Tired of SL

HI Onyx, Lately I feel like I am on the outside looking in Second Life goings on have lost their luster and fun. When I go in world I just want to take care of paying my tier and that's it..old friends are sending me messages wanting to know what happened. I don't know what to tell them. I feel empty inside, feel like the time and effort I put into those friendships in the past was a waste for them and for me. Feeling lost and alone in Second life and real life.

My dear friend, and I do hope you will consider me a friend, despair not. Time spent building relationships is never wasted. The evident concern your freinds have for your well being is proof of this. You appear to have reached a time of SL burnout. This is not uncommon, especially if you have been doing much the same thing for a while. Also, it is now near the end of what for some has been a long cold Winter. I know I am subject to the so-called "winter blues", myself. So, maybe some of that has contributed to your mood as well. The best cure I know for this is novelty. I hit the "logging in only to pay tier" stage a while ago myself. So, I started looking for different things I had not yet done in SL. This little Ask a Tiger thing is one result of that search. One need not restrict the search for novelty to SL either. As another option, perhaps a time of withdrawal and reflection would prove beneficial, or at least some time to engage with 1st Life for a while. Occasionally one needs to re-establish the balance between actual and virtual lives. Your friends will certainly understand the need to recharge your batteries, as it were. Besides, there are so many ways to maintain contact across the aether that you need not lose touch with your SL friends entirely.

Take heart, my friend, as with the seasons of the year, the Winter of the soul is almost always followed by a Spring-like reawakening. Sometimes we have to decide to allow it. Sometimes we have to help it along.

Ask a tiger.