How Do You Balance Virtual World Living With the Rest of Your Life?

Writing on her own blog, NightLight, New World Notes contributor Nightflower asks readers to tell her how they balance their virtual world activity with the rest of their life. As she notes, "Managing relationships, headspace, and pure emotional bandwidth are skills not taught in any time management book, but talents essential to survival when balancing two worlds." She's collecting suggestions there and here, for a follow-up to this now-classic post on a time when that balance was lost. So please share your experiences, here or there!

Comments

[Onyx]

For myself it's a matter of compartmentalization. When SL began to intrude just a little too much I blocked it off. I limit myself in terms of time I spend in world. For instance, Friday and Saturday nights are family nights. Those are times I purposely unplug and engage with my RL family.

[Raven Haalan]

I think balance is an internal reality. The main thing to do is listen to yourself, and when you sense internal unease, listen.

That having been said, I am constantly aware that on any given day, I'm not getting enough RL, or not getting enough SL. :)

[Commizar]

I'm a SL explorer and don't have any social connections in world (though this blog has pointed me towards a few cool events). I'm also a father, farmer, & work full time. So for me I only get to explore SL at nights when I'm not flooded.

[Cisop Sixpence]

When possible, I concurrently participate in Second Life and Real Life. I do let my human sleep, and eat and socialize with other humans, but Second Life is what feeds my addiction. ;)

[Emerald Wynn]

This question - "balancing worlds" - makes me uncomfortable, as if we are bizarre people living two lives. I worry that it's questions like these that lead people outside of SL to believe that we're all unable to function in reality, one reason why I usually feel the need to keep my AV in the closet.

I work hard to keep SL in its proper place, at least in my own head, which is in the hobby or recreation category. Much like TV and books, I log in when I have time to relax, but I try to put other recreational activities first - SL is saved for rainy days, early mornings when I'm procrastinating on going to work, or weekends when I'm broke or too tired to go out.

I say this not because I'm a snob or down on people who are very attached to their SL personas - Second Life used to consume me to the point where it just got really unhealthy and downright frightening. It's taken about a year to wrestle it into a healthy context in my life. When I was too wrapped up in SL, I didn't date much or socialize much or do nice things for myself - I was content to hole up on my couch with my laptop and forget about everything. My life is so much richer now that I've snapped out of it and, yes, (at first) forced myself to get back out in the world and actually try to be more like my AV - fun and lovely and fascinated by the world. So I'm grateful to SL for that inspiration.

Shoot, well, I guess I just answered Night's question after all: Get it into perspective and you will find balance. That's my advice, at least. If you have the capabilities to be a beautiful, vibrant, loved and loving person in a virtual world, you DO have the capabilities to be that same person in reality.

[DMC Jurassic]

i go for a walk ;)

[Jane2 McMahon]

Real Life comes first. Always. Simple.

[rarely obscure]

When I first started SL I logged in waaaaay too much, neglecting my RL. So I uninstalled SL from my computer and took 2 months off. That time away from SL really put things in perspective. I have never allowed SL to rule my RL again.