Modeling Reality With Virtual Worlds

Virtual Worlds can be used in a variety of ways. It really is a "virtual you" walking around in a virtual representation of reality. Quoting from the Naughty Auties Battle Autism with Virtual Interaction article, "For people with autism, we've found it's a very nice way of setting up situations they might come across in their everyday lives," Bignell said. "For people who have social, emotional, communicational problems ... we can get them familiar with an environment before they actually try it out in real life." Virtual Worlds are a great place with people who have trouble interacting with others in real life. Another way is that, companies that wish to have an online presence, can do that in virtual worlds like Second Life. There they can have a whole land and even buildings dedicated to their organization without the price that it takes to do so in real life.
Virtual Worlds benefit as shown above, people with disabilities, as well as companies that are trying to target the more tech savvy population.
However, one problem of this new technology is, it can become very addicting for people where they spend so much time on it that they start to lose the ability to socialize normally with people.
Another problem is listed in the article Toys with a Second Life in Business Week, "Indeed, Ganz has stumbled trying to cash in. In mid-December, the Campaign for a Commercial-Free Childhood noticed ads on Webkinz World for the Alvin and the Chipmunks movie. More than 1,000 protest letters were sent to Ganz." Fear of influencing children at a young age is another conflict in the development of virtual worlds. However, this shouldn't be that much of a big deal since, televison is similar in the fact that it displays advertisements at young children as well. For this problem, it lies deeper than just in virtual worlds.

In the future, virtual worlds will become much more than just a flat image on your computer, the introduction of virtual reality where people will be able to walk around and everything will actually be like real life except it all takes place instead your mind and the device that is worn on your head.