Is Second Life Bad For You?

This morning's Second Life kaffeeklatsch was stimulating and entertaining, as always. The topic for today was "Is Second Life Bad for You?" We ended up talking about people for whom Second Life is a benefit because they're housebound due to physical disability, including one woman whose cancer was quite severe, for whom Second Life had become her first life.

This August, 2006, a video about Second Life briefly discusses a community of people who have suffered from strokes, who use Second Life as part of their recovery. When recovering from a stroke, there's a short period afterward where segments of the brain, if stimulated, will recover. It's a Catch-22 -- stroke patients need the stimulation to recover, but they won't get the stimulation until they've recovered enough to leave the house. Second Life provides them with social stimulation they'd otherwise not get.

(Note: It's a long video, and only briefly discusses the stroke community, midway through. Still, it's an interesting video for other reasons.)

During the kaffeeklatsch, we also made many jokes in bad taste. I think that's the real theme of all the kaffeeklatsches.

Join us next time on Friday at 7 a.m. Second Life Time at Notre Dame de Caffeine, and every Tuesday and Friday at the same time and place.