Did Second Life improve your Real Life?

[Gopi Passiflora]

I think it helped me see more clearly on things in real life. I think it helped me to be somewhat more compassionate toward girls and women and some (admittedly, not all) of the struggles they go through in life. I was able to learn some of this playing as a female human avatar.

Aside from learning things, I think my female human avatars somewhat make up for the lack of female companionship in my life, so I don't feel as pressured to find a date as before I joined SL and other virtual worlds. But in turn they also helped me to learn about women's struggles.

[Janet Voxel]

I wouldn't say it improved my life but it made a very dark time in my life bearable.

Picture this; New Jersey 2009

A French Canadian girl in a foreign country, taking care of a dying father, working a crappy job. Homegirl needed an escape from reality and SL fit the bill.

It mostly helped me just find an escape for a few hours a day, but it really helped me polish my English skills both spoken and written too. I learned to understand expressions and slang much better.

[Stephanie Misfit]

Both my siblings committed suicide, 3 years apart. SL kept my mind busy during those times. I have also had some positive relationships in SL, so that has been nice.

[SeattleChris]

It's hard to say. Nothing about SL has improved my RL circumstances in any way, but having the escape and the creative outlet certainly alters my outlook, or at least my mood.

[Persephone Emerald]

No, but it gave me virtual experiences I wouldn't have had in RL. I feel like I lived half a lifetime in SL. It wasn't as magical as some of my RL experiences, but it was still pretty interesting.

[Rolig Loon]

Well, I haven't become rich beyond my wildest dreams or discovered the meaning of life, but SL has kept me too distracted to think seriously about a life of crime either, so I guess it's a wash in terms of my socioeconomic status. Mostly, SL has given me a place to develop some latent skills and be creative at a time in my life when I was ready for a change.

[Lindal Kidd]

No.

Still, it's been fun.

[Charalyne Blackwood]

SL has been my great escape from RL. I get to do photography light years beyond any RL equipment I'd ever own. I get to be truer to myself. I met someone who thinks I'm the most wonderful thing on earth and we're together SL and RL. RL has and never will be this good to me.

[Nalates Urriah]

Dealing with bad SL pickup lines has really improved my responses to bad RL pickup lines...

[Polenth Yue]

It certainly helped when I got too sick to really leave the house or even stand up very often. It was something I could do and still talk to people. I'm glad I had friends online when that all went down.

[Coffee Pancake]

YES.

Over the course of almost 17 years, SL has had a dramatic and transformative effect on my RL.

I found myself, found my soul mate, racked up well over 30,000 air miles, been all over Europe and the US visiting friends and lovers. I am half a world away from where I started, physically and psychologically. Suffered from and beaten depression caused by it, been refused employment because of it, paid my RL bills with income from it, gotten both divorced and married again in and out of it. Delivered me to the brink and brought a Red Fox to intervene in person and save my life. Fallen head over heels in love and had my heart utterly destroyed more than once. Found the strength and support to pursue and succeed at a lifelong dream I had never dared to even hope could happen. Bombed my life back to a suitcase, twice. Met some of the most amazing people, hugged plenty of them in person. Got to be a bridesmaid at the RL wedding of the person who officiated my SL wedding (and see them most days in person). Dropped everything to get on a train to go help someone more than once. Ended up at more than a sane number of furry conventions.

I am not the person I was when I started.

... and I just got handed a hot apple pie fresh out the oven by a shark.

 

SL can be an escape or a place to live a better life, somewhere to make up for a short fall or patch a hole in the soul. But it can also be so much more. 

It's a place to meet and build the kind of real, deep connections, that might happen only once or twice a lifetime in person.

Drawing a hard line between RL and SL might just be the mistake that holds you back from your best life.

[Akane Nacht]

Yes - in terms of technical knowledge. I started from knowing virtually nothing (no pun intended) to being able to host my own opensim, do simple scripting and 3d modelling, and set up my own little shop. It sparked my interest to try other virtual worlds and games to see how they work (I hadn't played computer games since space invaders on commodore 64). All of this was a total mystery to me when I first started, and SL (both platform and community) gave me a sandbox to tinker with things, which is how I learn best. I also learned a lot from reading posts on this forum.

All that helped give me confidence to do other projects like build websites for work, and now I'm taking online courses in cybersecurity. Also, I can be cool and say I've worked in the metaverse for 14yrs and it's totally true 😎

[Robberinthemuseum]

No! For me it has been the most addictive and entertaining head***** 🤣. It has distracted me something terrible, but I laid down some rules for myself before I started, so the damage has been minimal haha. 

Edited October 15, 2022 by Robberinthemuseum

[Sid Nagy]

My English improved over the years. Google translate is no longer my best friend, but only a casual friend now.
I found two forums over the years that are worth hanging around on.
SL stopped me from getting all those extra TV packages in RL, so it improved my leisure time somewhat.
I learned a bit more about my self, but that also happens in RL all the time.

Edited October 15, 2022 by Sid Nagy

[Phil Deakins]

SL improved my RL in 2 ways. (1) It put a lot of money into my bank, and that's always an improvement. (2) I joined at the end of 2006, and it became my main time-consumer, which was, and is, needed. I left for a couple of years, but came back when the lockdowns started. It still consumes a significant amount of daily time and, as such, is still an RL improvement for me.

[cunomar]

For a little while SL did help as an entertaining distraction while the love of my life went through menopause and our relationship suffered some serious stresses . It helped my resolve to wait it out with patience and understanding .

Then my SL went bad shortly followed by my livelihood heading the same way . Though I'm very sure the two events are not connected I do sometimes wonder how my state of mind in virtual might have detrimentally effected my rl business decisions or if my rl problems effected my virtual world .

Can't find any correlation between the two or else i'd quit .

Shrugs , i'm not unhappy and i have a good rl if a little stressed right now . Maybe things will pick up in both worlds concurrently as well .

[Charolotte Caxton]

Did Second Life improve my real life.

Second Life has and still continues to give me some sense of order in an otherwise chaotic life. 

Second Life allows me to be endlessly creative.

Second Life has saved my life on occasions because I had community in here when I couldn't otherwise.

In Second Life I learned about math and science, physics and astronomy, other cultures, building computer stuff, making graphic art, so many things.

Second Life was part of my life when I was in college and now all these years later it is still home.

Did Second Life improve my real life? Unequivocally yes.

[archangel969]

Interesting question! I can say SL has given me a lot, but socially I don't actually see meeting interesting residents here as much different from meeting interesting people in RL.  People are people and that includes the people behind the avatars. What I did notice, especially during the time I did the series of interviews with residents, is that people can be more 'themselves' here in SL. Precisely because there are so many opportunities here that cross the boundaries of the ones you have in RL. But for myself, that doesn't apply so much. I am actually always myself, both in RL and here. What it does for me is that I have a place here where I can always go when my life in SL is too hectic. I am going through a more difficult period right now with health and mental problems, but they seem to be less of an issue in SL. As if the reasons for these problems are less dominant here. Whatever happens in RL, I can always go to SL and work on my land, take pictures and do everything at my leisure and at my own pace. I don't get that opportunity as often in RL. So you could say that peace of mind is something I get more through SL.

 

[Lewis Luminos]

Yes, absolutely. By several orders of magnitude.

It's because of Second Life, and in particular, the support from some certain people within it, that gave me the courage to come out in RL as transgender, and begin transition.  It is very likely that, left without that support, I may never have been able to do so.  Which means that, in all likelihood, I would have been dead by now.  

So yes, Second Life not only improved my real life, but may have actually saved it altogether. 

 

[Maitimo]

14 minutes ago, Lewis Luminos said:

Yes, absolutely. By several orders of magnitude.

It's because of Second Life, and in particular, the support from some certain people within it, that gave me the courage to come out in RL as transgender, and begin transition.  It is very likely that, left without that support, I may never have been able to do so.  Which means that, in all likelihood, I would have been dead by now.  

So yes, Second Life not only improved my real life, but may have actually saved it altogether. 

 

This forum needs hug buttons.

 

[Hymn Celestia]

What a great question to ask

Yes, emphatically.  Everything improved for me as a result of SL. 

[kali Wylder]

SL rescued me from an unhappy marriage that I was stuck in.  I was married to a very controlling man who I was afraid of divorcing because I thought he would be so ugly about it.  I'd given up and was just existing.  I escaped inside my computer and found myself in SL.  We got divorced within a year.  He left me and I was free.  Best thing that could have happened.

[archangel969]

2 hours ago, Lewis Luminos said:

Yes, absolutely. By several orders of magnitude.

It's because of Second Life, and in particular, the support from some certain people within it, that gave me the courage to come out in RL as transgender, and begin transition.  It is very likely that, left without that support, I may never have been able to do so.  Which means that, in all likelihood, I would have been dead by now.  

So yes, Second Life not only improved my real life, but may have actually saved it altogether. 

 

I miss that hug-button too! Big hug also from me.

[Hymn Celestia]

18 hours ago, Coffee Pancake said:

Drawing a hard line between RL and SL might just be the mistake that holds you back from your best life.

This is going to be my meditation for a while; I've never really thought about it in precisely that way.

[vanettda Lassard]

Lately--absolutely. I've been literally confined to a bed for the past nine-months (and still counting). SL provides me with virtual mobility. Who knew that a bed could be a prison? I am very grateful for SL's distractions.

When I first joined--a big yes. I taught college students real life applications of basic 3D modeling, UV texturing, alpha channels and virtual worlds using raster and vector applications within SL. A few of my students have gone on and worked for gaming companies and app developers. This feels very cool. 

All that time in the middle? Well, I almost killed my relationship with my wife. I exposed, and then let run rampant, parts of my psyche that were best left buried. I've spent as many hours and years that a Doctor sacrifices to learn a vocation without the advanced degree to show for it. Also, I was not as gentle and kind as I should/could have been.

Did I mention that living 24/7 in a bed is a special kind of torture? So yeah. SL is a gift that can uplift, inspire, be a respite and an escape. It also can be a very dark place (for me). It's a lot like RL. It is what I choose it to be. Right now? I'm just trying to be a better human in-world and out. Thats got to be good, right?

Edited October 15, 2022 by vanettda Lassard