"Generation X" generally refers to people born between 1961 to 1981-- i.e., between the ages of 27 and 47 now. That happens to represents the vast majority of Residents in Second Life. According to the most recently available Linden stats, roughly 63% fit just about square in that age band, with 20% older still. Only 16% of the user base is 24 or younger-- a number that's measurably declined over the last year. (A look at the August 2007 stats in my archive shows that nearly 27% were in the 13-24 age range then.)
Let's be clear, because this is notable: SL's 24-and-under population has declined by 11% over the last year. Somehow, the Second Life community is getting significantly older, not younger.
This seems strange for several reasons. Generation Y or the "Millenials", those born from the early 80s and onward, are indisputably Internet savvy; indeed, unlike Gen X, most of them probably can't even remember a time before the Internet was pervasive. What's more, Millenials predominate online worlds in general, in top MMOs like Habbo Hotel, Gaia Online, RuneScape, and more. Somehow, however, teens and very young adults aren't joining Second Life in large numbers-- certainly not Teen Second Life, with a user base that's miniscule compared to Habbo Hotel et. al.
Why is this happening? The Metaverse Journal's Feldspar Epstein, perceptively expanding on thoughts by Joe Essid/Ignatius Onomatopoeia and other educators who use SL as a college pedagogical tool, has a provocative thesis:
As Generation X rebelled against the strictures placed upon the Baby
Boomers, so the Millennial Generation rebels in its quiet, refined
manner against the excesses of Generation X... Generation X’ers know how to play in the freeform manner that
Second Life requires, whereas Millennials typically do not display that
skill.
In other words, she's arguing that Second Life is by its very architecture more appealing
to Gen X, comprised of those who came of age mistrusting mainstream commercialism and its rigid, pre-digested
structure, holding all that at an ironic distance, instead preferring
free-form self-identity invention. (You only need listen to music from
the Seattle Grunge era or watch a classic Gen X hit like Slacker, to get a sense of that.)
The result, according to Ms. Epstein, is this: