CH. 9 Coming of Age in Second Life

Ch. 9 in Coming of Age in Second Life brought out some good points.  One point in particular that the author mentions is that: ” One creates relationships through networks, but lives relationships in places.”  The author was talking about how second life is often through into the category of being a social network like myspace or facebook, but he argues that it is more than just a network, it is a place.  It’s a place because an individual can live experiences in that place and maintain relationships in that place.  He describes how durning his field work the web changed to more 3D bases networks than the 2D ones.  He describes that it was the addition of more virtual places that are now springing up on the internet, and that these are now places on the internet, not just social networking sites where one just looks at profiles and pictures.  People actually interact with each other now in real time. Also, this leads to the notion that the virtual work is as important as the actual/real world.  The other states this in his conclusion. I feel that with new technological advances and the growing internet, the popularity of these virtual places will rise and we will see a change in how the major of people use the internet.  I feel that in the near future, virtual worlds will catch on and become as popular as facebook or other social networking sites.  I personally don’t see myself using second life anymore after this class, just because i have a lot of other stuff to do and i don;t really need to be spending money on in a virtual world since i need money for food and shelter in the actual, but i think that virtual worlds will become advance in some way in which people will socialize more productivity online.