This sample was then compared to a nationally representative sample of U.S. Participants were recruited directly through Second Life as well as through secondary websites pertaining to this online community, including forums and message boards. Recently, researchers at the University of Cambridge conducted an online survey of 235 Second Life residents, examining the ways in which Second Life users differ from the population at large, the frequency with which they engaged in online (and offline) sexual activities, and their motivations for pursuing such relationships. Because many users invest as much time in their Second lives as they devote to their real lives, it is not surprising that residents regularly cultivate online romantic and sexual relationships with one another. In contrast to the Sailor Moon chat room of my youth, Second Life is a 3D virtual world that allows its “residents” to fully customize their avatars and their environments. One such environment is the online community named Second Life. And although the Sailor Moon chat room is probably long gone, other virtual worlds have sprung up in its wake. But the chat room allowed me to reinvent myself, connect with others with similar interests, and-in short-escape the sad reality of middle school. It’s probably worth mentioning I was thirteen at the time and wildly unpopular at school (given what I just shared, I can’t imagine why). After a few weeks of frequenting the chat room, I started a relationship with a guy whose online persona was a dog (yes, a dog, as in a canine…oh, the shame is endless). My online alter ego, a character I named Hiko Aino (Japanese for “fire child of love”), was tall, graceful, and witty-everything that I, at the time, was decidedly not. For the uninitiated, Sailor Moon was a Japanese anime show that was “popular” in the late 1990s. I met my first boyfriend in a Sailor Moon chat room.
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