Chapter 6 of the book, entitled “Intimacy,” talks about secondlife in relation to language, friendship, sexuality, love, family and addiction.  All are extremely important aspects in the actual world, so this chapter explores them in secondlife, and attempts to learn how these emotions and qualities compare to real life.  The first is language, which has always been virtual.  In secondlife there existed a chat and an instant message.  A chat involved more than two people talking, whereas a instant message was more personal and only involved one other person.  In secondlife, when you are communicating to someone through one of these mediums, you’re avatar can be seen as though they are typing on a keyboard whenever the user is typing a message on their own keyboard.  When someone instant messaged you, it meant they were taking interest you and gave a sense of intimacy.  English is the dominant medium of communication on secondlife.

Friendship on secondlife was just the same as talking to someone in a regular chat room outside of secondlife, except for you could see them navigate their avatar.  Users can talk to someone online and feel a great sense of closeness to that person, and therefore consider them their friend, even if they never met in real life.  It was important for users to maintain the friends they meet on secondlife as well as making new ones.  The author says that many residents he talked to said that friendship was their main reason for going on secondlife.  In secondlife you can be friends with people you would have never come into contact with, such as someone from another country, in real life, which makes it even more appealing.

Sexuality on secondlife is also very present.  Some residents engaged in it, while others found it useless.  However, many found sex through this virtual world very meaningful.  Since secondlife is separated from the actual world, residents could use it to experiment with sexual relationships and practices.  They could then see if it was something they wanted to bring into their real life.  Users could also live out same sex relationships on secondlife that perhaps they were unable to express in real life.

Love on secondlife was also existent in that users could fall in love with someone in secondlife, and even have a virtual marriage.  This is good because you are getting to know the person for their minds, and not their physical appearance.  Some residents would even meet their virtual boyfriends or girlfriends in the actual world, where in some cases led to real life marriages.  In terms of family in secondlife, actual families could meet up with each other in secondlife and participate in activities together that they may not be able to do in real life because of where they live.  It is also possible in secondlife to have a child avatar, and a user can use these child avatars to perhaps bring out the child in them that they haven’tbeen able to see in years.  Addiction was also talked about in this chapter in that some people fear that they are addicted to secondlife, which is usually the case if they are lagging on things they should be doing in real life, such as spending time with their actual family, chores or even work.