Becoming a Millennial

203. Guitar Hero

Ben's last day of work in the ETC was June 20.  His informal going-away party included some fun with the popular music video game, Guitar Hero. 

A month ago at the CCCU Technology Conference I had the chance to play a similar game, Rock Band, with a bunch of young techies from Trinity Western University. 

I can see why these games are so popular.  You don't have to be at all musical to "play".  You set your skill level and then compete against your partner, trying to keep up with the simplified musical notation.  If you like the music it makes the experience even more enjoyable. 

This was definitely a "millennial" experience for me.  Not quite sure what prolonged hours of this would do to my fiddle playing...

 

126. Church in SecondLife Taken Down

"I think it is funny... people like having sex clubs and all that here, but you build a church and it is like you are the biggest jerk in the world."  So says Rafin Grimm, who constructed the Catholic Church that I featured a few days ago.  He has removed his church from SecondLife. Read the entire posting, The Sacred and Profane, which documents his experience.

Apparently having an effective Christian presence is as much of a challenge in the virtual world as it is in the real world. 

124. Is There Place for Faith in SecondLife?

One of my colleagues has been wondering about the possibility of a Christian presence in SecondLife.com. 

Could legitimate relationships be formed that would lead to discussions about deeper issues of life and personal faith?  Would it be appropriate to build a chapel or a church in SecondLife?

A posting was sent to me yesterday (by a gentleman who stumbled on my blog's SecondLife posting) describing that a Catholic church has been built in SecondLife and regular masses are being held.  Click here for the full story.

113. When Fantasy Supplants Reality

Yesterday my future son-in-law was distressed to learn that star receiver Reggie Wayne might not play this weekend for the Colts.  He wasn't concerned that the Colts would be disadvantaged (Mike is a huge Steelers fan)-- he was thinking about his fantasy football team.  Wayne is one of his receivers.

A thought struck me today -- Could it be possible that down the road professional players will perform more for their fantasy league ratings than to win games for the team they actually play for?

The fantasy world of internet pornography enslaves millions, substituting virtual experiences for the real.  Fantasy role-playing games such as SecondLife and Cyworld are captivating young and old by the millions.

What happens when one's fantasy world becomes more engaging than real life; when virtual relationships supplant traditional relationships; when one simply tolerates his day of work or school in order to get back to the computer to engage in the virtual?

My sense is that technology has created this iceberg, only the tip of which we are seeing.  And the size of what lies beneath the surface keeps growing at an exponential rate.

112. SecondLife.com

This will make you sit up.  My colleague just showed me an article out of Wired Magazine about a fantasy website, SecondLife.com, that has been in existence for a few years.

From the little I have learned in the past day, the engagement (addiction!) potential of this site far exceeds that of Facebook and MySpace.

Here is a virtual world that you can join for free.  You create your own avatar (character) and then shape your own existence.  You can purchase property, build a house, start a business.  Your credit card dollars are exchanged for "Linden" dollars at a current rate of L$309: US$1.  For your avatar you can purchase clothing, hairdos, toys, guns, cars, drugs, sex ... it's all available.  You can establish relationships with other avatars on any level that you please.  You get the idea.

According to the stats provided by the website they currently have 793,200 total residents (members), 6,758 are online as I write this posting.  $355,109 in U.S. dollars were spent in the past 24 hours! The average player spends 40 hours a month in the site.  The population is increasing at 36% per month.

A while back I wrote about CyWorld, a virtual website that was created in Korea.  Reportedly over 1/3 of the entire Korean population are registered players. CyWorld has recently been recast for the American audience.  How many other role-playing fantasy sites are out there I have no idea.  I do know that our challenges as parents and teachers continue to increase.

90. Korean Millennials

I just read in the August 2006 Business 2.0 magazine about Cyworld, the Korean version of Myspace.  90% of all Koreans in their 20's are registered users of Cyworld!  That's 18 million users, out of a South Korean population of 48 million.

Cyworld is a social network including 3-D rooms and avatars.  $300,000 a day is being made by the web site!  Guess how?  Users purchase virtual items to decorate their home-pages and mini-rooms.  They can choose from tens of thousands of digital items such as furniture, appliances, stereo sets, household plants, and even background music -- each purchased for less than $1 apiece. 

If you are feeling a bit left out, wondering why the Koreans get to have all the fun ... never fear, Cyworld has been recently marketed for a U.S. audience.

77. A Young Millennial's First Airplane Ride

For two years I've been working with a young boy as part of the Kids Hope USA program.  Yesterday both of us had a first-time experience.  He had never been in an airplane.  I've flown all over the world, but never in a small Cessna 4-seater. 

This little guy's favorite activity is playing computer games -- Nintendo, Play Station.  He is constantly talking about the new games he has been able to buy or those he rents from Blockbuster. 

My own Millennials are 18, 21, and 23 years old.  None of them have had much of an interest in gaming.  I wonder about the impact of gaming on children who are immersed in it from the time they are small.  How does it affect their learning styles?  How do we as educators prepare to teach this generation?

Well, it was fun to give my mentee something other than a virtual experience.  How did we pull this off?  A colleague of mine is a pilot and he brought his little Kids Hope boy along as well.  He flew the plane.

Here is a view of Taylor University from the air.