We live in a digital age, where we can cross the border of existence from reality to into a virtual world. We can recreate our image online. You can create a Avatar image, and give it abilities you would like to have. I would like to experience the virtual world more than I have. The movie "Digital World," presented by Frontline gave me a new outlook into the new digital world that is at our finger tips. It can be a way to interact with coworkers. Companies are having meetings online, rather than in real life. You can interact with coworkers you have never meet in person before. We are eliminating some forms of alienation, but we are also producing new forms of alienation. I think it is scary to think that we are interacting with some one's creation of themselves rather than the actual person. I think that we should not eliminate human contact in the work place. We should still know how to interact with people in the work place. Virtual worlds should not replace reality, but instead should give us a break from reality.
Virtual worlds are not only giving us a way to 'escape' reality, they are giving us a way to experience things we have never experienced before. It is weird to think a child can experience swimming with whales virtually, and then really believe that they have swam with whales. I don't think we should manipulate the way people think, but it is becoming more of a reality. Virtual experiences can be used to help people with PSD, Post traumatic stress disorder. I think virtual reality can be used to help people, without being used to manipulate people. I don't think we should use it to recruit people for the military, but this is happening faster than we can stop it. Wars are becoming more virtual. We have people piloting unmanned planes from our own country. These military 'pilots' are basically killing enemies from thousands of miles away, and then going straight home afterwards. Some of these men and women are dealing with PSD, just like the soldiers fighting in the actual war zone. I think it is phenomenal way to save lives, but we don't know the full implications virtual wars are going to have on the mental states of our soldiers, and the full impact this new way of fighting is going to have.
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I agree that as we use technology to benefit society we need to be very careful that we don't take it to far and manipulate peoples thought processes. Virtual reality scares me a little because I worry that if people can do things virtually then they wont bother to go out and really experience them. For example kids can jump rope, play tennis, ski, snowboard and play basketball all on a video game system. This is great as long as is does not replace them actually going outside to do these things when they are able to.
ReplyDeleteThere are so many things that people can do without the world of technology. I hope our society doesn't forget this someday.
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