How will you live your second life?

When you reach your second life what do you want to come back as? A teacher? A stripper? A crook? A shop owner? A bird or some kind of animal? Well now it’s possible with virtual worlds entering our screens such as Second Life. However is this right or wrong?

Firstly let me explain what Second Life is:

Second Life is an online virtual world developed by Linden Lab which was launched on June 23, 2003. A number of free client programs called Viewers enable Second Life users, called Residents, to interact with each other through avatars. Residents can explore the world (known as the grid), meet other residents, socialize, participate in individual and group activities, and create and trade virtual property and services with one another

Second Life is being used by thousands of people, making avatars of what they would want them to look like in their second life, slimmer, taller, choosing their sex, blonde hair instead of red all these things affect people mentally and emotionally as they are now able to be the ‘perfect’ person living their new lives through their avatar.

However as much fun that is brought to these users I still believe there are negative aspects that come out of it, firstly peoples health although it makes people feel better by changing anything about them it can also be very time consuming, pulling people away from their actual lives, secondly there is a privacy issue, people being able to have sexual relationships with other users, buying body parts in order to have sex with another avatar, I believe this is an extremely bad influence on the younger generation, users satisfying themselves through a virtual world I don’t think is correct, that is if its even satisfying in the first place! No one could pay me all the money in the world to take my clothes off so why would people want to be associated with this over a screen, not to mention stealing cars, boats or anything you can basically get your hands on.

I personally would not use Second Life due to the lack of time I have to uni, work and socialising with friends and family through face to face contact, However I do understand peoples reasons why they enjoy being apart of a virtual community as it’s each to their own.

Now …with people making money off Second Life as their actual job in real life I find this hard to believe. Sitting in front of your computer screen selling formal dresses at $2.50 for other avatars, or selling land for avatar users to build houses how can this possibly bring in a decent income than earning $60,000 a year working in a office? Sorry… I am still not convinced!

Second life may sound cool, exciting maybe even the key to peoples negative thoughts on their bodies etc, but I still come to the conclusion that we cannot possibly live our lives happily and truthfully through virtual communities unlike the world we actually live in today.

http://secondlife.com/