Our Brilliant Second Life

Our Brilliant Second Life is a short documentary from a series called Podlove, that screened on SBS television.

Each episode of Podlove explores how communication technologies have influenced and had an impact on human relationships.

In this episode we meet couple Blair and Diana who fulfil their lives and relationship on Second Life, a virtual world developed by Linden Lab in San Francisco and launched in 2003.

In Second Life, users create avatars and socialise with other avatars. They can build, create, perform, shop, and trade virtual property and services with one another; an online environment operating in parallel to the real world.

This is an engagingly short and sharp mini-documentary that is both informative and entertaining. Seeing the real-life Blair and Diana discuss their avatar alter egos is particularly interesting and perhaps a little bewildering, but it's done with such nonchalance that it becomes intriguing.

The short format is perfect as it gives us a tantalising glimpse into the secret lives of others before we have time to really question their lifestyle choice.