A second life... Escapism or reality?

If you could live in an imaginary world, and be your own perfect representation of your self...would you? And would you still be you?
Lets have a look at the concept of Hyper-reality. Hyper-reality doesn’t neccesarily "exist" or "not exist." It’s just a way of describing the information to which the consciousness is subjected. Most aspects of hyper-reality can be thought of as "reality by proxy." Jean Baudrillard in particular suggests that the world we live in has been replaced by a copy world, were we seek simulated stimuli and nothing more.
We now have the technology to create simulated worlds, which anyone with an internet connection can be a part of. Second life is the biggest of these online simulated worlds and its following is massive. And really why wouldn’t it be? You can create an avatar for yourself, an ideal you, fully customisable. The world has all the benefits of the real world and then some like the ability to fly. And of course like any real world capitalism is rampant, with advertising, a second life economy (with money that is bought with real life money) you can even buy designer second life clothes. This hyper real world lets you do anything. You can even get married in second life, which may subsequently lead you to getting divorced in the your first one.
So is second life a prototype for a matrix-esque world? Where we are merely cyborgs who are jacked in. Is it escapism or is it just as real and what we call the real world? On the one hand its is a shared experience with others which makes it real, its just early days yet but there’s really no limit to how ‘Real’ these Hyper realities can get. Having dual or even multiple live may become the norm in future years who knows?
Second life can be used for anything.you can have your second life job, you could buy and sell second life real estate. Real life artists have had exhibitions simultaneously in second life and in the real world in the same physical and virtual location. People can meet other people, fall in love. And even have sexual relationships...well cyber-sexual relationships is probably more accurate. Just like the real world there is a seedy underbelly to second life. This brings up some moral dilemmas. Like what’s stopping paedophiles from creating children avatars? And even engaging in fetish acts or even attempting to abduct children in the real world using second life as a hunting ground. Its much harder to police this in a hyper-real world.
Im not sure that living a second life is just as simple as it being mere escapism. I mean people in the real world engage in escapisim through substances, television even their jobs. You could argue that yes you can escape through second life but instead of just turning off from the real world second life users a just entering a different one, in which they can be just as productive or unproductive as they wish. Its a fine line.