A Second Life to Live

Webculture/Social Networks/Second Life/NPR
Found on: npr.org

Over the last few years, many people's real lives have begun to spill over more and more into their online lives, and the population of virtual worlds is booming. Six and a half million users quest for powers and treasures in the online game site World of Warcraft, and hundreds of thousands live at least part of the time in an online world called Second Life.

For those of you immersed in "first lives," a virtual world is an interactive Internet environment which can be accessed by multiple users. Not all of these worlds are games. In Second Life, some people have businesses that generate thousands of dollars in real money, some socialize, and some attend events that blur the line with the real world.