From when we are little trust is something we learn from our parents. Trust is something we give willingly to them because they care for our every need, and as we get older, we’re taught how to trust and when and how not to trust when necessary. But it’s this reporter’s opinion that trust is a double edged sword. As much as trust can be something rewarding it can also be something that cuts like a knife if those you have trusted wish to misuse or abuse that trust. And yet trust is also something very necessary to life.
Can we trust people in Second Life? Generally speaking, we can. When one rents land, they must trust the landowner to give them the prims allowed, to not take their hard earned L$ and run, to upkeep the land you rent from them. When we buy an object or outfit on marketplace, we trust that the seller has been fair and honest in the item listing and pricing and that we will receive exactly what we saw listed and purchased. There are many ways every day in SL that one must trust the other people around them. But for every bit of trust we put into people, sometimes the double edged sword I mentioned earlier comes into play and we get burned. Perhaps emotionally and sometimes financially. For some, it’s something that can be shrugged off, as a cost of being part of the greater Second Life Community.
What do the residents of SL think? Can we trust one another?
For this article I asked SL residents this one simple question:
Becca Drascol: Can you trust people in Second Life?
DarkShadowPrincess Huntress: In the past eight years that I have been here I have met wonderful people. Like yourself, like VividDreamz, and I have made a family. There have been only a few people that turned out not to be quite what they portrayed. But there have not been many. I'd say that yes my experience has been good. But one always needs to be careful everywhere. Even in RL.
MasterVemon13inc Resident: Sometimes yes, it’s about the bonding.
NessietheReaper Resident: To a degree yes. I don’t trust people easily as it is, but I’ve met a few people from here, and if I didn’t think I could trust them I wouldn’t have even considered it.
Bigred19663 Resident: Well SL is just like RL......there are some you can trust and some you can't.
RpCg Resident: I would say that people in SL are just as easy to trust, and worthy of trust, as people that you meet in RL; either way, it's how well you know them, and what you believe of what they choose to reveal.
Much like our real world and lives, trust is something not always easily given. It needs to be earned. It takes knowing someone, and perhaps even then you may still get burned or you may be rewarded. It seems for those I spoke with it’s 50/50. A matter of give and take perhaps. But to receive trust, we must also learn to give trust. There are no hard and fast rules or right or wrong on whether we do, or do not trust. And most certainly it’s not so much a matter of whether it’s in real life or our virtual second lives. People are people.
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