Coming Of Age In Second Life Summary

Coming of Age in Second Life: An Anthropologist Explores the Virtually Human, by Tom Boellstroff, gives us a unique outlook on humanity in that we get to experience the world of virtual reality through a study conducted by an anthropologist. Boellstroff creates an ethnography by entering “Second Life”: an online world where people create a virtual representation of themselves and go about a new life. The experiment takes place between 2004 to 2007 and the main goal is to determine if entering into this new world does in fact create a new person, or “homo cyber” (virtual reality version of oneself), and whether or not it makes the user more human or less.

I chose this particular ethnography was for a few reasons. The first being I knew that a majority of classmates would most likely choose to read an ethnography from someone we studied in class, like Bronislaw Malinowski or Margaret Mead because they offer a more traditional outlook; I wanted a more contemporary study. After reading through the synopsis’ of each book, this one stood out to me. I was very intrigued by the idea of a study conducted in virtual reality; I was drawn

to the uniqueness of this ethnography. I also like how it is split in three parts: the first includes an intro on the subject, the second consists of chapters that deal with time, personhood, intimacy, and community, and the third is an outline of Boellstroff’s theory. None of the chapters upset or bored me, although some were more interesting than others. In particular, I enjoyed Chapter 6 the most. It has to do with the virtual sexuality aspect of the people of Second Life. I’ve always been interested in the topic of human sexuality, but I’ve never really looked into the virtual reality point-of-view. After experiencing the virtual world first hand, Boellstroff believes that love, friendship, and sex was accelerated and that addiction was very common within Second Life.
I knew before I started reading that there is the stereotype that the people who partake in Second Life are anti-social or outcasts. What I like that Boellstroff does is that he looks for the positive aspects of a virtual reality rather than focus on how the internet is taking over people’s lives. In Chapter 7, he talks about the importance of community in Second Life: virtual worlds are places where people interact and after a certain period of time they become communities. Two common things that arise within Second Life are kindness and altruism. Cybersociality (similar to sociality, but in the virtual world form) is also something that happens throughout the virtual world and can actually lead to actual-world meet ups; sometimes certain virtual worlds become extinct, and Boellstroff says that some people seek refuge in Second Life from these other virtual worlds.
However, where there are many positive things, there are also just as many negative aspects. Boellstroff says that sometimes harassment takes place and that these troublemakers are referred to as “griefers”. Because of this harassment, some residents decided to band together in order to create a form of ethics. It seems like this sense of virtual world society is very close to what happens in the actual world, which is very interesting to me. At one point, Boellstroff states that he was so invested into the game that he actually hadn’t eaten anything for a full day. I believe that the people being studied in this ethnography are represented fairly, because they live in a world and have experiences similar to ours.
I definitely agree with Boellstroff’s argument that entering the virtual world can create new people.

I believe that creating a world that allows you to fulfill your fantasies makes us more human in a sense. In the final chapter, Boellstroff sums up the argument that this virtual world actually creates new people and in creating this new world, people become more human. He also tells us what Second Life is and isn’t: Second Life may seem like it creates a world similar to ours, but it does not replicate the actual world. It is nothing like social media because it is a place where people interact. In Second Life, you can actually do typically everyday things like find friends, meet a significant other, attend events, make money, buy and sell things, etc. This is not something that you can do through a television program or a

book.