Can You Tell Me The Difference

This document summarizes a news article about a couple, David and Amy, who struggled to distinguish between real life and the virtual world of Second Life. David's avatar began spending time with another woman's avatar, Modesty McDonnell, straining his real marriage to Amy. David and Amy ultimately divorced, and David is now engaged to the real Modesty McDonnell, though they have never met in person. The document contrasts real life responsibilities like work and family with imaginary worlds like Second Life, and suggests David and Amy were unable to tell the difference between reality and fantasy.

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Can You Tell Me The Difference

Uploaded by

Sudiyono Sudiyono

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CAN YOU TELL ME THE DIFFERENCE?

Format/Durasi : MP3 (3 MB | 5:32 min)

An avatar – young, tall and handsome, just like me! Image by Brian Gray/flickr.
Today we visit Second Life, and we learn the English expression “to tell the
difference”.
My daughter likes chocolate cake. Last week I made a chocolate cake. I also bought a
chocolate cake at the supermarket. I gave my daughter a little piece of each one.
“Can you tell the difference?” I asked her. I meant, if you taste both bits of cake,
can you say which one is mine and which one is the supermarket’s? So she tasted, and
she said that she could tell the difference. The supermarket cake was much better.
Oh dear!
There was a story in the newspapers last week about two people who cannot tell the
difference – the difference between real life and a fantasy world. Their names are
David and Amy. They first met each other in an internet chatroom. Then they met in
real life, and got married.
After they got married, they started spending a lot of time on Second Life. I am sure
that you know about Second Life. It is an internet programme which contains a virtual
world – not the real world of your job and your family, but an imaginary world. You can
go and live in this virtual world. You make an avatar, which is a sort of virtual you. You
decide what your avatar will look like, what it will wear and what it will be called. You
learn how to move your avatar to different places in Second Life, and how to make
things, and how to meet other avatars and talk to them.
There was a picture of the real David and Amy in the newspapers. The real David and
Amy seem to eat a lot of chips and doughnuts. But, like a lot of other people, David
and Amy chose avatars which are young, tall and handsome. They explored Second
Life with their avatars. David’s avatar became a night-club owner who travels in a
helicopter gunship. Amy’s avatar became a disc jockey. In real life, neither David nor
Amy had a job. Perhaps they spent too much time on Second Life to be able to work.
Then the trouble started. David’s avatar started meeting other women on Second
Life. The real Amy was not pleased, but she gave David a second chance. Then David’s
avatar met a young, tall, handsome lady avatar called Modesty McDonnell. They
started to spend a lot of time together. The real Amy was furious. Now the real Amy
and the real David are getting divorced. And now the real David is engaged to the real
woman whose avatar is Modesty McDonnell. The newly-engaged couple have never
actually met in the real world. This is because David lives in England while the real
Modesty McDonnell lives in Arizona in America. But perhaps this does not matter.
Perhaps the only important thing is that the two avatars love each other.
So, there is a real world where real people live, eat, have children and die. And there
are imaginary worlds like Second Life. Sensible people can tell the difference
between them. David and Amy, it seems, cannot tell the difference.
I once spent an afternoon in Second Life. I chose an avatar – young, tall and
handsome, just like the real me, of course. Then I had to teach my avatar how to walk
and to drive a car. He was useless. He kept walking into walls and into the sea. When
he drove a car, he hit people and other cars. So I never went back to Second Life.
But perhaps I should try Second Life again. Because last night something really
terrible happened. The British television viewers – who cannot tell the difference
between a beautiful woman and a baby elephant – voted the incomparably lovely Ms
Cherie Lunghi off Strictly Come Dancing. My dreams are in ruins. So – Cherie – if you
are listening, get an avatar on Second Life and meet me there, and we will dance
together the whole night long. ***