Second Life: Not So Different

I joined Second Life for about three weeks ago. I’ve not been there all that much – it’s terrifically time-wasting. However, from my POV as an Aspergers person, it is proving quite an interesting experience.
For me, being on Second Life has many parallels with my RL experiences. Notably, it is impossible to tell what anybody is thinking or whether they are telling the truth when they ‘speak’ – avatars have no visual nuances at all. And if there is an overall social structure, or a set of defined social rules that everybody must follow, I cannot see it; my poor avatar spends most of its time wandering around trying to work out just what the rules are and worrying that it might unknowingly make some dreadful faux pas at any moment. That is rather too much like real life for me; for instance, it was only about a decade ago that I finally worked out that when people greeted me with “How are you?” they didn’t actually want to hear a quick rundown of my current medical status.
But it’s not all been awkwardness. I – or rather, my avatar – has somehow or other managed to earn over a hundred Linden dollars; I was quite excited about this, until I checked the exchange rate. And I’ve found a nice place for my avatar to spend time in – a Buddhist monastery, where I can leave it to sit cross-legged (something that I’ll never be able to do again, in this life) while I read the Buddhist texts on offer. Somehow, I find that quite relaxing.