Second Life is a 3-D virtual world created by its Residents. It first opened to the public in 2003 and now has millions of "residents" from all over the world. Thousands of new residents join each day and create an avatar. These avatars explore the world and meet new people on this virtual world. They can buy, sell, and trade virtual land. On this virtual land people can build anything they want, their own paradise. Each avatar can be designed to the users preference, including their name and appearance.
I do think this could be a good way for some people to pass time. And even though it is nothing that I would be interested in, some people like that kind of stuff. I opened an account on there to see what it would be like and to be honest, there are some things that caught my attention. But overall, I was more confused than anything. For me, I would have required more help to get things done on that virtual world.
Im sure there are some people on this site that devote many many hours to building, buying, selling and trading things on there. I dont think there is anything wrong with this concept until people place their real lives on hold to accomplish something on the virtual world. When that happens I think that is just too much. No person should ever put some virtual world before what they really have. Doing this can cause a lot of problems. People could sometimes forget how to interact with people face to face.
Creating a whole new identity on here could also cause some problems. Its not too bad when someone creates a "perfect" person in their eyes on this site, but for some people it comes to a point where they feel like this avatar is who they are now.
Im not against sites like this, I am just not one that has time to go online and try to run a completely different life. I have enough trouble trying to handle the one life I already have. lol