Of Death and Graduation
curious(FYI, I'm a teenager - so I'm on the Teen Grid, or TG.)
I've noticed that on the TG, graduation (when a teen becomes old enough to move to the MG, or Main Grid) is often seen as a kind of death.
Sure, many TG members look forward to their graduation... but once someone has graduated, people say that they are "gone." They don't say, "oh, he/she graduated" or "they're on the MG now." People in the TG just say that their friends that have graduated are gone, as if those people have died.
In a way, I suppose this makes sense. After one of your friends has graduated, you are no longer able to communicate with that friend via SL. Sure, you can contact them outside of SL if you have their contact info for that, but it just isn't the same as it was before. They're gone.