LONDON, England (CNN) -- It's 2020. You get home from work, kick off your shoes and relax -- on your very own tropical island. That night, your friends teleport over with other glamorous guests, all nipped, tucked and primped to perfection, for a hedonistic cocktail party at your five-star beach house, decked out in expensively understated chrome, crystal and fine Italian furniture.





Experts say the use of virtual worlds like Second Life may be widespread by 2020





But this is no billionaire way of life. If virtual worlds become the next Facebook phenomenon, experts predict that logging on to a luxury lifestyle could be attainable for all of us -- and we might even spend more money on our online homes than on our real-life surroundings.





With over 30 million users worldwide, 8.5 million photos uploaded each day and 15 billion page views a month, Facebook is undoubtedly the Internet's flavor of the month. But by 2020, virtual worlds may have surpassed social networking sites as the place to spend time online. Experts believe that the draw of 3-D spaces where our avatars can hang out with our friends -- and meet new ones -- may tempt away even the most ardent Facebook addict.





David Knighton, a 35-year-old Second Life user from Jacksonville, Florida, is one of many netizens exploring virtual worlds. He's been visiting the site for over a year and told CNN that he enjoys its social dimension. "I've met several good friends in Second Life, who are still friends to this day in the 'real world'" he said.





At times, David has spent six hours a day, seven days a week on Second Life. But what is the draw of a virtual world? Are they only attractive to tech-heads? David doesn't think so. He says, "Experience plays a role in acceptance to be sure, but Second Life takes hold more on a social and creative level. Someone who signs in and recognizes those aspects of Second Life will immediately be hooked."





This is backed up by blogger and writer Caleb Booker, who has tracked virtual worlds from phone "party lines" through the first one-player text-based computer adventures to the two- and three-dimensional Internet worlds that are burgeoning today.





Booker believes that, in a society that's increasingly mobile, virtual worlds help us hold our far-flung social networks together. He cites the example of his mother-in-law, who recently moved to a new city and uses Facebook to stay in touch with her three daughters. "They're all busy, so virtual world technologies and Web 2.0 apps are the best and most convenient ways to keep up," he told CNN.





Booker says that virtual worlds take this interaction to a more sophisticated level. "I don't even have to worry about cab fare if I want to have a little get-together with my friends from the UK and the US tonight," he said.





And he thinks that it's only a matter of time before virtual worlds follow Facebook and explode in popularity. "Bottom line: if people are using email for social interaction, they'll probably be interested in other ways to be social online."





Life-like avatars





Interaction on Facebook, MySpace and other social networking sites is mainly limited to text, with the ability for users to add photos and video. But in a virtual world, people are represented by avatars: computer-generated figures which can look uncannily like ourselves -- if we choose. They can walk like us, they'll soon talk like us and they can interact with each other.





As 3-D technology becomes increasingly sophisticated, Booker says that photo-realistic avatars are just around the corner, and will become increasingly convincing.





"Eye movement, breathing, and realistic expressions will be the easy part," he revealed. "The hard part will come with things like synching mouth movements with voice recognition. That's something we might not quite have nailed by 2020, but there will definitely be some kind of engine that attempts it by
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