Tragic Death of Baby Demands The Virtual World Community Dig Deeper and Look in the Mirror

I didn't click the link to the Gamer's Tot Dies of Starvation headline when it popped up in my virtual world feed on Thursday. I assumed it was a tabloid story making a dubious connection between the horrific death of a child and a parent's coincidental participation in an online game. Three days and hundreds of articles later it seems clear that there was a deep connection between the parents' participation in virtual worlds and the eventual neglect-induced death of their 3-month-old daughter.

Although sensational headlines such as Girl starved to death while parents raised virtual child in online game are overly-simplistic, the underlying tragedy demands that those of us who are active in the avatar community dig deeper into our own virtual lives:

• Does the time and energy we devote to online activity negatively impact our families to any substantive degree? Don't just say no. Ask them.

• Are there any important physical world tasks that are being neglected while we spend time in virtual worlds? Career? Education? What else?

• Is there an addictive or compulsive quality to our own use of virtual worlds, social networks or other online activity?  Does the thought of being forced to spend a week totally off the network make you flinch? How about a month? A year? 

The most active and outspoken members of the avatar community are usually so focused on defending the legitimacy of virtual worlds that we tend to off-handedly shrug off these kind of questions. I think it's time we take a hard, clear-eyed look in the mirror.

Are We Ants or Are We Avatars?

Something about Twitter recently has made me feel like a minuscule and insignificant ant scurrying from data crumb to data crumb in the semi-aware hive-consciousness of social networking. Perhaps, like the ants who created the artifact discovered in this video, there is some greater whole that is being created. Maybe not. In any case, this glimpse under the surface is a very humbling look at the work of "mere" ants.