Coming of age in Second Life: an anthropologist explores the virtually human

With the emergence of the Internet and the varieties of communication engendered by cyberspace, new forms of electronic culture would be expected to emerge. Yet, it may be the case that, upon examination, these new forms of culture are not so novel and that all culture is, in essence, ‘virtual’. Cyberspace simply may offer a new venue by which to explore human sociality. The notion that all culture is, ultimately, ‘virtual’ forms the central hypothesis of Tom Boellstorff’s Coming of age in Second Life. In the text, Boellstorff presents his findings and reflections upon a multi-year ethnographic study of ‘Second Life’, an Internet-based program with a highly visual, interactive and social component. Second Life is less a computer programme, argues Boellstorff, and more a unique culture worthy of examination on its own terms. Thus, Second Life, despite its seeming novelty, can be examined by much older forms of methodology, such as ethnography. The contention of Second Life’s worthiness of examination via traditional ethnographic methods forms the basis of much of the first half of Boellstorff’s text. In particular, Boellstorff defends his use of an in-world ethnography of Second Life, that is, in conducting the ethnography, only those events and persons encountered within Second Life are referenced as sources of information; the ‘real world’ persons controlling those online events are neither described nor contacted. In doing so, Coming of age in Second Life paints a picture of Second Life that accepts online worlds as being independent sources of information that do not necessarily need to be connected to analogues in physical reality. Specifically, the text asserts that virtual worlds, like Second Life, can be taken on their own terms since all culture is virtual in origin. Boellstorff suggests that all cultures create their own systems of meaning, representation and conceptualisation about reality. In so doing, cultures create virtual representation(s) of reality by dictating the processes by which reality is interpreted, experienced and re-enacted. Second Life, likewise, despite being digitalised, has its own manner of representing reality. That the reader accepts this argument is crucial for the remainder of Boellstorff’s investigation, since a failure to accept Second Life as culture would render trivial the ethnography of Second Life’s culture(s). Given this central point, it is not surprising that a considerable portion of the text is used to explicate it. While I found the argument convincing, it has also become quite laborious and repetitious to read. In painstakingly elaborating the applicability of ethnography to Second Life, the validity of the question seems to have been reinforced rather than discredited. After reading this section, I found myself questioning the value of an ethnography of online worlds and questioning the reasons why such a lengthy