You got designer shades, Just to hide your face and You wear them around like, You’re cooler than me

The title for the blog some of you will recognise as lyrics from Mike Posner’s track Cooler than Me. I couldn’t get that song out of my head the second I saw this tee-shirt at IDK. The internet in general brings out a whole spectrum of behaviours that we don’t always see in every day ‘real life’ and some forums are better than others. Second Life is a unique platform in many ways and allows us the freedom to investigate and explore many aspects of ourselves that maybe we might feel unable to elsewhere. We have an opportunity to consider facets of our sexuality, our body image and creative and artistic tendencies that we might normally hide under a bushel for fear of failure, embarassment or other reasons. Using a Second Life avatar can be a real force for good. People who may be socially awkward or introverted can find themselves opening up and making friends across the world. A lack of confidence could be easier to overcome in a virtual world such as Second Life where leaving an uncomfortable situation just means clicking an X at the top of the page and escaping back to your first life. As for being cooler on the internet…I am not so sure. Yes, I get to do a lot of fun and challenging things in SL…running a club, dj’g, working at MadPea on interactive gaming experiences, building, creating, taking photographs. All of which I enjoy and could be considered ‘cool’. Am I even different on the internet? I’m the same person in both lives but I certainly live a very different lifestyle online. I’ve done a lot of things I consider to be ‘cool’ in real life too..including raising two wonderful children who are now happy, healthy and loving young adults that I am extremely proud of. In my opinion nothing I can ever do in SL will be ‘cooler’ than that. Credits: