How the Virtual World “Second Life” is a Showcase of the Metaverse

A 17-year history of digital culture shows what to expect from the digital future

If you could design your every physical feature from the ground up, what would you look like? In the immersive virtual world Second Life, you can be anyone and anything you want. From a sculptured muscular physique to tattoos, exotic hair colors, and animal parts, if you want it to be a part of you, all you need to do is click, drag and drop to create it.

That’s a major part of the appeal of the virtual community built within Linden Lab’s Second Life. Think of it like an infinitely large, more elaborate, community-oriented, and adult version of the video game, The Sims. It’s an online, massive, and explorable world. Averaging some 40,000 concurrent users at a time, it has developed its own unique culture.

Second Life is a 17-year-old digital world and an early version of an immersive Metaverse. Because its been around for so long and developed its own history and norms, it’s an interesting case study in how Metaverse communities evolve over time.

“Always be yourself, express yourself, have faith in yourself, do not go out and look for a successfull personality and duplicate it.”
Bruce Lee