a team of two researchers from Griffith University in Australia currently undertaking research in Second Life. We'd love to have a talk to anyone willing to discuss what their Second Life belongings mean to them. It would be especially wonderful if anyone would be willing to walk us through part of their inventory and tell us a bit about their belongings. 

We'd also be especially interested if anyone has recreated items from their past (such as a childhood home or favourite toys/ clothes) or has received items from someone who has passed away or otherwise left Second Life. 

With that said, we would love to hear from absolutely anyone! 

[SkillsFurrystorm]

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Kittyrissa wrote:

I'm one of a team of two researchers from Griffith University in Australia currently undertaking research in Second Life. 

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So to be clear, it's you and a buddy.

Have you any understanding of the sheer number of "researchers" who visit here?

Anyway, provide RL contact details and I'm happy to help. I find that's the dealbreaker for most of these "SL researchers". Hey who would have guessed?

[Rhonda Huntress]

Interesting This certainly a different angle.

  I could take you through my inventory but that is less than 10% of everything I have owned.

[Bitsy Buccaneer]

My belongings are things I've acquired over the years. Some have memories of course and some are especially cool, but overall there is so much that it all blurs together a bit.

My creations are things that have pushed me to learn new skills and work through multiple problems in order to bring an idea together. Art is too fancy a word, at least as its normally used, but like all arts, they're an expression of something jangling around inside my head that hopefully someone else appreciates or is entertained by as well.

I don't own them. For a while, they own me.

[Persephone Emerald]

Very little of my inventory are recreations of RL possessions. I had recreated a place to some degree, but that's largely landscaping with items other people have made. The only parts I made myself were a blowhole & a rough wooden bench, both made to look like items from the Mendocino Headlands State Park. I recreated a place I love but can't go to visit easily in RL. I own the cliff rocks pictured below, which helped me to sort of recreate this RL location.

I have a virtual pet wolf & a pet Siberian husky, which are nods to the wolf-dog I had & the husky I currently have. My virtual ones don't look much like my real ones. I also have photos of my real wolf-dog to put around my virtual house.

You might ask people which virtual possessions they cherish most. One of my most cherished is a fairly realistic wolf avatar, which is also a nod to my RL wolf-dog who passed. I also cherish pictures taken of an SL friend who died in RL, as well as SL pictures of  me & an ex-boyfriend. These are reminders of people & times I held dear, whether I knew them in RL or SL.

I love my most recent SL house, but I don't have land now, so I can't use it. It's based on a Swedish-style farmhouse. I modified it to add a bathroom & turned what was the bathroom into a 2nd bedroom for my favorite alt. I'm fond of some of my furniture & furnishings, from an easily modifiable sofa to a non-modifiable china tea cup with rose petals in it.  I also love my skybox sky garden that I made myself, basically a big box that's textured & landscaped to look like a little park. These are both virtual homes, personalized places that are both private & cosy, while also reflecting the interests & personality of their owner.

I love my "Virgina Alone" sculpture by Bryn Oh of a RL woman who lived alone in an old farmhouse in Canada. She's a non-modifiable, non-copyable art work that links to a

of the real woman talking about her life. I like this sculpture because it reminds me of my mother, who has advanced Alzhiemer's.

I made an art piece myself that's a building with 3 rooms inside. I guess I love that too.

Hair, clothing & skins don't mean much, because I can always get new ones. My shape is one I made to look kind of like my RL self, so it means more, though I can recreate it from recorded measurements.

I think we value virtual possessions that remind us of people, pets & times we loved, items that represent how we've personalized our avatar & our presence inworld, & rare or expensive items.

[Nalytha]

Regardless of whether or not you think this person deserves answers based on him/her being one more reasearcher, I think the topic is interesting and worthy of discussion. 

Personally, I'm a minimalist in real life and I'm, for the most part, a minimalist in Second Life. I will admit that I'm prone to purchase more items in Second Life, though I have a feeling I don't feel the need to acquire as much as some. It's easy to accumulate in Second Life, but just like in real life, I prefer quality over quantity. I am willing to spend quite a bit on quality and not look twice at most freebies. I spend $20 a month on my home. I do this because I found the perfect place for myself, and it brings me much happiness to log in. 

People come to Second Life for different reasons. One of my main reasons is my home. I spent months looking for the right neighborhood and the right house. I've had this house up for about two weeks and it is still very empty. For two reasons: 1. The minimalist in me loves and treasures open space. 2. It is VERY hard for me to shop. Before I buy something, I ask myself "Do I LOVE this item. Do I look at it, and it brings me joy?" 

Two of my favorite items are these: 

1. A slideshow in my home of my real life cats, including one that passed away. 
2. My in game cats, especially my Unicorn cat, which I believe I spent around L$4,000 on. I would have spent more. The moment I saw this cat, I knew I had to have it. It instantly makes me happy. I log in and see him and am instantly in a better mood. 



[wherorangi]

basically, fundamentally even maybe, for me is just stuff

i try not to get emotionally invested in stuff. Meaning that if it gets lost or destroyed then I might be a little bit annoyed at the loss for a time but I am not going to break my heart over it

i only got so much broken hearts emotionals to give up, and all what I have got left over after spending most on myself, goes on other people

maybe is not what you looking for in your research paper, I just say how I think and feel about it

[Kittyrissa]

Thank you everyone for your thoughtful replies. 

For the benefit of SkillsFurrystorm and for anyone else who would feel more comfortable knowing our RL credentials, I'm happy to provide them.

I'm a PhD candidate at Griffith University. You can find my email address on my Griffith Experts page here https://experts.griffith.edu.au/academic/clarissa.carden. 

I'm working with Senior Lecturer Margaret Gibson. Her SL username is MargieG and you can find her staff page here: https://www.griffith.edu.au/humanities-languages/school-humanities-languages-social-science/staff/margaret-gibson. Her book, Objects of the Dead, explores what happens to the objects which are left behind when a loved one passes away. You can find more information about the book here: https://www.mup.com.au/items/120912. 

If anyone would be willing to speak to us in greater depth please contact us either via IM or through our email addresses, available at the above links.

I hope this information helps to address some concerns. 

 

 

[HikaruMiyamoto]

I'd be happy to help you with your research. The avatar I currently use is not my original avatar but I can tell you about the one that was almost 5 years old with thousands of dollars worth of inventory I recently deleted. My time zone is UTC +7 -- So shoot me a note card or IM and I can give you my email if that is useful.