There is a wide range of uses for virtual worlds. Businesses are noticing the money making opportunities virtual worlds offer. In the article “Toys with a Second Life,” the toy industries are getting their hands into virtual worlds by targeting kids to buy their toys with a redeemable code to use for their online avatars. Most virtual worlds can make more money by selling virtual goods for real money.
Virtual worlds help people with communicate better so they are better at it in real life. It gives people more confidence to be more social. In the article, “iReport: ‘Naught Auties’ battle autism with virtual interaction,” people with autism join virtual worlds join virtual worlds to work on their social skills on situations that they may come across in real life, all in the comfort of their own home.
Virtual worlds bring all kinds of people together by similar interests. People are able to express themselves freely and do what they want which they can’t do in real life. People with disabilities are able to experience what it is like to be someone else.
Virtual worlds foster creativity because people have a tool to think outside the box and create what they want. In Second Life you can design your own building for people to explore or even use it to design a room that you like and bring it to life in the real world. Basically if you can imagine it, you can build it.
However, people may start to become addicted to the virtual world rather than reality and be disconnected with everything else. They like what they have in the virtual world because it’s how they want to live but they don’t have it in real life.
Virtual worlds can potentially become like what we see in the movies such as the Matrix where everyone lives in a virtual world and can’t tell whether something is virtual or reality. It can also be like the movie the Surrogates, where people live in isolation and interact though robots. Or it can even be like Avatar. We can only imagine what will happen in the future.
No comments:
Post a Comment