Dear Mr. Boellstorff,

Virtuals worlds are a new and up and coming phenomenon.  Second Life, for example, gives people a place to be someone they are not or are afraid to be in real life.  Like you said, sociality in real life is no comparison or explanation of what occurs in the virtual world.  People who are shy in real life may have thousands of friends in their virtual world.  I haven’t quite decided how I feel about this.  I mean I feel bad that they don’t have a lot of friends in real life, but do those friends in the virtual world really count as friends? I don’t know.  It’s all so difficult and case to case if you ask me.  I think some people use virtual worlds as an excuse for an escape.  But being a positive and strong person I think people need to face their fears and conquer what brings them down in order to grow.  I don’t know, maybe that’s just me.  But being someone who doesn’t really “get” virtual worlds, I like my real world.  I’m not saying that virtual worlds are not good for some, I guess, what I’m saying is that I question whether these people gave real life a good solid chance/ fight or if they live in their virtual world because it’s “easy”.

Sincerely,

Karra Logan