Second Life

The article "Identity and Gender in Second Life" that was published in the book Living Virtually deals with women that are actively participating in the online game Second Life. The text deals with women who were interviewed and asked questions while participating in the online game. The main issue that the text is about are the avatars especially women create for themselves. They are usually very attractive with bodies as athletic as those of models. These women live in a virtual world where they look good and try to be popular and integrated. In real live, these women admitted, that they do not look as their avatars, but they wished they would. I think these women are not self-confident at all. If they were, they would get out of their houses more often and meet real people.
The most grotesque example, to my mind, were Cici and her husband ( Living Virtually 159). Cici seems to be upset with the doings of her husbands avatar. She is complaining about him dating other avatars, but even if she sits next to him in the real world she does not say anything to him. Cici seems to be unable to seperate the real world from the virtual one. In cases like this I question myself whether this kind of addiction to a video game like Second Life can have a serious influence on real relationships. These people have no possibility to find someone or meet someone in real life when they are spending their entire time in virtual worlds like this.

Loke, Jaime. "Identity and Gender in Second Life." Living Virtually Researching New Worlds. Ed. Heider, Don.  Peter Lang Publishing, Inc., New York: 2009. Print. 145-161.