Second Life : the boundary between the virtual and the real

Abstract

The fieldwork was conducted in the virtual world of Second Life. The purpose was to analyze the relationship between the real and virtual social contexts through the technology of Second Life. The findings imply that Second Life can be a type of mediation which separates the real and virtual social contexts. At the same time, there can also be continuation between the real and virtual world, and the users of Second Life are actively involved in this debate among themselves. This happens because of the ideological boundary between real life and Second Life, as well as what one can do with the type of technology being used. Some types of technologies lead to different amounts of carry-over of real life factors in the virtual world, and vice versa. The findings suggest that how this happens depends on certain factors more than others, such as real life morality, and that some values have more weight than others in determining this. Real life morality can be separated from the virtual, but there is a limit to how far decided by the users and there are ultimate taboos like pedophilia.