Understanding Second Life
To understand how Second Life can affect real life, one needs to know the 'ins' and 'outs' of the virtual world. Second Life began back in 2003, modeled after Neal Stephenson's novel Snow Crash, and with less than 1000 users. Now Second Life has over 7 million participants (Ondrejka 30). Over 70% of Second Life users are outside of the United States, men and women are equally involved in the virtual world, and the median age of users are in their 30s (Ondrejka 32). The first step to joining Second Life is creating an avatar which is a digital character that represents you in the virtual world. Some try and make their avatar resemble themselves while others prefer something more irregular like a polar bear.
The next important aspect of Second Life is understanding their economy. Items or services are purchased with Linden dollars which can be bought in the virtual world with real currency. These allows for a transfer of actual money with people from all over the world. Creating real estate or clothes in Second Life can earn a person real money. $6 million U.S. dollars are exchanged between Linden dollars and real currency each month (Ondrejka 31). This is a substantial amount of money and should not be taken lightly. Second Life is a thriving virtual world with a booming economy.
My experience in Second Life proved just this. In class, I was instructed to meet others in the virtual world and learn what I could from them. One thing that I immediately learned is that people can be whoever they want, because no one can look at an avatar and know that is Joe Smith. The people I met were friendly, sometimes overly so, and were willing to share information and even virtual items. After chatting with several people, I realized that the main reason people join Second Life is to form new relationships with others who share the same interests. Even though I still prefer real life over Second Life, I have a greater understanding why some people would want to spend time in a virtual world.