Virtual worlds to many people are probably a lot of fun to use and be apart of, it is really common for a young adult of adolescent to come home at the end of the day and play any sort of video game. There is a wide variety of video games and virtual worlds that you can join, and you can make conversation with people, or just roam around the world and do whatever you really want to do. There is also a big factor in which some people sit at home and players actually live an alter-ego within there game. This sort of thing raises a lot of questions in some people's eyes. Some ask "Will this be us in 10-20 years?" or "Could the excessiveness of video gaming be a problem?"
I took this screenshot above of all the possible avatars earlier from this semester when we had to sign up for Second Life. It shows how you can pick which avatar you want to be throughout the virtual world. Avatars play a huge role in virtual worlds, they are the things that are pretending to be you. Meaning that every user has the control over there avatar, and they can sometimes live within their character. In the picture above, you can see that you can choose your gender, race and height, ethnicity. When you make an account you first pick your avatar and then if you want to further make your avatar look something like you, it is possible to do this.
I mean theres nothing wrong with having fun playing video games. The bigger issue comes into play when people spend way to much time in virtual worlds and they become addicted to it. As i was reading through the article i came across something that i found interesting, but a little strange at the same time. It mentioned that a university professor from Korea, admitted to being in a virtual world and in which he used an avatar that was a little girl. Although this was harmless, and the professor said he did not have any bad intentions, you can see that you don't know who is playing or behind these avatars and that is kinda what might creep people out. This could definitely lead to harmful use, as if someone using the little girl and contacting younger players who play this game, as if they were one of them. But there are endless amounts of possibilities of what might happen, some bad and some that might not be bad.
As we progress into the future there could be bad outcomes and good outcomes. There is a new invention called the Microsoft HoloLens which brings your virtual experience to a whole new level by making it seem less virtual and more like reality. This may cause some downfalls. for example, we ask the question "will there ever come a day when people prefer to live a second life over a virtual headset because he or she wants everything to be easier by programming it into a headset. To me, this is a little bit too much. I wouldn't want to be living in a virtual world, when i can experience grater things that are in the world.
For example, many people strive to be successful and have a great job with a family, and you have earned everything you wanted in life. You have a mansion of house, cars that other people are jealous that you have. Well most people if are in a virtual world, can have this with a snap of their fingers, if they want a nice car they can get it and you can also feel the car as you "virtually" drive it. But this isn't the real world, this is a virtual world, and if you want those things then you need to put effort into getting them. My point here is that, the question we have here is "scary" because the answer is obvious; why put effort into your job and become successful within 20 years buy a million dollar car with a million dollar house, when all you need to do is put a virtual headset on your head. To me it seems as though the answer might be for anything you might want, and since your virtual headset can produce an entire world where you have everything you want, then why be confined to the real world?
We don't know what the future will bring or where it will take us. But we do know that the future of technology has a lot in store for us. My only concern is that as people join virtual worlds, and get attached to them will they be able to distinguish whats really real and what isn't? Will they be able to live and function in the real world rather than being in a whole other virtual world? These are the questions that i have, that people amongst me have, although we don't have the answers to them right now, we will hopefully be able to get them soon enough.
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