Modeling Reality With Virtual Worlds

Virtual worlds can be used for several activities that can enhance its productivity. It can be used to improve gaming experiences,virtual prototypes, training programs for military, medical training (surgical procedures and diagnosing)and psychological therapy. However, it does have its downfalls which include lag time, better tracking systems, undermining the basic laws of physics and, it’s lack of acuity.

Virtual worlds allow users to be very creative by allowing to run practice cases before it occurs in the real world. In “Avatar II: The Hospital” by Stephanie Simon, she explains the usage of virtual worlds in the medical fields. It’s an online simulation designed to help nurses react properly in tensed emergencies. It works well in that it doesn’t interfere with the hospitals regular business and its cheaper to creative a virtual world and complete the training rather than having to pay actors to play the roles.

In “Virtual world may impact real­ world behavior”, it states how our roles in the virtual world may transcend into our regular day to day behavior. In the article, two groups played as either a villain or a hero. After the experiment, they each were given the chance to give either chocolate or chili sauce to the future participants. The ones that played as villains almost always choose to give chili sauce while the ones that played as heroes gave chocolate, almost twice as much, to the future participants. This shows that even though the participants were done with the experiment, their mindset was still similar to the role they played in the virtual world. It could have been done unconsciously but it’s interesting to see how virtual worlds can continue to affect participants even after they have entered back into reality.

The future of virtual worlds seems to be looking bright as technologies continue to improve vastly. I do believe that the online virtual worlds will somehow mesh with reality that will feel more life like. It might begin to feel more tangible in the sense that it allows participants to physically be connected to its experience.

Blog About Twitter

Discussions on Twitter vs BlackBoard vs in-class are very different for several reasons. First, Twitter is the worst place to engage in a discussion as its limited in allowing a freely open discussion with its 140 character limit. It’s a bit complicated trying to explain your ideas and thoughts in 1 or 2 small sentences. It’s not impossible, however, it’s also not necessary. In some ways, it feels childish especially having to use a “hashtag” to find my classmates on it.

BlackBoard discussion are far more efficient than Twitter as you have the necessary space to discuss important information. However, it doesn’t seem to be helpful in allowing me to interact with my classmates because it feels somewhat forced. I’m in a situation where I’m curious about my classmates to some extent but I also don’t seem to think online profiles really give you a good understanding of that person. It feels overly prepared and entails a false idea of who they are to some level. I also do not get notifications when someone updates something on BlackBoard (I’m sure I can fix that) but I still have no interest in socializing with others online unless its for friends or family.

I personally believe I engage the best in in-class discussions because the physical presence of my professor and classmates gives me a realistic understanding of my expectations and the amount of work I should be putting forth for that class. I also feel like I’m put in a classroom for an hour and 15 minutes therefore I can find myself getting more engaged in the conversation. It feels more real and tangible when you are seated in a room with a professor making eye contact with you on class matters.

Social Networking Sites

The four famous social networking sites are Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr, and Instagram. My impression of Facebook is that it’s most efficient in communicating with your friends, family and strangers. The Facebook Messenger is very helpful in navigating through messages with friends and family. It’s easy for me to keep tabs on politics, day to day issues and any personal interests in regards to sports/movies/music. The reason why Facebook feels more natural is that it is not complicated in breaking down its features for the public to have access to.

I’ve made a Twitter couple of years back and did tweet once in a while to see how it works and it didn’t really gravitate my interest. I got bored of the 140 character limit as it made me feel like I’m in class trying to cut down on some extra pages on a term paper. Also, the hashtags are heavily popular on Twitter but it seems like it seems too hectic and overly done to keep people entertained. It’s not difficult to tweet but it’s not as quick as Facebook to get the people engaged. Most pictures, videos and stories on Twitter are linked therefore it takes a couple of extra seconds to gain access to it.

Tumblr is still popular even though it’s hype has been plummeting for awhile. Whether it be memes, pictures, posts, videos or personal notes, it can be very easy to access. However, it is difficult to really engage with others as you can through Twitter or Facebook. Tumblr makes you feel like a lone wolf as you’re basically reblogging or writing your own personal notes. Unless you’re famous, it’s difficult to talk with strangers as you can on the previous mentioned networks.

Instagram is known for its sharing of pictures and videos. It is easy to use as you just scroll by your followers posts and like or ignore depending on the level of interest it has on you. Sometimes, you don’t want to read or engage with others and thats when Instagram comes in handy. It’s something that intrigues you and keep you intrigued but only for a short term.

Social Net’g

Technologies can be used in several ways in our daily life. It is a massive help in the educational field. By being able to integrate technology into classrooms, it increases diversity  in learning styles. Because technology is used for social media by teenagers and young adults, being able to integrate technology will allow them to stay engaged in their education without losing focus. By having access to technology, it gives the students  access to the most up-to date information with the click of a button. Furthermore, college students are able to use digital textbooks that are more updated and a lot cheaper.

Something more common is the use of technology for social interactions with friends and family. Being able to use Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, etc allows people to write messages, upload pictures, and share stories that occurs thousand miles away from their home. It gives people a chance to relax and catch up on the latest news and updates in between lunch breaks and before going to bed. These social networks can be used on the computer but it’s quite common to be used by teenagers and young adults through their cellphones. The positive outcome is that it allows information to be spread faster as news outlets use social media to update people on any breaking news on a regular basis. However, this can also backfire in the sense that false or inaccurate information can be spread rapidly as well causing for unnecessary havoc.

In “Great Wall of Facebook: The Social Network’s Plan to Dominate the Internet — and Keep Google Out” by Fred Volgstein  explains how Facebook has over 200 million users which accounts for at least 1/5th of all internet users. A user spends an average of 20 minutes on it which isn’t too much but it’s enough to obtain access to interactions with friends/family and updates on what’s occurring around their neighborhood, state, country and even updates from around the world.It is also more and more common for prosecutors to use social media to catch criminals as they tend to brag and post their crimes for their friends and families to see.

A “dark” side to technology can be cyber bullying that occurs more often now than ever as people are able to post hateful messages to strangers and being able to do it anonymously gives them the edge of not having to worry about getting in trouble. In “They’re Back, and They’re Bad: Campus-Gossip Web Sites” by Jeffrey Young, it mentions how college students are using personal online sites for the purpose of ridiculing and mocking their colleagues anonymously. Though it can be hurtful, they barely get into any legal issues as they’re exercising the first amendment of free speech.

Overall, technology has its pros and cons but it continues to evolve throughout the years and theres more to expect from the world of technology now more than ever. I would like to hope that technology can be used in a way for environment protection and climate change. Although I’m not sure how technology can solve these issues, it definitely can bring awareness that can lead to actions in changing the way we see our world right now.