Second Life

Now that my Blog has been given a second life, post-April Fools, I thought today's posting would highlight and perhaps inform my bloggers of a new trend called "Second Life".

Second Life, or SL, is a virtual world on the Internet that people like you and me can subscribe to. The SL members, or "Residents" set up their own virtual personality and can interact with other personalities on the site. These personalities are called "Avatars". You create your avatar to look like anything you would like - they can even be super-human. (I am not a member but if I were to be, I think my avatar would be blond. And tall. And thin. Just like me.)




Avatars can walk around by foot, drive and also fly.

This is an example of an avatar.

Second Life is not a game. Once you are on SL, you meet other people, buy and sell virtual properties and products, and even do business. It is simply a virtual life. Second Life also has its own economy and a currency referred to as Linden Dollars (L$). Though the exchange rate fluctuates, as of February 2007, 1 US dollar equalled 270 Linden Dollars.

As of the end of March, 2007, Second Life has over 5 million members since it began in 2006. The SL phenomenon is growing so rapidly that companies such as Nike and Virgin Megastores have cashed in on it. Now, through SL, you can buy your avatar a funky new pair of Nike sneaks with your virtual money. Your purchase will be done with Linden Dollars but also charged to your credit card and then Nike will send the REAL sneakers to your home. Virgin has done the same in that you can go to the Virgin Megastore in the cyber-world and purchase anything you want. Whatever you purchase, your avatar will then have but it will also be delivered to you in real life.

Second Life has also recently emerged as one of the cutting-edge virtual classrooms for major colleges and universities, including Harvard, Pepperdine, Elon University, Ball State, and New York University. Apparently teachers can give lectures and aid their students through the virtual world. This leaves me to conclude that anyone who went to the above listed schools, or any American Ivy league school for that matter, is, without a doubt, an idiot.

So to recap...

The word of the day is "Avatar". Try to use it in a sentence.

This has been The Emm....on geeks.