Considering Second Life has shown up as a main plot element in a show such as CSI: New York, you have to ask yourself what exactly it is.

Labeled as a “virtual world”, Second Life (SL) is a web based system that allows users to interact via their avatars, and live out a true “second” life that can be as different as their real one as they like. While this may sound a bit like an MMORPG, there are no quests and adventures in Second Life, you mainly go there to socialize with other users.

Just as with your offline life, users of Second Life earn money in the form of the “Linden Dollar” (L$). Each user earns a salary each week, but you can earn more by working in stores (yes, there are real businesses in SL), buying them for real money from brokers or providing services for others such as helping them build new things for the world.

Second Life has received a salacious reputation due to the more extreme sexual things that happen in the world, but it is restricted to certain areas of the world, and are easily avoided.  It is the same as with any real population, there will always be a fringe element, but it shouldn’t scare you away from the experience.  If you have a family member under the age of 18 that wants to try Second Life, you can sign them up for Teen Second Life which is much stricter in its monitoring, and adults are only allowed in to very restricted areas, tend to be educators and must undergo a criminal background check.

It is definitely addictive pasttime for people who get into it, and while it can be done for free, it can also become expensive if you want to have your own buildings and such.