Observation of Social Interaction in Second Life

My observations along with experiences have changed greatly from when I first created my avatar, and what I've seen in the last few days in Second Life.  When I first started exploring the content, there didn't seem to be a lot of people online to socialize with. In the last few days things changed in that department. It may be due to the time of day when I've been getting on compared to the time of day it was when I first created the avatar, and explored Second Life.

I decided to explore many of the "newcomer friendly" areas.  The first one I visited called NCIS Kuula was a very interesting place to visit.  I found it to be more of a party zone that was full of great music, and found myself laughing watching several people dancing like Steven Tyler.  The dance moves I have yet to figure out.

One of the most interesting things about this zone, was how the music was involved with it.  The music came from some sort of radio which aired commercials from places like Lowes, and other businesses.  Back in the heyday of this social environment, the advertisements had to be great for businesses.

After visiting this place I found another "newcomer area" that had many virtual stores full of free virtual clothing and items for changing the looks of avatar's appearance.  In this part of town someone created Super Mario to float around the stores, and throughout the city.  I took a screenshot, but only got Mario when he was coming out of the floor.

While one of the stores, I met a few people who were very nice.  They even sent me a friend chat invite.   Even though these people seemed nice, I felt weird accepting a friend invite with them.  An insecurity that I'm hoping to overcome soon, though proudly I did chat with some.

I went to log on this evening, and I discovered some issues with Second Life.  When trying to log in I kept getting kicked out, a bug that was very annoying.  This problem was the first real issue I've dealt with (other than my PC not being able to run it.)  With it not being as popular of a virtual social community, I imagine it doesn't have the technical support it once had, so this being the only issue I've seen so far I found it surprising.

Later this week and into the beginning of next week I am planning on exploring out of the newcomer areas, and start venturing toward the more experienced areas.  It will be interesting to see how people act, and talk in these areas compared to the newcomer areas.

Until next time.