I think any "generation gap" discussion of Second Life runs into several problems.

First, I'm a Gen-X who is a teacher in RL and I have spent inordinate amounts of time shepherding 14 year olds off the adult grid and into the "Teen" grid... to the point that my X and Boomer friends call me a "Den Mother". I don't think we have any real "facts" on the numbers of kids on the adult grid because, quite frankly, the teen grid is full of content created by teens...and strangely enough...it's "really boring" compared to what's on the adult grid created by professional graphic designers, artists, and programmers of some expertise. It's also impossible to know how long they've been there. (I met a student from my school the other day...he's 18 now, but his profile says he's been in world since he was 15. He's a professional scripter.)

Second, SL is a unique experience to every user. Whether you found something worthwhile to you in the first 3 hours of play...whether you found anything worthwhile in the first three days...three months...each of these milestones determines whether or not you're "retained" amongst its citizens and it's a hit or miss proposition. Most of us who've made it past our first RezDay had a mentor...a project...a dream...a love of live music...SOMETHING that kept us coming back.

[And, in response to a few comments above..."sex", doesn't keep anyone coming back to SL. Nor does merely "talking to someone from another country". Listen, whippersnapper, I've been chatting with half the planet since the 80's...before you were born!] Ahem, sorry, outburst control initiated. ;)

Third, most of the time you don't know how old someone is in SL until they tell you..if you believe them. My best friends, the ones I've known long enough to have earned the truth, tend to be male and over 50. (I'm in my 30's) Why this is I can't say particularly...but it tends to be the case and is part of the "lore" of SL psychology.


Lastly, the reason I responded to this post is simply that I get very tired of the same comments about SL again and again. It's one of the most possibility- filled virtualworlds that you can explore, create, and socialize in at this writing. (Go and look if you don't believe me.) It's a petri dish and a mirror all in one. You get back what you reflect into it. If that's appealing to you, good. If it's not, that's fine too.

But, what I DO have an issue with is those who think they know why I (or anyone else) log in. You want to know that, ask. Everything else is just speculation. For some reason, when it comes to SL, that speculation tends to be mean, one-sided, and rather offensive. It also tends to be from individuals who from their own statements have little to no information about what they're belittling.

The real question of interest to me about SL isn't the demographics...it's the amazing virulence of its "haters". I can think of a hundred different software programs I've used or been abused by in the last two decades, but I can't think of one that caused me such pain that I'd have to scrawl "WoW Sucks" on forum and comment posts, let alone attack its users as in some way subhuman. THAT is the phenomenon that someone should get interested in, in my opinion. I'm sure somewhere behind it all is demographics. Yep, I'm pretty sure there's something in that that smells of a generation gap.

***DON'T TRUST ANYONE UNDER 30! (They usually don't know what they're talking about.)

;) lol