An Immersed Persona

Okay, it’s not a dichotomy. Even the most immersed person extends her real existence into SL by virtue of her predilections and other personality traits. All SL existence is on an RL > SL continuum. The two are not mutually exclusive in any sense. So the whole immersion versus extension debate is nonsense and not worthy of further discussion, right? No.

Can a person extend her real life into SL, using SL as a means of expression and as a means of generating income that can be used in the real world? Of course. Can one’s real friends or lovers be SL friends and lovers? Definitely. Can one embrace her SL existence as a complete alternative to that in the real world? Probably not. Can a person create an alternate self, albeit one that depends upon the real world for sustenance, and isolate that virtual self from a real life in the real world? Totally.

So the difference in modes of existence is the extent to which an individual integrates her real existence into SL (or doesn’t), and this difference produces really different kinds of second lives and SL experiences.

- ppl who work RL jobs in SL
- ppl who work in SL for SL rewards
- ppl who meet RL lovers in SL
- ppl who substitute SL relationships for real ones without extending
- party mavens
- exhibitionists
- masters & slaves, sadists & masochists
- ppl who blithely walk in and out of SL – just visiting!
- land of paper dolls – dress me up!
- narcissist’s dream – watch me dance!
- model builder’s paradise
- scripter’s heaven
- photographer's studio
- playground for sexual perverts

All of this more or less unencumbered (depending upon degree of immersion and the availability of RL resources) by the financial, social, and health consequences that would occur in RL. And you needn’t worry about the Kurt Vonnegut truism: “Be careful what you pretend to be, because you are what you pretend to be.”

Except, of course, as it applies to your virtual self. And except when you start referring to your real self by your avatar’s name. (heh.)