Modeling Reality with Virtual Worlds




It’s 2017 and virtual reality is stronger than ever. I myself haven’t gotten into the wave of joining virtual worlds or experiencing virtual reality with the headsets that are now available, but have seen great review and excitement. In a conference I recently attended we focused on the good things of virtual reality, such as using it in medicine and preparing the doctors of tomorrow. There was also the though of using virtual reality for designing experiments, traveling, and building. All of these things are really exciting for the future of our society. However virtual reality worlds has its cons, as discussed in the conference, Virtual reality has the power to make you live in another world, cause disruptive behavior, could cause identity issues, and no rules to was is fair in the virtual world. These were just some of the things discussed. We further see this in the article by News24, “Virtual world may impact real world behavior”, the article examines taking on heroic or villainous avatars and the result it may have on everyday behavior.  194 undergraduate students participated and their behavior after playing 5 minutes with their chosen avatar were very interesting. Students who chose a hero as their avatar were more likely to have a better behavioral response than those who had a villain as an avatar. This study further demonstrates the danger of getting involved in a virtual world.
Virtual Reality has been a long time coming, back in middle school there was all this talk about virtual worlds such as the SIMS, Runescape, or Minecraft to name a few. I joined Runescape because everybody in my class had it and it did not disappoint. I was able to build houses, buy tools, feed myself and wreck havoc if I wanted. I also felt that it allowed my creativity to let loose. I was able to find ways to not spend real money and still be good in this world. In the article in the NY Times, “No budget, No Boundaries: It’s the Real You”, I was able to see that people tend to get creative once they get into these virtual reality worlds. This article shows us how a person can dress and buy expensive stuff as part of the virtual world. Being able to build upon your avatar for me is being creative and allowing a person to live another life.     

As we move on as a society I truly believe that virtual reality will become a very strong part of how we live on our daily lives. With that being said I believe it will help the medical world and individuals who are creative become better at what they do. I also believe that as virtual reality becomes part of society there will need to be rules! I had this discussion in the conference, because virtual reality could allow people to do some very sick things that they are not allowed to do in the real world.

Comments

  1. UnknownJuly 5, 2017 at 7:34 PM

    There truly is more to come from virtual and augmented reality. I've been thinking that Niantic should have a VR headset to use when playing so you can see life-sized monsters in Pokemon Go. That would be amazing!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. UnknownJuly 10, 2017 at 10:10 PM

      I think this is the dream for everybody that grew up watching Pokemon haha.

      Delete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Social Networking: Better or Worse than the Real Thing?

Image
              Everybody uses social media in some sort of way, until recently I didn’t use any of the major social media networks that most people use such as, Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat or LinkedIn. To be completely honest I really don’t have the time to be socializing in these networks and worrying about what happens in there. However reality hit me last September when recruiters and professionals where asking for my LinkedIn, people from my classes where asking me to join a Facebook group for a group project, and lastly friends asking me for my Instagram or Snapchat. The end result I ended getting into all of these networks except for Snapchat. The end result was that I got to know more about companies by linking with recruiters and employers, and seeing friends and family that I haven’t seen in years. Until last year I had been doing everything the old way and meeting people organically and in person and it was going great, so have these social media networks really helped me
Read more

Social Networking Sites

Image
                                Where should I start? Like I had said previously in one of my posts I did not get into any social networking site until this past September when I was sort of forced to make some (read below). I mean I did have a Facebook back in middle school and towards the beginning of High School but than it got so annoying plus none of my friends were there because they were moving into the new thing at that time, which was Instagram. I never made it too Instagrm because I have a hard time taking pictures, it’s just not my thing. I walked away from social media for about 3 years, until I had to make a Facebook account for a group project in my English class. I barely use Facebook these days unless someone sends me an invite for an event and I have to accept or my family from Ecuador wants to do a video call. It’s simply not that fun, especially with all the video advertisements that I just saw when I opened it.               Where do I start with Twitte
Read more