Do you talk about SL to your RL family/friends?

[Eva Knoller]

This is a topic I am interested to hear other people’s views on: Do you tell poeple outside of SL that you have an account? Apart from my immediate household, I do not. 

[Cindy Evanier]

49 minutes ago, Eva Knoller said:

This is a topic I am interested to hear other people’s views on: Do you tell poeple outside of SL that you have an account? Apart from my immediate household, I do not. 

Some know.  It's not a secret.  Though my plans to get my best friend to sign up after she moved to the other end of the country didn't go to plan as she had heard all the negative stories from way back and flat out refused.  She does have my SL  partner's email though just in case of an emergency.  Another friend sat with me in RL once while I was DJing and just said... you're quite mad.  

[Donna Underall]

52 minutes ago, Eva Knoller said:

This is a topic I am interested to hear other people’s views on: Do you tell poeple outside of SL that you have an account? Apart from my immediate household, I do not. 

Sometimes I do but not unless I have to.  I have gone into more detail with people I'm close with, though.  But again, in general, only where I have to.

[Syo Emerald]

No, but for...I guess practical reasons? Its not because I would be ashamed or actively keep it a secret, but SL is one of these things that you need to explain to people and its not a short explaination either and there is a good chance that someone will simply not "get" SL and is left with a constant "but why?" expression, because they don't understand whats the appeal of it. Its simply not a good conversation starter.

[Pamela Galli]

I do since it is my job. They just look confused, until I show them my marketplace store, and even then they don't understand how I convert that into real money.

I suspect they think SL is like the Sims or Roblox, and I just rez ready made furniture for a living. They don't understand that everything started with a plain cube. Or sphere. 

Reputation is not an issue since no one has heard of SL.

[MrsSeren]

My best friends and mom know i use SL; mom understands that is actual people behind the pixels and she loves that I get to meet from world wide plus some now have become friends in real life so for me that is amazing.  My best friends love seeing my pictures I take, what work I do on my blog and help give me fresh ideas for said blog.

[Donna Underall]

1 hour ago, Eva Knoller said:

This is a topic I am interested to hear other people’s views on: Do you tell poeple outside of SL that you have an account? Apart from my immediate household, I do not. 

OMG I got this completely backward!  No, I don't talk about SL outside SL.  I have one girl friend that knows my secret.  We talk about things that happen in SL sometimes and I tell her about guys in SL.  She used to say I was crazy, now I guess she only thinks it. 

[Arduenn Schwartzman]

Back in 2008, when I demonstrated SL to a relative, they immediately blurted out "Whaaat? But SL is all about sex!"  

Some other relatives, who are minors, also know. That's why, basically, I keep the vast majority of my merch General.

Another relative showed my MP to their colleagues, some of which, in a former life, were my students.

That same relative also told their mother, so now the whole bloody world knows.

Edited March 1, 2019 by Arduenn Schwartzman

[Bitsy Buccaneer]

I've made a couple of attempts but it generally goes down like a ton of incomprehensible bricks. With online friends it can be a bit better sometimes, though more often it's "Is SecondLife still a thing?" I've pretty much given up trying.

[Ivanova Shostakovich]

   I talk about my SL, and its various aspects, with my immediate family. They've all known about it from the beginning. While dancing with friends at a club or hanging out at the weekly Breakfast gathering I attend, I'll sometimes relate something funny that was said in local chat. Even some of the things that happen here in the forums sometimes become a topic of discussion with one or more of them. I may detail current building or scripting projects in which I might be engaged.

   My closest friends are aware of my involvement in SL. No one among them thinks it strange or unusual. But then nearly all of us have played together, off and on, in a few table top role playing games for a long time.

[Claireschen Hesten]

I might have mentioned it before but i don't talk about it the people in my house think it's just a "game" and aren't interested

[ChinRey]

No, nay, never.

I live alone so I don't have to and why should I?

[Scylla Rhiadra]

My case is probably a little different, because I first came into SL at the suggestion and invitation of some friends and colleagues, mostly academics, who thought I'd be interested in getting involved in activism here on a quasi-professional basis. This was 2008, when SL was going to be the new "3D web": at that time, it seemed like an exciting new frontier. So, lots of RL colleagues and friends, many of whom are or have been in SL, know about my activities here.

My family . . . not so much. But my partner, yes, of course.

[Donna Underall]

1 minute ago, Scylla Rhiadra said:

My case is probably a little different, because I first came into SL at the suggestion and invitation of some friends and colleagues, mostly academics, who thought I'd be interested in getting involved in activism here on a quasi-professional basis. This was 2008, when SL was going to be the new "3D web": at that time, it seemed like an exciting new frontier. So, lots of RL colleagues and friends, many of whom are or have been in SL, know about my activities here.

My family . . . not so much. But my partner, yes, of course.

Are any of those friends still around?  I came in 2006 and so many friends and SL family members have disappeared from SL since then.

[Scylla Rhiadra]

Just now, Donna Underall said:

Are any of those friends still around?  I came in 2006 and so many friends and SL family members have disappeared from SL since then.

A few are, yes. I have a couple of friends who are involved in a scholarly group focused on education in virtual worlds -- although they are more interested these days in Sansar and High Fidelity. Of course, most educational institutions have left SL now.

As for my "activist" friends, most are gone. In fact, a fair number left back in about 2011. Activism here is a lot of work, and the reach is relatively small, and diminishing.

A surprisingly large number of my "other" friends, however, are still here.

[Rolig Loon]

13 minutes ago, Scylla Rhiadra said:

My case is probably a little different, because I first came into SL at the suggestion and invitation of some friends and colleagues, mostly academics, who thought I'd be interested in getting involved in activism here on a quasi-professional basis. This was 2008, when SL was going to be the new "3D web": at that time, it seemed like an exciting new frontier.

That's exactly my situation, although I entered a year earlier than you.  The only difference between us (well, in this regard, anyway) is that I retired a year later.  Many of my colleagues have since retired as well, and I haven't spoken to them about SL since then.  I doubt that they remember I was ever in SL, or would care.  None of them knew my SL identity even then. 

[Scylla Rhiadra]

3 minutes ago, Rolig Loon said:

That's exactly my situation, although I entered a year earlier than you.  The only difference between us (well, in this regard, anyway) is that I retired a year later.  Many of my colleagues have since retired as well, and I haven't spoken to them about SL since then.  I doubt that they remember I was ever in SL, or would care.  None of them knew my SL identity even then. 

Well, unsurprisingly perhaps, I think we actually have or had at least one or two friends and acquaintances from that set in common. Certainly, I knew you by reputation (good reputation, I hasten to add!) before I'd ever run across you on the forums.

[Cindy Evanier]

8 minutes ago, Scylla Rhiadra said:

run across you

Don't run over Rolig!  Who will give the good answers  😯

[Rolig Loon]

11 minutes ago, Scylla Rhiadra said:

Well, unsurprisingly perhaps, I think we actually have or had at least one or two friends and acquaintances from that set in common. Certainly, I knew you by reputation (good reputation, I hasten to add!) before I'd ever run across you on the forums.

Not surprisingly at all, given six degrees of the disconnected Kevin Bacon and all that.  However, I have made a strict rule for myself of not letting SL people know my RL identity or vice versa, no matter how few degrees of separation there may be between us.  As others have said, it just involves way too much explaining and describing.  I'd rather not get into the whole thing.  When I am in SL, I am incommunicado -- on "vacation."  A very good friend of mine once said to her assistant as the two of us headed out to a week-long administrative conference: "If anything comes up while I am out of town, deal with it as if I had died."

Edited March 1, 2019 by Rolig Loon

[Scylla Rhiadra]

3 minutes ago, Rolig Loon said:

However, I have made a strict rule for myself of not letting SL people know my RL identity or vice versa, no matter how few degrees of separation there may be between us.

I think a good policy. The people who brought me here already knew me in RL, of course, so I was outed before I'd started. But with a few exceptions, I've kept my RL identity to myself with SL friends who are purely social. And vice versa. Too troublesome, and too much possibility for complications.

[MrsSeren]

What funny, I can be scrolling through Instagram and I follow a few designers on there and mom will  either sat next to me as I do as she can either coo at cute cat picture or video (as she likes looking at the cat pages I follow) and then suddenly something from designer I follow will come up then she will say helpfully or not so; that Seren needs that or no that not Seren style.... guess she likes to help me style my pixels!  Seriously though, I do not mind her picking out things for Seren as she generally knows my style; so it fun because in way she helps and gives me new ideas for looks.

[Luna Bliss]

If someone is curious I try to tailor my response to something they're more likely to understand. For example, if someone asks how I earn my living I might say "you know all the games that people play online, well somebody has to create the elements in them, and that's what I do as a freelancer". That usually suffices, and if the person is interested in social aspects as well I might mention that I sometimes discuss issues with other people involved in the game or platform as either creator or participant.

[ChinRey]

25 minutes ago, Scylla Rhiadra said:

This was 2008, when SL was going to be the new "3D web": at that time, it seemed like an exciting new frontier.

Oh yes, it was very different back then. It was different even as late as 2011 when I rejoined and I may actually have mentioned SL to a friend or two back then.

But not today. Let's say you collect baseball cards and you spend the time you have with your friends talking about ... whatever baseball card collectors talk about when nobody's watching ... you'll run out of friends eventually because you bore them to death. It's the same if I started to discuss SL with my friends and family, it would have no interest to them whatsoever. (Sometimes I'm tempted to do it with my little sister as a revenge for all her chattering about her cake pictures on Facebook but she is younger than me so I have to try to be responsible )

I do actually talk about my 3D modelling with my family. That is directly related in many ways to their interests and jobs. But it's never in a Second Life context. Even if I show them something in SL, to them it's just another piece of 3D software that doesn't really mean anything special.

[Rolig Loon]

2 minutes ago, Luna Bliss said:

If someone is curious I try to tailor my response to something they're more likely to understand. For example, if someone asks how I earn my living I might say "you know all the games that people play online, well somebody has to create the elements in them, and that's what I do as a freelancer". That usually suffices, and if the person is interested in social aspects as well I might mention that I sometimes discuss issues with other people involved in the game or platform as either creator or participant.

That's very close to the line I use: "I do freelance software development in an on-line environment."  Your wording is softer.  I may borrow it.

[Luna Bliss]

5 minutes ago, Rolig Loon said:

That's very close to the line I use: "I do freelance software development in an on-line environment."  Your wording is softer.  I may borrow it.

Have you ever mentioned SL? Don't think you have from what you mentioned earlier.

I find that when I mention SL people think I'm an escort or something, so long ago I developed new lines..lol.