last comment on this issue for a while Fwd: Mike Godwin's comments on the Schwartz story

[David J Farber <farber () radiomail net>]

----- Forwarded Message


Date: Thu, 31 Mar 94 15:10:26 EST
From: mcmullen () phantom com (John F. McMullen)
Subject: Mike Godwin's comments on the Schwartz story
To: farber () central cis upenn edu
Cc: mcmullen () phantom com


Whether or not the story was intended to be a cautionary tale or not,
it should be taken as such -- I know people who knew the young m
from their comments and Schwartz's story, it is obvious that he 
MUSH addicted .. as are many people that I talk to on various 
MUSHES -- I know a number of folks who have gotton thrown out
of school because they "moved into the MUSH" and forgot about
school work -- I know a woman whose marriage is in serious


trouble because she found more solice on the MUSH (maybe it was in
trouble before but no one knew about it -- it was only after her
husband logged her sessions unbeknownst to her that it came to a
head). I know 2 people doing doctoral studies on Mush life and
certainly the MIT and Xerox MOOS are intended to be laboratories.


I'm not knocking MUSH life - it is interesting and addictive. I 
however, that we must be on guard against the movement to addiction
and that those "adults" that study MUSH life should be willing to 
invest time with persons who seem to be addicted -- when we see 
the same folks are on 6 to 9 hours every day, it should be a clu
that there is not much going on in thir lives.


There are no easy answers here -- but we should be aware that, f
many, the MUSH way of like is a consumming fantasy that becomes reality.
For others, it's a game .. or a method of communications .. or a
way of making friends (but is kept in perspective). For others, it's
more - I know a young woman (only on-line) who has become "tiny-
and real-life engaged through a Mush -- she's off this weekend t
consummate the marriage -- she's driving 18 hours to do it -- an
will be the first time that she has laid eyes on him. 


I know a 37 CIS teacher who was tiny engaged -- and the groom fl
(37 year old -- typo last line)
over from Germany both to meet her and be together for the weddi
He's still here and she tells me that things are working out fin
-- I hops so -- her first and second experience weren't real goo
she meta guy in the flesh at SIAGRAPH that she had previously been
extremely close with on a MOO -- it turned out that he was younger
than he had said .. and although he had been shy and respectful on line,
now wanted to take her to bi-sexual orgies -- it didn't compute.


The Mushes, although easy to dismiss as games or fantasy, represent
the frontier. They are interesting, adictive, sometimes scarey places
and, like life, are often too much for some folks to handle