CBC - Quirks & Quarks Podcast on Second Life

Often "real life" reporters are given a short deadline to write about Second Life. In this short period of time they must write a compelling piece about something they are completely unfamiliar with. They arrive, try to navigate around, realize time is flying by and so write about the sex aspects in this virtual world. Its a combination of laziness and the basic understanding that sex sells. Its become abundantly clear that over the past few decades TV has become a feel good vessel for us to watch so called weirdos and freaks in order to feel better about ourselves. But TV programmers have also realized that showing extreme emotions are the way to go. Many of us are desensitized and require strong emotions to be connected. So for example Jerry Springer had white trash physical violence. Oprah and Dr. Phil etc are all about working hard to make people cry on tv. If you can make someone cry on tv, well thats the ultimate achivement. Watch the body language in these shows. They lean forward until they have made them cry and at that point rest back into their chair. Some of the most popular elements to American Idol are watching the humiliating performances of untalented ones. Its not about encouraging the performers and suggesting things they need to work on but rather seeing who can say the most biting comment to them. I once saw a tv show whose premise was to inform a spouse or partner that they were being cheated on and to film their reaction. But they also felt the need to lead them to the hotel room so that they could confront those having the affair once they came out. In this case they got to film the emotional destruction in discovering you were being cheated on plus tears and in some cases physical violence. Anyway i am not going to rant about this.

In Canada we have a radio station/tv called CBC. They have no need for the revenue that sensational programming brings in. And something they understand is that if you wish to have an informed opinion of Second Life ask the embedded people who inhabit it. Here is a podcast for a show called Quirks & Quarks which generally is just full of non sensational yet interesting topics. The first story in this episode is about Second Life.

http://podcast.cbc.ca/mp3/quirksaio_20100320_29498.mp3

this MP3 link should work above but if not it's here too...

http://www.cbc.ca/quirks/podcast.html