Wagner James Au / New World Notes

Author, strategist, virtual world reporter

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Do Virtual Worlds Decline in Usage Because People Generally Become Less Social as They Age?

IMVU mobile metaverse

Lots of interesting conversation around Coffee Pancake's guest essay on the decline of user activity in IMVU, including this one by an anonymous commenter:

In general as people age, they become less social. This has been observed multiple times, and has studies, if you care to look them up. IMVU has an aging demographic, and that is the reason why you see less participation in it, there might be newer players but they are probably the minority as there are superior platforms available to them.

It is the same with Second Life, we are an aging demographic, in general, we become less invested with socializing with strangers as we grow older.

Everyone seems to be hyper-focused on making Second Life more of a social place, providing new methods to get people to socialize, the sad thing is, the places being created, for this purpose, remain empty because older people are more than likely not as interested in socializing as they once were.

The best thing that I believe Linden Lab at this point is, try to bring in some new blood, but not at the sake of the older players. SL is never going to attract enough of them to make up for the losses of the older player base if they lose sight in what people enjoy about SL. I would suggest LL bring in more tools for people who are not hyper focused on socializing, that gives them something to do in world, while maintaining the possibility of social interaction.

Other commenters also note the slow decline of user concurrency in Second Life, post-pandemic. I've always considered an aging user base mainly a branding challenge when trying to bring on newer, younger users. But is the real problem what's expressed by the commenter: That maybe aging players just don't want to socialize in virtual worlds as much or even in general?

Who agrees with that? Writing this blog basically requires me to meet new SLers all the time, so my bias is around socialization. As for "studies", here's a summary from Psychology Today:

 

For many, the demands of adulthood, such as career obligations, family responsibilities, and personal commitments, leave little time and energy for socializing. Unlike in childhood, where free time is abundant and social interactions are woven into the fabric of daily life, adults often have to actively carve out time for social activities amidst their busy schedules. Research shows it takes about 50 hours of contact to form a friendship and closer to 200 to form a close friendship (Hall, 2019). This amount of time and energy can make the prospect of making new friends seem overwhelming, leading many to prioritize existing relationships or forego social opportunities altogether.

To me this seems more like an IRL problem, whereas with Second Life and other virtual worlds, socialization is core to the experience.

But I put it to readers: Do you find yourself want to meet less new avatars, the older you get it?

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6 responses to “Do Virtual Worlds Decline in Usage Because People Generally Become Less Social as They Age?”

  1. Luther Weymann Avatar
    Luther Weymann

    I have a substantial Friends list that remains curated for my friends and me who stay in touch. The sad news is that in the last fifteen years, I have not met anyone under thirty. Everyone on my friends list is over forty, with many in their sixties, and I’m almost eighty. None of us socialize except when we meet up at Muddy’s and chat while dancing and listening to music. Many people in SL are under thirty, but no one I know has met them. For me and those I regularly speak with, SL is a “diversion hobby,” someplace to escape to, build things for sale, look around at someplace new on Destinations, and log off within the hour. My Friends on my Friends list have all told me they don’t come to SL to socialize. We do that in real life.

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  2. Haridsam Avatar
    Haridsam

    As a substantially aged person myself, LOL, I think there’s some truth in the fact that we find it harder to forge new friendships as we age, but not necessarily because we don’t wish to: I think it’s that the bar for both trust and acceptance is higher than when we’re younger.
    The problem of residents socializing and interacting less, though, is way more complex and multifaceted.
    First is the extreme balkanization and fragmentation — of everything. There’s the uniquity and endless supply of private islands and parcels, and even skyboxes. If everyone lived on the mainland (not suggesting we should, just sayin’), and you had the equivalent of town and village squares and main streets with local shopping and nightlife…well, you get it. But people want to both create and build their dream home on a remote tropical paradise and live in privacy without neighbors across the fence. Understandable, it’s the billionaire lifestyle — but it doesn’t make for social connections.
    A related part of this balkanization is that many people, instead of joining an existing group or venue, will just start their own (which is why we have THOUSANDS of dead groups and places). This is tricky, as of course part of the joy and creativity of SL is the ability to do just that. But then instead of (say) 10 busy clubs where you’re going to meet people, we end up with 3 busy ones and thousands of clublets with 0-5 people (always the same) in them every night. You’re not gonna meet a lot of new people that way.
    Another big issue IMO is the problem of so many people being afk for a great deal of the time. I often make an effort to talk to new people (usually because their profile is interesting) and engage them in conversation; probably 2 of 3 are afk and only respond after a half hour, or not at all. Friends are the same. I get this, too…people stay logged in on their phones 24/7 (why?) or play other games while waiting for friends to log in, and so on. I know I’m in the minority here, but IMO our tolerance for chronic afking is bizarre — I hate it. If you’re inworld, BE THERE, and be responsive and engaged. LOL.
    Sadly, none of these things is going to change. So the best thing for SL would be for LL to encourage a steady influx of young (and hopefully social) new residents by every means possible, and figure how to improve retention — these things are IMO not rocket science. And perhaps have some immediately accessible and highly visible quest/game-type regions which newbies can immediately become involved in if they’re wired for quests and purpose. They’ll make friends that way, and stay long enough to spread into the wider community and discover everything SL has to offer.

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  3. Lizzie Avatar
    Lizzie

    Haridsam’s observations on SL are some of the most astute I’ve seen in all my years of residency and I echo them all. I might add:
    Building a social platform for introverts was always going to be a struggle. I often wonder if those who stayed would rather while away their hours in a virtual hammock as they find other people exhausting. As with RL, the only way to lure them out is with compelling shared activities and right now SL is running short. What’s the point of a virtual world the size of LA if simple region crossings can’t be relied on?
    We desperately need better “popular place” discovery tools, powered by meaningful traffic stats that LL seems suspiciously unwilling to supply. Trending places, timezone awareness and a working inworld search are hardly difficult to achieve in a digital walled garden like this, yet you can’t search for “Helios Casino” even though LL themselves created it. I have yet to see better than BonnieBots.com, and for that LL should be ashamed.
    I do wonder if LL’s recent enthusiasm for Roblox-style Lua is to allow our most skilled creators to start producing similar mini-game experiences that run mostly on the viewer and are actually fun to play. If so, I’m all for it.

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  4. Haridsam Avatar
    Haridsam

    Lizzie, thanks, and I totally agree also on the search functionality issue, which I commented on on another article on this blog: SL search is dumb as a brick, and needs major attention! And you’re so right about the “popular place” discovery tools…these should be prominent, and very easy to find. The info is there under “Destinations,” in banners, on the SL site, etc…but it needs to be in your face rather than all over the place.
    The point here is that not only new users but even longtime residents either don’t know or lose sight of how to find popular and active sims. (In my upcoming SL book, I actually have a section aimed at new users titled “Where is Everybody?”).
    IMO the problem is a common one in the tech field: UIs are designed by geeks and coders. Using focus groups to observe and learn from how new signups — ordinary mortals — interact with the UI could help alleviate some retention issues.
    But to return to the question, “Do you find yourself wanting to meet less new avatars the older you get ?” I actually find the opposite. Perhaps I’m not a typical user…though I’m an introvert, I love to chat and meet new people, and make an effort to do so. And though I agree with Luther about most residents being older (over 50, actually,) I do run into people in their 20s and 30s once we get chatting, and if the topic turns to age.
    The desire for friendships and community is there in SL, IMO, and not uncommon. But LL needs to focus on and facilitate encouraging and strengthening community. Again, this is not rocket science.
    Lizzie, thanks also for the link to Bonniebots — I wasn’t aware of that site!

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  5. Electra Avatar
    Electra

    I find the most rewarding experience in SL still comes from meeting people that are from completely different parts of the world. Totally fascinates me, and I don’t think I will ever tire of it! So I doubt as I get older it will matter less.
    Relationships go faster in SL than RL too, I think. So the 50 hours 200 hours thing is probably shorter.
    Anyway, what’s the psychology of finding something that “goes viral?” I mean, doesn’t any age want to see something that does that? And don’t we like to share fun things we found? I mean it would be awfully lonely to have to keep something interesting to yourself.
    So I think having something that literally works well would help an issue like user concurrency the most. I mean, take the friction away to help people create & share things that can go viral! Some of the “coding” bla bla bla (that is quite honestly way over my head) doesn’t make sense to be stopping this. For all the chatter… I’ve seen my nephew use Roblox. There isn’t PBR or viewer drama. This is all probably about someone’s decisions IMO.

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  6. Pulsar Avatar
    Pulsar

    I agree with Haridsam. Also, there are lonely retired people who actually seek for some company in SL. SL helps/helped them that way.

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