What will they think of next?

Perhaps I am a little late in posting this as it would have been more topical when we were discussing MUDs and the alternate lives folks live in the many online communities. I don't know if the concept of 'Second Life' (SL) is well known but I only heard about it yesterday and believe it or not, prior to this course I was almost oblivious to the fact that this sort of stuff was out there.

Anyway SL is an online community where the individual you create is represented in 3D and there are opportunities for you to start your own business, buy land and interact with other people in the community.

This however is not why I'm writing this post. The thing I'm impressed with is that a lecturer at Bradley University who is creating an undergraduate course in "Field research in SL".

20 years ago, we wouldn't have been allowed to study television academically, 10 years ago we wouldn't have been able to study the internet academically.

Is it feasible that in 10 years time we will be laughing at how foolish we were for not be able to take a media paper on how people interact in SL? I think it might be possible, however I am not very informed on this topic so I require someone with wisdom to tell me whether this is as strange as it sounds.

-Andrew