(http://secondlife.com/whatis/)
They've done it! Real world and chat rooms have met The Sims!
Does this seem familiar? From experience, this reminds me of The Sims game. You create characters and live their lives through school, works, activities, etc...
Currently I have only heard about Second Life and other virtual worlds and done a little research, but from what I've read, it seems to be the same basic concept, except that the other characters are controlled by other people throughout the world.
When thinking about Second Life, it seems to add to the idea that face to face communication is not being used as much and will continue to do so. According to Gartner research firm it is predicted that "by 2011, 80 percent of active Internet users will have a "second life" in some sort of virtual world." If this is the future of communicating and networking, it will seem more like a game. I can't help but look at videos and pictures of this and think of playing a game. If this becomes a common view, communicating will not be taken seriously and where will we end up? What is the future of communication and networking?!
2 comments:
Our futur will be made up of overweight, single and socially inadequate people. The other possibiility will be that the users of SecondLife will be all the people that have given up on trying to communicate with the real world. Kids who get made fun of in high school will turn to the internet virtual world. Once their computer's crash then, who knows what will happen! Drugs? I could be overthinking this though
I'm afraid people might spend too much time in virtual reality, when they have to face facts of the real world. You can't take care of your body by being online, and you have to physically exercise or eat, to stay healthy for example. Spending too much time on the computer is unhealthy. If you treat Second Life as a leisure activity and not take it too seriously, I don't think it could hurt anyone.
However, as Carolyn mentions, you need to develop your social skills with face to face communication, that might be easier to do online. Appearance, body language, and tact might be more difficult to do in a real life situation than online.
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