SECOND LIFE TIME

Writing about time and how it is relative and moves differently when in SL, got me wondering on the amount of hours spent by each user in this virtual platform and how it seems to increase as our “second lives” get busier. I know that many of us have venues, projects, shops and so on to worry about and some require careful supervision; a few lucky ones have even managed to make of second life and their in-world business their sole source of income.

But then I ask myself, is it healthy to spend most of your free time in front of a computer screen? and I ask myself this question very often. I reflect carefully on what my life was like before second life came along and yes, even though I was missing out on an incredible amount of things that as of today I just love doing  -those I have found fulfilling and worth spending time at- I have to admit my free time was truly free time and felt like it. I’d just kick back and read a book, do some exercise or just sit in the couch watching a movie I liked.

Not the case any more, second life has become a second set of worries that I embark myself on whenever I am not working in RL (I even have SL on my phone so I can check on my son, the club or ongoing projects while commuting). Funnily enough, I can’t imagine my life now without my daily dose of SL, the person that is Spike is mostly me, carefully divided and set aside from the RL me but obviously still me in 90 % of my general persona (meaning that there are things in that small percentage I don’t mix with my SL)

Then why is it then that as we get more and more invested in SL and our virtual lives, instead of stopping it or cutting down on in-world time we move forward? I was discussing this with one of the few RL friends I ever discuss SL with, and I came to the conclusion that we, as humans do this on pure self motivation and evolution. There comes a point in your second life that your so entangled in so many projects, you just wish to move forward and see them to completion.

In my own personal case, and if you have taken the time to be around me and get to know me, SL is a therapy. I enjoy being busy and my mind is constantly working, so if I didn’t have SL, I’d probably be finding an extra set of worries to busy my head with and fill those dead hours of the day you just didn’t know what to do with before SL came along.

There are days and days, like one on my friends said on Facebook today “It’s a beautiful day, I’ll just sit back and read a book”. If you all excuse me, after having tied all the loose ends on my Second life time of today and after finishing my article. I’ll sit back on my terrace, and read a book until I get sleepy. There are moments and days when a dose of RL time for yourself is needed and good for the soul…

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