Second Life is an online virtual world that can be accessed by people all across the globe. In this world, real world individuals use computers to create and control avatars who, in the virtual world, can construct lives, communicate and interact with other avatars, and participate in daily (and night) life in a space separate from the real world. The individual has many choices to make regarding their avatar, what it will look like, what it will wear, and how it will act. “‘The outward appearance [of the avatar] really does communicate a lot about who you are, because it’s made up of conscious choices about how you want to present yourself’” (130, Boellstorff). Even though, the individual has the freedom to create any avatar “self” that they choose, it is possible to deduce a lot about an individual based merely off of they way their avatar appears.

In Second Life, the virtual self is a new and often very different self created by the real world individual. Some individuals mirror their avatars off of their real world selves, but in most cases, individuals take the opportunity to experiment with new forms of self, crossing over boundaries of gender, age, hair color, race, and even species. There have been cases where individuals have found that their virtual world self is a more actuate depiction of who they really are or who they want to be than their real world self. “as another resident noted, in Second Life ‘you can be who you are, not your [actual-world] body’” (135-135, Boellstorff). The virtual space can allow individuals to express themselves in a “more real” way than they feel they can in the real world. Some users of second life have been able to take characteristics and traits developed within the virtual world and implement them into their real world identities. One such story is expressed by a Second Life user-"'People who are people-shy, after they have positive experiences here, move that into [real life] and go out more. I know one girl who has been housebound for years; she recently went out for coffee by herself [in the actual world]'" (121, Boellstorff). There are other more radical examples of transformations that have taken place due to an individual’s perception of themselves changing based on their second life avatar. Theresa discusses another example of this phenomenon in her work on the virtual's influence on the reality. 

Because the only way for avatars in Second Life to interact and communicate is via chat boxes and messages exchanged between themselves, the method of meeting and getting to know people is very different in the virtual world than in the real world. “As one resident put it: ‘in real life, you get to know someone from the outside in, but in Second Life you get to know them from the inside out.’ Another said that in Second Life ‘you get to know someone for personality alone; it’s almost a spiritual connection, sans body’” (159, Boellstorff). This method of interaction has the power to prevent some bias that is often present in real world interactions and encourage difference within relationships and interactions. “‘When all you look at is their avatar, you can only go on personality and the things they say. So you aren’t as quick to judge.... You can only go based on someone’s heart’” (159, Boellstorff). There are several such examples of interactions and relationships that take place in this way. 

The avatar is a freeing appendage that allows the real world individual to participate in a different world as a different person. Through the virtual self, the real world self is given new opportunities in a new social space. The avatar can serve as an experimental mechanism or a device to express who someone really believes himself to be. Avatars serve as puppets for real world individuals to participate in sociality and relationships within the virtual space, where possibly, in the real world, these relationships would not have occurred. These relationships and social interactions, based on different characteristics than real world relationships, are limited in some ways compared to real world relationships, but they also provide opportunities for newness and difference. The avatar, although it presents the possibility for creativity and newness, is a virtual shadow of the real world self that cannot completely escape from the influence of the real world individual. Even though the virtual world is conducive to producing new and different forms of self, traces of the real world individual can still often be observed within the identity of the virtual self.