Comments on: Beauty Isn’t Just “Prim” Deep: The Effect Second Life Can Have on Self Image

By: sandrar

sandrar — Thu, 10 Sep 2009 13:35:20 +0000

Hi! I was surfing and found your blog post… nice! I love your blog. Cheers! Sandra. R.

By: Bare Essentals

Bare Essentals — Sat, 08 Aug 2009 00:38:00 +0000

Sl is a fun place to spend lots of time and be whoever you want.

By: Dare to be Different in Second Life « The Cindy Kesey Show

Dare to be Different in Second Life « The Cindy Kesey Show — Sat, 13 Jun 2009 16:00:52 +0000

[...] ourselves and bolster our self confidence in our real lives. (Don’t believe me? check out my post that disscusses research on the subject). And, sadly, like real life we probably also experience [...]

By: mikah

mikah — Wed, 04 Mar 2009 05:09:06 +0000

SL is a free world where u can do whatever u want to do.U can marry another avatar and make sex.My husband is hooked and spending mostly 10hrs of his time.He has a wife in SL and soon became developed with each other.He dumped me now.He choose his SL wife over me.We were so inlove with each other before until he found out this second life,then everything changed.Our real life marriage can’t be repaired anymore.

By: CandyCandy

CandyCandy — Wed, 06 Aug 2008 10:26:35 +0000

I am still not sure if SL influence is positive or negative on my RL. What I know is that FOR SURE SL affects my RL in many ways.
I must confess I have two avatars in SL. The first avatar I created is beautiful, but after a while I find out that her life was becoming so much as my RL. A stable relashionship, good friends, a familiy, a house… and I suddenly realized I was not happy with that, I was replicating myself… and I found out that I wanted to be different from my RL. That’s why I created Candy. She is different from me, beautiful but different. I am trying to find out other aspects of my personality through her. So basically, I got a second life to “escape” from my RL and now I have a third life to “escape” from my second life. Should I need a psycologist?? lol

By: eve express

eve express — Sun, 27 Jul 2008 01:11:15 +0000

Cindy,
I agree completely and here we can be exactly what we want to be. As beautiful or different as we choose. And yes, if you spend hours here, thinking of yourself as beautiful or unique, it can’t help but influence the rest of your life……………for the better.

By: The Plague of Popularity: Do You Take Your Second Life Friends for Granted? « The Cindy Kesey Show

Mon, 02 Jun 2008 04:48:34 +0000

[...] prompts me to muse on these moments and meander down memory lane you wonder? Well my last post discussed how studies have shown that Second Life can affect our personal self esteem in a positive [...]

By: Djembe Babenco

Djembe Babenco — Sat, 24 May 2008 12:12:21 +0000

hi cindy,

you raise some good points here. you also chose a great painting by picasso for your header. it works on a few levels. the woman in the painting is looking at herself in a mirror, which could represent either her second life avatar, or her inner soul. the reflection appears different, yet it is still her. she is pregnant in both images. this could represent the creation and birth of of the change that second life brings forth. i do think of djembe as me, but i also feel like djembe was “born” from my inner thoughts and desires. he is both a reflection of who i am, and an expression of the things that lay hidden within my soul. the timing of your article was good as i just made djembe shorter to match my partner zooey’s height. we are the same height in first life, and after meeting her i wanted our avatars to see “eye to eye” lol. thanks for choosing this painting. it’s been a favorite of mine for years, and i had the honor of seeing the original in New York city at the Museum of Modern Art. it is larger than i expected it to be. thanks cindy!

-djembe babenco

By: cindykesey

cindykesey — Wed, 21 May 2008 19:17:53 +0000

Hi Nev,
Interesting questions. Admittedly Cinderella looks a lot like the real me. And I continue to look more and more like her. Maybe this points to a subconscious desire for them to merge as one into a blended virtual reality that allows for seamless transition back and forth from each realm ala “Matrix” (although that transition is hardly seamless, I admit).

More likely we evolve toward each other simply because we are each other. And I have no desire to be anyone else, even as a cartoon. I want Cin to be as much me as possible because I want my friends in SL to love me for exactly the person I am and not some pixelated poser. But that’s just my thang. I realize there are plenty of others who prefer to be someone else in world.

In response to your yet to have experienced any sort of bounce in your real life from your experiences in SL, give it time. And check back with me in 6 months. I think you’ll see what I mean once you have your own “tipping point moment.”

By: Nev Loring

Nev Loring — Wed, 21 May 2008 18:21:25 +0000

First off, nice article. I enjoyed it immensely.

It did make me think of af ew things. I know Cinderella in SL, having had the good fortune to have met her, and what made me think was this: The Avatar that Cindy has created is obviously not a standard, run-of-the-mill city chic or whatever avatar, it is one created from certain other pieces, gathered over time and from different sources. So it was grown, as similarily has her real-life likeness to her AV. But what image are you bringing your AV towards? Even unconsciously, you must be thinking of a certain look that you are aspiring towards…. so you and your Avatar are having this bond, this very real and life impacting bond, and being led for example by some early youthful idea of beauty, perhaps more easily found with the click of a button and the spending of virtual money, instead of hard earned cash or difficult-to-find time. Having been in SL but a few months, I haven’t felt any noticeable change in my RL social life, besides burning the ear of my SL ignorant friends. I agree that SL affects your RL image, but what of the ongoing changes that your AV goes through? Is this an attempt to resist the normal changes in our own lives (par exemple age and acne) or an unconscious acceptance of these challenges?

I hope I am coherent, and again, well done on the article =)