No Second Life for me, thank you.

I had, at a point of time, been really addicted to Sims. Engaging in this virtual game took up a lot of my time that by the end of the day, I realized that I had not done anything that would be considered productive at all. Assignments were put aside, daily cooked meals were replaced with instant noodles and microwavable leftovers, and don’t get me started on my social life.

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Similarly, Second Life is also a virtual world, a place on the Internet where people create their own avatars and spend hours socializing. But unlike Sims, Second Life is not just a game. It’s an online community where the avatars that you socialize with are real people just like us. Users are allowed to customize their own avatars, choosing between male or female, selecting a body type, facial features, hairstyle, as well as the clothes they wear. And again, unlike Sims, users are allowed to fly, teleport from one place to another, participate in individual or group activities, and even start virtual businesses.

We can now argue that Second Life can be considered as a part of our real lives. As quoted by Mark Stephen Meadows, “Shared experiences create a sense of reality… People in virtual worlds build things, use them, sell them, trade them and discuss them. When another person confirms what I am seeing, places value on it,spends time working to pay for it, buys it, keeps it, uses it, talks about it, gets emotional about it, and then sells it – this tells me there is something real happening. The suspension of disbelief has become a grounding of belief.”

There is a thin boundary between Second Life and real life when users begin to live on their online experiences. Since users are able to customize their avatars from the shape of the body, down to little details like the chisel of the cheekbones, they will more likely create an avatar that may have a representation of their real selves or how they imagine themselves to be. Respectively, users may feel emotionally attached to their virtual identities.

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These boundaries become almost untraceable when users find that they can do almost anything in Second Life that they can do in real life! Build intimate relationships, watch movies, go to clubs, shop for books. In fact, many people are making part or all of their income through businesses in Second Life and we can now say that the Linden dollars can be considered just as worthy as any other foreign currency.

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In a hypothetical situation, woman meets man in Second Life. Woman and man, then fall in love and decidingly, gets married in real life and in Second Life. A few months later, woman finds man cheating on her in Second Life, gets really upset and divorces him. How serious can a relationship get when it is based on their virtual lives? This situation, just as any other sales trade in Second Life, proves that there is a real interaction going on and suddenly the world of make-belief, isn’t that “make-belief” after all.

As for me, I am completely aware of how easily influenced I get when it comes to virtual reality. No way will I ever want to be 'lost' in that world again. As a human, I feel that physical interaction is an essential need for our everyday lives and maybe,just maybe, the future might be based on an improved version of Second Life. Until then, I will live my life just the way it is, thank you.

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