It's a Jungle Out There

    I've known this for a while, but...I only started thinking much on it. Strangely because I found an elephant prop, but also because of some happenings today. But, SL, just like RL, is a place full of a variety of people; some good, some not so much. The only difference is, it may be a bit harder to tell the difference with the anonymity that the virtual world provides. Some people obviously just want to play their mind games, while others will just outright be cruel. Now, I've been lucky enough to not have to really deal with this type of thing, but I know some who have. It causes burnout and pushes good people from SL.
    Probably everyone is here to have fun, but some of those people's fun is not so much for others. The thing about the Internet is that it makes the world smaller. That is good in the fact that you meet some wonderful people, but not in that you can meet some awful people as well. I've met some of both kinds, but I haven't had anything really 'dramatic' with the latter. I'm only hoping I'm not jinxing myself here. The 'politics' of the realm changes from place to place; sometimes it's a power game (which happens on RP sims more often than not) and sometimes it's simply to make someone break. Second Life is so close to being like the real world in the aspect of how people act, yet some do not realize this and remain naive. There are the good and bad. There are those who honestly care and there are those who will drop you quickly.
    Things move quicker with the virtual realm it seems. That's...not really a good thing from my POV, since that can also lead to someone getting hurt faster. When I've scanned through profiles, I see people parterning and unparterning so often and so fast, it isn't funny. I know there are exceptions, but I'm simply basing off what I see. Relationships, friendly or romantic, take time. As it is, with the two who are my dearest friends I've met through SL, it took me...probably about 6 months before I actually spoke to one in a more 'friend' type way. And the other? Well, I'm not sure. We hadn't even IMed until maybe after a month or two that we were on each other's lists for roleplay purposes. In both cases, though, it took time. And that seems to be something that many forget. I know there are people who also take time like they would in real life, but...I've seen enough to know that many do not. Many do treat this as if it were a video game where there are only NPCs, maybe even forgetting their feelings in the process, and someone gets hurts. Even the ones who remember, there are enough who use the 'invisibility' given to them to just hurt people because they can change accounts whenever they'd like and never be bothered with it again.
    I'm hoping you keep this in mind and, please, do remember that SL is like RL which is definitely a jungle.

On a slightly lighter note: here's the elephant prop I found! :D