Don’t like your life? Get a Second Life

My girlfriend told me about this yesterday and I just find this concept so bizarre that I feel compelled to post about it. I had never heard of this ‘Second Life‘ before, so it was quite an eye opener. Basically, after downloading the Second Life software, you create a person in this virtual world and by spending real money, you can buy property, set up businesses, and embark on a career. There is a great Wiki entry for the Second Life n00b as well. But as the official site puts it:

Second Life is a 3-D virtual world entirely built and owned by its residents. Since opening to the public in 2003, it has grown explosively and today is inhabited by a total of 1,288,782 people from around the globe.

The aspect that I find hard to fathom is the website’s claim that “Thousands of residents are making part or all of their real life income from their Second Life Businesses.” They do this by earning ‘Linden Dollars’ (the Second Life currency) and converting these to US dollars via Second Life and third party currency converters. This says to me that there are thousands of people out there who don’t have a real life; they live their life vicariously through their Second Life. Is this really a healthy way to live? Are there people out there who literally ‘give up’ on their real life and try to create a better one in a virtual world?

Now, I don’t know if I’m the only one, but this concerns me a little. Has society really come to the point where people prefer to live in a virtual world, with no sense of taste, touch or smell and without real human interaction? Do they prefer to participate here rather than participate in the real world around them? What happens if the Second Life servers crash, or if a malicious user sets free a Second Life virus of plague proportions? What will these people do with themselves with no income, no real life, no real friends?

I am assuming here that the heaviest users dedicate all their time to their Second Life, but considering that everything within the Second Life world must be created by the users, using the 3D client provided, I think this is a fair assumption to make.

I would love for someone out there to do a study on the kinds of people who use this service; basic demographics, usage patterns, amount of real income generated, and for me the really interesting part would be a comparison of their real life to that of their Second Life residents.

I am even thinking of conducting a bit of a social experiment myself, by signing up for one of the ‘First Basic‘ accounts, which is free, and investigating what this virtual world really is about. My main issue is whether I have enough time to do it, but if there are enough people who would be interested in my findings then I might just give it a go. Think this is a good idea? Please let me know.

Thanks for reading!
-Howo