A Poetic Look at Virtual Friends

I recently won second prize in the Community Virtual Library's poetry contest for my poem, "Virtual Friend" which is reprinted below. I posted the poem on Facebook and was both surprised and pleased that so many people commented about it. Hollyjean Allen felt it expressed her own feelings about her friends in Second Life so accurately that she wants to send a few of them a link to it. When I wrote it, I did have a certain SL friend in mind, but I realize that most of the sentiments are quite general and can be shared by many. I certainly believe that virtual friends can be as important to a person's support network, and sometimes even more so, than real life friends, although I also think that friends are friends, whether you meet them online or in person.

One of the lines in my poem asks, "Where do you find a friend?" Friends can be found anywhere, but there are many degrees to friendship. A person is lucky to have a close friend that they can share their ups and downs with. When we're young, we sometimes have a "best friend" that becomes almost like a brother or sister. But as we grow older, it's sometimes not as easy to form close friendships because we are involved in so many other things and have hardly the time for ourselves and our relatives, let alone a friend. It's sad that so many people go through life just having casual friendships. Whether a virtual world is the place many lonely people can find deeper friendships, I don't know. Speaking from the viewpoint of a person who is shy in real life, I do think that it is easier to strike up similarities with people online, although, of course, one must be careful. The advantage to socializing online is that the physical is not a factor, and some people may feel more comfortable revealing themselves when they are not being judged by looks or age or sex. As I also say in my poem, "Age doesn't matter, sex doesn't matter, and distance matters even less." Isn't it a great thing that people from all over the world can meet and interact via the Internet?

The photo on this blog is from a recent get together at my new SL house with a few of my virtual friends.

Here's the poem.

Virtual Friend

We met in a virtual world
a place created from fantasy
yet the friendship we formed was based on truth and reality
I can't fully grasp all that you've come to mean to me
I can tell you things that I can share with no other
I have no fear that you will hurt me, and you know your confidences are safe with me
You see me clearer than those who see me every day
even though you've never laid eyes on me
You touch me deeper than those who are always by my side
even though you've never laid a hand on me
Your support strengthens and encourages me
I am glad to share your sorrow,
You can heal my pain
just by listening.
And when we laugh together, it's at the same jokes
the ones written in the same books
but we read them from miles apart, worlds apart, and yet they are so close
as close as we are virtually.

Where does one find a friend? Not just an acquaintance but someone true, someone honest like you?
Age doesn’t matter, sex doesn’t matter
and distance matters even less
I guess
we never would've met years ago
before technology gave us a way
Today
there are so many ways to stay in touch online
You're always there for me
and I am thankful I found you along the path
It's a lonely walk otherwise
And when we walk it together, it's the same path
the one we follow that leads the same way
but we walk it from miles apart, worlds apart, and yet we are so close virtually.

Spreading the Word about Virtual Librarianship

I was among five librarians recently asked to say a few words about my experience as a librarian in Second Life for a convention of the Portuguese Librarians, Archivists and Documentalists Association (B.A.D) Congress 2010.





The person who asked me, Clark Abismo (Miguel Correia in real life) is a friend of mine who I met and worked with in Second Life. I was honored to have been asked to make this presentation, although a bit nervous, because I felt it was a good opportunity not only to help a friend and colleague and introduce fellow librarians from Portugal to virtual librarianship but also to review for myself what I and other librarians, most from the Community Virtual Library, have done in Second Life.

If you'd asked me three years ago, before I'd joined SL if I'd ever make a testimony about virtual librarianship, I'd probably say you were crazy. There are still many in the library field who feel that environments or worlds such as Second Life, actually they refer to them as "games," are inhabited by people with too much time on their hands or nothing better to do than play. This couldn't be further from the truth. Most SL librarians that I know have regular full-time jobs and, although they do like to have fun in SL once in awhile such as going to dances, this helps them to network as it does in real life. And as far as the type of librarians who join SL, they come from all over the world and bring with them experience and knowledge from their own academic, public, or special libraries, and the person who started it all, Lorelei Junot (Lori Bell in real life) of Alliance Library Systems is definitely not a person you would say plays games. She is a professional in every sense of the word and has brought that professionalism to the group that continues on the Info Archipelago now as the Community Virtual Library.

So speaking to groups like B.A.D. from Portugal or other countries or even locally, we can spread the word about virtual librarianship. And maybe those who hear us might join SL or bring their libraries here. Wouldn't that be great?