Modeling Reality with Virtual Worlds

Virtual worlds are becoming more and more popular. They allow people to live lives that they dream of from the comfort of their computer. As Nicole Saidi article “'“Naughty Auties' Battle Autism with Virtual Interaction” puts it “Residents of this digital realm can represent themselves with 3-D images called avatars and connect with each other over the Internet.” Essentially that is what virtual worlds are.

Virtual worlds are interesting and are having a profound effect on communication and the way people are learning and coping with the world. Nicole Saidi article discusses the benefits virtual worlds have on autistic people. It’s helping to strengthen the communication skills. Virtual world is also much more personal than electronic communications such as email. Virtual worlds are also a great communication tool, allowing people from several parts of the world to communicate and interact with each other. Virtual worlds allow people to be creative and create the world’s they desire.

Just as in the real world virtual world has its crimes. I believe the biggest threat with virtual reality is the effect it will have on real life social interactions. We have to be careful of people becoming too dependent on virtual world and excluding real social interactions out of their lives.

Overall virtual worlds are a great tool the enhance communication, convergence, creativity, convergence, and community. I think in the future virtual worlds will be used a lot more at work, home and school. I see virtual worlds helping to improve these areas.