Directory:Akahele/The Real “Second Life”

This year, the biggest segment of new Web 2.0 membership comes from those 30 to 49 years old. Sixty-five percent of users of the Pandora music service are over the age of 35! This breed of social networkers (Facebook, primarily, but also LinkedIn, MySpace, Twitter, and others) are using social media as a source of play, communication, and alternative productivity. According to Iconoculture's "Open to the Social: understanding social media use across generations", a webinar created by Neela Sakaria and Andrew Hawn, they call this activity...

the real Second Life

I agree with that! My experiences on LinkedIn and Facebook are like a virtual "fantasy" world, but populated entirely by people I know intimately, or at least as acquaintances. I honestly don't understand how people get wrapped up in the original Second Life online world, without actually knowing any of the folks with whom they're interacting.