Life 2.0 and parts

I watched the documentary about Second Life, called Life 2.0, that recently aired on the Oprah network. Second Life (SL) is a 3-dimentional virtual world with hundreds of thousands of "residents" (read "users"). The film follows the stories of three participants, telling the stories of the impact of their involvement on them and the people in their lives.

Frankly, as a longtime SL resident, I found the documentary fascinating, mostly because I don't know many users with stories like these.  I must admit, a part of me is concerned that others will jump to false assumptions, because the mood of the film is somewhat dark.

The reason I'm posting about it here is that one of the profiles was a gripping story of someone developing a relationship with a previously unknown exile through joining Second Life.

This 20-something man created an 11-year-old girl as his avatar. In contrast to the others profiled (and everyone in SL that I know), he refers to her in the third person and relates to her as a separate individual. So we get "Ayya loves to dance and play", "Ayya has made some good friends", goes to school, etc., "Ayya got really angry".

Almost immediately, SL becomes an obsession for him, spending 20 hours at a stretch online. Ayya's creator knows he's sacrificing his health, his relationship with his fiancee, his entire "real life", but he continues. He eventually realizes that the only way to gain control again is to completely delete the account which, after much preparation, he does. His fiancee leaves  him, however, and within a week, he's created another avatar, a teenaged boy, who develops relationships with Ayya's old friends.

We learn from Ayya's creator that in the course of this, he has been able to get in touch with the previously hidden fact that he had been sexually abused by his father when he was young. It was generally known that his dad had "molested the kids", but it had been assumed that it was just the girls. He'd considered himself lucky to have avoided it, but now he remembers the events.

The story is a fascinating exploration of parts. In fact, as I reflect on it, all of SL is an opportunity for people to embody parts of themselves or their Selves, as they choose. I'm going to have to think about that.

By the way, my inworld name is "Diva Regina", which should tell you something about the part of me that picked the name, at least. If anyone else is in SL, look me up.