Well, last week, as I watched the Olympic team synchronized swimming competition it occurred to me that I had not really watched synchro for a long, long time. The duration of the event, the often-impeccable display of synchrony in movement, the creativity in the performances, all amounted to amazement.

Synchro swimmers have certainly been just as artistic and athletic during all of those previous years; so, why is it that synchro just never did it for me before. What kept me from seeing the artistry and athleticism?I have a hunch…

That was then, this is now.

In a comment posted to a group discussion about collaboration in education, Birdie Newcomb (SL) wrote

“…almost every day, I’m learning…how to find out what I need to know, how to work with people, find out their stories, marvel at ingenuity or originality. It refreshes me. Why doesn’t it refresh students the same way?”

I have a hunch about this, too; but, will take a long way ’round…

In a recent post, Hamlet reveals an overall shrinking in the proportion of echo boomers in Second Life®. He goes on to present Feldspar Epstein’s notion that

Generation X’ers know how to play in the freeform manner that Second Life requires, whereas Millennials typically do not display that skill

My emphasis is on the word “display” here, because I have no doubt that the Gen-Y users of SL will show us all a thing or two about using this new technology.  These are smart kids.  But, with all of the technology and virtual world games around, maybe they look at the state of the technology and think “what’s the big deal?”

The advent of the World Wide Web also found many people wondering what is the big deal?, especially amongst the oldest of us. That was then. Now, it is a rare thing for me to meet someone who does not regularly use the Internet for something (and I spend most of my time in a retirement community).

Perhaps, in the same way that it took a long time for me to appreciate synchronized swimming—by seeing how far the sport has come— the echo boomers will only begin to invest themselves in virtual world building after the technology ripens a bit.

Did not know what was meant by this last bit; but, it came up again later. Appears that Linden Labs provides an area of transition for those immigrating from TG – sort of an Ellis Island for the youngest users in the grid. Likely several sims are devoted to this purpose; and, it seems to have worked for E…he has land, building privileges, and is quite removed from much of the traffic.

On reaching an eighteenth birthday, each user in the TG is packed up and relocated to MG. Seems that E has mixed feelings about this. (E has just mentioned a number of TG friends, says he misses them.)

Virtual reality…”physical contact.” Like many things in first life, Second Life is what you make of it.

Visiting E’s “shack” (as he calls it) encourages me. Having visited just a few virtual homes and offices – all of them furnished with end tables, and bookshelves (with a texture of eight books that do not do a thing) – it was interesting to see E’s sparse arrangement; only what is useful, little included for the sake of appearance. Every item — it seemed — was interactive, and the room uncluttered, and have a different feel than the RL suburban simulations I just mentioned. Certainly E’s RL clubhouse or tree fort, if he had one four or five (RL) years ago, may have had this same look…But that would have been due to RL constraints; in Second Life, E has chosen to create a spartan space.

“British shopkeepers tired of teenage loiterers have turned to the Mosquito teen repellent, which emits a high-pitch frequency that most teenagers can hear — but not most adults.
But now teens have struck back against the Mosquito: They are using the same sound to communicate without adults’ knowledge. At issue is a text-message ringtone that emits the same pitch as the Mosquito. Using it, students can learn about a new message while they’re in class — where they’re not supposed to be using their cellphones. Most of their teachers can’t hear the alert.”

- NPR : Teens Turn ‘Repeller’ into Adult-Proof Ringtone