Burnt out and bored with SL: What would you do?

I think perhaps that I am either bored with or burnt out on SL.

Here is the backstory: I feel like this whole year for me has been one hiatus from SLing after another. I wasn't on much in the beginning of the year when I cut down on smoking and was battling a bit of a depression. I got back into the swing of things for awhile and then I wasn't on much because of the wedding. After then I wasn't on a lot after I quit smoking other than to release some new designs. Then I was too busy with the SL Convention planning and then we were moving. Now we are moved into the new house and mostly settled in. I tried getting back into designing and SLing in general and mostly I'm lucky if I log on for 5 minutes a day. I rarely interact with anyone anymore. Even when I have time to devote to Second Life, I find other things to do. I figured once the move was done I would have no problem getting back into SL. Now I barely notice if I go days without logging in.

I guess I wonder if this is a phase or if I should just retire as it were from SL and get back to it when the time is right. Instead of trying to make myself enjoy something that I am obviously not enjoying anymore. I know I have been busy this year in RL and thats what has taken me away from SLing on some levels, but I don't know, its just like my heart isn't in it anymore.

Please note, that I'm *NOT* trying to garnish sympathy and reach a quota of "please stay in SL" replies. Moreso I am looking for feedback on how everyone else combats stuff being bored or burnt out in the virtual world or how they have dealt with long term hiatuses and then returned to SL at a later time.

I can't say that it is any reason in particular. I honestly don't care about the bumpy ride of 1.7, the impending doom of 1.8, the grid instability, the grid attacks etc. So believe me its not that. Its not any bad experiences that have pushed me away. Its not any particular bit of drama. I know what its not, but have no idea what it is. If that makes sense.

I'm on the fence about the whole leaving SL thing right now. I may stay in my semi-hiatus state, I may take a permanent vacation or a leave of absence and return when the time is right. I honestly don't know. My 2nd SL birthday is in 10 days. I can't decide whether I should feel honored for having made it this far or ashamed that I have wasted two years of time in here.

Regards,
Jennyfur

do what I did...
Tier down to basic account...
leave for a while....
then come back and rediscover what led you here in the first place.

Watch SL crumble as LL lets their FIC friends run and control everything.

Flipper owns all of the land so I have always had a basic account. Otherwise that sounds like good advice.

I doubt it's so much a factor of SL but rather the cycles of energy everyone goes through.

You could probably be collecting stamps and you'd get burnt our and bored at some point.

Oh I can guarantee that I get burnt out and bored with almost everything. It probably has a lot to do with being creatively driven and of course being a gemini. I like everything and yet nothing! Ooh Shiny Honestly, I've been suprised all along that I have stuck with SL for as long as I did.

Jennyfur,

my thoughts are that you're experiencing what many have.. temporary burn out.

i have gone through it also and am still nowhere near my highest levels of involvement.

basically, don't worry about it. if you're not "feeling it", then just do what you've been doing. granted if you have a significantly high tier you may want to contemplate Camille's idea. but, i imagine you'll be more than happy to dive back in eventually.. even if it's months from now.

i tend to involve myself at a fairly leisurely pace, as far as in-world involvement goes. although, i admit, i've been trying to be available a bit more to play a more helpful role as a Greeter.. but take my building pace for example. i can take months to get somewhere on something.. *shrug* ..no worries though.

granted, i come into the forums a couple times a day.. i figure if i'm not in-world, at least i can keep abreast of current situations. ..and drahma. but seriously, i've always thought of the forums as the pulse of SL. if something's going significantly wrong, or right, i'll find out about it in here.

i wouldn't suggest leaving.. you won't be able to anyway. you may have quit smoking, but quitting SL isn't quite so easy. it's one thing to just meander off for long periods of time, but eventually you'll want to saunter back in and see what's going on.. then you'll want to do something and before you know it, you'll start a new phase of SLing.


breathe in..
breathe out..

(and hey, what about SLCC 2006? we'll need you for that, too!)

Hi Jennyfur,

I had similar issues few times, whenever I logged on I couldn't find anything to do, didn't feel like chatting to people or any reason to stay on. So usually after few minutes I would log off and find someting else to do.
Then I would get an idea for a build log in, start working....people would talk to me. Total strangers would try and be my friends (or get into my pants ) and I got into it again.
But the story keeps repeating itself, my genuine advice would be just to log on when you want to do something. Do no pressure yourself and see how it goes.

But it might be a Gemini thing.

Good luck.

Then do the other things. And when they get boring you might find SL enjoyable again (or not, and do even more otherish things).

Just do what makes you happy. If SL ain't it right now, maybe something else is. I don't even want to suggest: "do something else for a while so you can come back to enjoy SL later." That makes it sound like your *supposed* to enjoy this. You don't owe Linden Labs, or any of us, anything....so I guess I'm wondering why you sound almost "apologetic" for not enjoying this right now. People like what they like and right now you don't like SL. No harm no foul.

You have been giving us wonderful projects and designs for such a while, I think your RL now needs to take over your SL... well if I read correctly, it actually already did! Wich *is* great! Unless you are also bored in RL, then it's another story, but from what I understand you do have/find many things to do when you are offline. I find it very refreshing sometimes for an addict like me to not want to be in SL. I am actually feeling like that since the past couple of days, and it's fun! I start to make jewels in RL again, wear make-up, go shop for xmas, etc. I think most artists have phases like that, and you are obviously one. For what my words are worth, I'd say don't push it! Leave it like that, go enjoy your RL!! And if you ever have that fire again, you know you're gonna come back and enjoy it, and if not, who cares? You owe nothing to anyone in this virtual pixel place, unless maybe your friends, and you can keep in touch with those via other stuff. Easy!!
Good luck and enjoy yourself no mater what decision you take, that's the most important!
<3

I'm sort of in the same spot Jennyfur - I got busy with RL, a little bored with SL and kind of removed I guess.

I tiered down a bit, but not all the way down to basic.

I'm sort of waiting for RL to slow down a bit and for another creative idea to hit and maybe I'll go back in to SL with an idea that I want to visualize because SL is a good medium for that.

I guess I'd recommend just staying in a semi-hiatus state and see what happens, you never know when your sitting around one day and the creative bug bites and SL is just the expressive medium that you need.

Rose

I'm a Gemini too, and get bored very easily. When I do, I go someplace I have never been, try to meet new people, think up new business ideas, "attempt" to build something. I think if you try to force yourself to "stick it out" with SL, you'll come to really dislike it. I hate the thought of you leaving SL, even if it's for a short bit of time, bc I haven't officially met you yet! But you might find, after not logging on for a few weeks or months, that you really miss it.

I had a touch of this.

I'd say: Try not to force it. When you have a reason to love SL again, you will. In the meantime, it'll be slowly changing and improving and becoming more complex.

Who knows, Linden Lab might eventually pop out a new feature that makes you go wild and you'll be back with a vengeance. But it's okay to give SL a rest for awhile. Definitely helped me.

I doubt I will be involved in the SLCC 2006 going forward or if I am it won't be to the extent that I was for the first one. I've been going back and forth on potential future involvements since the convention ended. I have too much on my plate now with starting a new job in January and I am thinking about taking some evening design classes probably starting in the summer and fall. Not that the SLCC wasn't a good experience for me for the most part. It was more feasible for me to be involved as much as I was in the first one because I was working part-time for most of the planning process.

Being apologetic comes with obligations and responsibilities, which I have from being a business owner and having to be accessible for customer service for my own products and for SL Boutique stuff. Plus there is all of that land I occupy with my crap in Indigo and part of Olive. Thats why I am weighing my options heavily.

You could try gettting REALLY drunk. So drunk that not only can you not remember the previous day. but also the previous 2 years. SL will then feel quite fresh again.

Its what I do everyday. One day I lost the note that tells me to go to www.secondlife.com. I managed to find it a week later though.

SL burnout . . . you could just go do something else. But if you want to stick around, well, what worked for me was getting a Third Life. Pick a shiny new name and be a newbie again. Make yourself look very different this time and try a new style of fashion (you could even check out wings and bling and all that . . . they really can be fun). Be silly. Don't do any "work." Get yourself 512 m2 in a part of the grid you've never visited before and see if you can do anything cool with it. Go to some events. Introduce yourself to your neighbors. Explore.

This has worked for me, and for friends. Pretty soon, you're going to start trying to figure out if your alt should be selling that new item, or if you should give it to your old self; and wanting to show your 512 to your old friends, and wondering about introducing your new friends to your primary av . . .

Jennyfur, when i burn out on "professional" work what I do is to start something of mine, something I've been wanting to do. I have enough ideas to keep half of SL busy so I'm always looking for talented people who want to do something fun, especially if they're good with photoshop
*winkwinknudgenudge*

What happens if you get burned out of SL by Linden Labs themselves and their resident cronies?

I did take a year off, pretty much. Came back just a few weeks ago and I'm enjoying it. Sometimes you just need to take a step back, imo. Good luck whatever you do.

Take on an apprentice who can then help service your customer base. A full time and a part time job is going to burn you out real quick.

Just take a break. Find something else you like to do for a while and you may eventually work your way back to SL.
I stop logging in for months at a time and then get all kinds of ideas and can't stay out of it until I try them.
It's natural, RL is much more time consuming and you don't always have the energy for SL.

Enjoy the break

You go to medical school.

Ziiing!