Similarities and Differences Between Second Life and Social Media Sites

Did you know that both Facebook and Second Life let you communicate with others using your cell phone? It's true! Facebook has enabled parts of their website to be able to be used on mobile phones. If you use Second Life, you can talk with other people in-world in the program by using iLife. As mentioned on Second Life Insider, "Comverse Technology is the first to shoehorn the Second Life Client* onto a java enabled cell phone." Now this is awesome isn't it? Can talk with others in-world and who knows? Perhaps you will be able to purchase items in the future if not already. You can also do this on Facebook too. Messaging friends, update your status, comment on other statuses of your friends, and more! For these two communities, you have to have a web-enabled phone that also can use Java.

Another cool thing is well, their both free to use! All you need to do is create an account and BOOM your in the amazing world! Facebook is pretty easy to navigate around. You have your applications, networks to join, statuses that remind you of Twitter, and more! In Second Life, after you create your account and download the program, you get to create your first avatar, choose defaulted clothing, and go through Help Island which gives you a basic "how-to" of how to use the program and navigate around the areas. Moving and chatting with other people in real-time is all free! Isn't it great?

The only problem with "free" is that though it's free to access, it's not completely free. If you want to change how your avatar looks in Second Life, you need to go to their website and buy the in-world currency called Lindens. Then you can buy clothes, shapes, hair, and even land in the virtual world. This makes you seem unique and not, as most residents feel, a newbie. Facebook is also the same in a way. Their applications which are made by 3-rd parties, offer you ways to get more of their game currency by using real money. This way they make a profit and I'm sure there are also other fees Facebook has come up with and not just paid for by advertisements.

Facebook also has some annoying qualities. Take for instance their applications. To move farther ahead, they always have popups asking you to invite more friends! Seriously. I've seen statuses on people's profiles saying not to invite them to any more applications. If your friends are cool with this, then I give you Kudos, if not, good luck.

Thankfully, you can use any machine to access Facebook. Just have your operating system up to date and flash too.

Now Second Life is a killer of computers. It uses a TON of resources. Probably why their recommendations are so high. Like using NVIDIA graphic cards and RAM. You can view their whole list on their website here. If you use their bare minimum requirements, be prepared to wait hours just for places to actually load. Basically, all you would be able to do is chat with friends if you use the bare minimum. Now if you had a super computer, I'm sure lag and other atrocities that terrorize hundreds of players every time they log in, won't be too much of a problem for you.

Even though you have the ups and downs of these programs, people still flock to them in waves. Why? Because humans are social creatures by nature and have the need to communicate with others. That.. and being addicted to these social and virtual communities.