second life

So after we discussed second life in class I was still having trouble wrapping my brain around the idea. So I went to the second life website and tried to learn a little more independently. It seems that their motto is "A place to connect, a place to shop, a place to work, a place to love, a place to explore. Where you can be different, you can be yourself, you can change your look, free you mind and love your life." So let me break that down real fast. Connect: okay i understand that, people connect online via facebook/twitter/email even. I can get that. Shop: Shopping online is one of my favorite hobbies but when I order something online I expect in the mail 4 days later, with second life the blouse or dress you "bought" never comes. Work: no, i think its absolutely outrageous that companies, major companies, like GNC or Microsoft are actually holding real meetings in this cyber world rather than in person in a conference room the way its been done for hundreds of years. love: finding love online has become a wildly popular phenomenon in the past decade. Match.com and eharmony are websites that set up the initial connection with someone you wouldn't otherwise meet. But the hole point of those websites are to have two people actually date and go to dinner and have real conversation and a real human relationship. secondlife doesn't do that. it's all a fake cyber world relationship. And the whole "be different and yourself" part is seriously contradicting. The "residents" are different than they are in reality. Thats why they change their appearance and 'lives' on the game because they are not satisfied with themselves. They don't want to be themselves on the game because in reality, they probably aren't completely satisfied with themself.

I hope this is just a fad and the world doesn't become consumed with this secondlife.