Virtual Heart Break

This video is quite funny and pertinent to my ongoing discussion about emotions experienced in RL vs. virtual environments.

"If This is Second Life Why is My Heart Breaking in Real Life"



I love that the women speak in TTS (text-to-speech). I guess now that SL is going to allow voice-communication, audiences may expect more expressive voice-acting in such videos - perhaps in real-time SL as well. I wonder if someone will offer voice-filters to maintain some of the anonymity afforded by texting.

But back to the main point - these women are heartbroken - in real and second life! But what if this were a para-authentic event (i.e., the same people who were dating in SL were dating in RL)? What if this guy was two (three)-timing these women in RL and SL? They would be even more heart-broken, right? What if he were faithful in RL but cheating in SL? I think they would be less heart-broken than in the previous condition. Now, what if he were faithful in SL but cheating in RL? Would his faithfulness in SL even matter? Probably not - unless the women ascribed more importance to their SL than RL relationships. This is not such a profound assertion, but perhaps it will lead to some better thoughts later. For now, it leads me back to my sea of email - the tides are rising, I'm hypothesizing.