Why Virtual Sock Puppets?

Second Life, and those I've met there, inspired this blog.  And a whole lot of names I might have used were taken.  Virtual Sock Puppets came to me as a way to describe, in my own less than serious manner, the nature of Second Life. 

When we were little children we would (or at least I, and most of my friends would) put socks over our hands (sock puppets) and use these extensions of ourselves as make believe characters.  They could do, or say, any sort of outrageous thing that came to mind.

In Second Life, many of us will use our avatars much the same way.  We create representations of ourselves to say, do or make things we can't, won't, shouldn't or just aren't ready to do in the real world.  Make believe so to speak.

So, in a way, I'm a virtual sock puppet.  And I'm using this blog to write about other virtual sock puppets and their doings.  Am I trivializing Second Life?  Heck no!  I think SL, and probably other virtual worlds and similar venues, have given thousands, by now maybe millions, of people a way to explore, see, be, do and learn about all manner of things.  I believe that Second Life is in the first wave of a new paradigm, something that is hardly trivial.  And one day, people will look back on its comparatively primitive nature, and next to the technology of that future day, it will seem little better than the paper dolls, or sock puppets, of children.  Till then, we use what we have!