Second+Life+Weddings+(Demosthenes)

Overview
After spending several weeks fiddling around in Second Life, I've realized I've only touched the very tip of the iceberg of possibilities. Eager to make friends, I've been hanging out in a lot of dance clubs, as people seem to be particularly social there. Having spent several minutes wandering around the venue, a guy (or at very least, someone with a male avatar) took pity on my n00bhood, and asked me to dance, but with the rather forbidding preamble: "Just remember, it's more difficult than you think to separate your Second Life and your Real Life. I've made that mistake before."As of right now, it's difficult for me to understand how people can become so entangled in something that's not...you know-real. But Second Life represents a complex web of relationships, where people value their interactions to certain extremes, and expect nearly the same code of conduct that they keep with their Real Life friends. One of the ways Second Life seems to get particularly serious is the role of committed relationships, especially those that lead to weddings.

Second Life weddings, like those we might have been to before, take large amounts of time, planning and coordination to pull off. You have to have a bridal party and groomsmen, which may even be more complicated than Real Life because these people might come from various places around the globe. Making sure you find a time that works for everyone, making sure everyone's avatar is dressed in the right attire, and also that the venue is decorated to perfection can cause just as much stress and aggravation as a real wedding. And like a real wedding, a Second Life wedding costs big bucks. Maybe not thousands of dollars, but the thousands of lindens can certainly add up to several hundred US dollars. Some weddings represent an act of commitment between people who have real life relationships, but others ARE the Real or primary relationship for the users.

Similarly, relationships can end in disaster just as they can in real life. When you're married to someone, avoiding virtual prostitutes is probably still a good rule of thumb.

**History**
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**Opinion**
I hate to sound judgmental, but I must say that the idea of having a second life wedding seems totally bizarre to me. You noted that sometimes these relationships can be the primary relationships for individuals. That just seems crazy! I do not understand why someone would want to have a relationship on the internet. I do not think that seems like a very functional relationship. It is pretty incredible that people are able to form and sustain serious relationships in a virtual community. This speaks to how real and complex Second Life is. It just seems unnatural to me that if two people really felt strongly about each other, they would not want to take that relationship out of second life and into the real world. I can understand if someone just feels like being someone other than themselves for a little bit but the fact that people are getting married on second life seems like they are using second life to replace their first life. Because second life is so real and so similar to the “real world” in so many ways, I think someone might confront the same difficulties about being who they really want to be in second life that they do in the “real world.” Although rejection and criticism in second life might be more distanced than it would be in the real world, social pressures are still present. It also seems a little strange to me because I do not feel like everyone on second life is on the same playing field. By this I mean that I think some people really try to be authentic with who they really are and other people are pretending to be a completely different person. I suppose this raises the question of whether it is really possible to be inauthentic on second life. Even if you are extremely different on second life than your are in your real life (in terms of your personality, appearance, style, etc.), who is to say which one of those lives actually represents your “authentic” self?

**Future Trends?**
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