Why are you in SL?

I have met up with several friends lately, all who have been in SL for over a year, most seem to be feeling a little jaded with being inworld and I set out to find out why?
One reason is the obvious problems with stability and content loss. Some have worked hard to build up businesses and are now snowed under with requests from, mostly justifiably, angry customers demanding the item that they bought that was never delivered.
Yes, hopefully a temporary problem but it leads to making them feel very disheartened with the platform and human nature as a whole.
Others have had content stolen and have little or no recourse, they spend hours creating and working on designs for someone to come along and rip it and then either resell it or even give it away - no wonder they lose heart.
There are those that make a business and it just doesn't take off, not through any lack on their part but just the fact there are too many doing the same.
Then of course there are those that came here to find friends and maybe even love.
After finding what they are looking for why stay in SL? If you have found real love here you take it out of SL and of course have little time to play.
You would prefer to be with your new found love or friends and even if its not physically possible there are other ways of being close that are more reliable, for instance skype, windows live etc.......
One friend said to me she just didn't know why she had lost heart maybe because she had seen all there is too see, so much beauty and content here but after all even map hopping gets boring after a while.
Being part of something is what keeps people in Second life, part of a community or having things in common with others.
Its very easy to become isolated doing the things you wanted to do, achieving that SL dream takes time and commitment and while you are concentrating your efforts on those friends fall by the wayside. There are also those that never had a dream here, they came out of curiosity, made friends and stayed to discover more.
Then those friends moved on, that favourite club went out of business and they are left adrift feeling like they have nowhere to go and no-one to talk to.
The most contented friends I have are to be found in the role playing communities, I don't know, maybe because it enables them to live their fantasies and completely immerse themselves in another life, compared to those who come here to lose their real selves and end up being exactly the same.
Maybe the real reason is that they are no longer playing a 'part' they are still as much themselves in Second life as they are in real life.
Maybe they have loved and lost or found that the grass isn't greener on the other side?
If you are unhappy with your real life you MAY immerse yourself in a pretend one but at the end of the day one thing will never change and that's YOU.

Story reprinted from 'Bridging the Gap' with kind permission
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Pictures by Strawberry Holiday from our flickr group