Modeling Reality with Virtual Worlds

When I hear of "Virtual Worlds" I think of The Sims. You are able to construct your own reality, but inside a computer screen. I think it is a pretty decent way to explore creativity and essentially create your own utopistic society. 

Pros:

Connections 

Facilitate creativity

Endless opportunities

Cons:

not reality

no substitute for the real world

time consuming

misleading- and raises expectations. Unrealistic

These virtual worlds can be used to foster collaborative work. For example, it can be a mock graphic wiki page. Every user can contribute to this virtual world and create their space being whoever they want to be. For example, "virtual community Second Life is seeking to tap into that market by creating a new tool that allows businesses to have virtual meetings on their own computer networks" (Tutton). 

The virtual world provides borderless creativity within the online platform. Users are not bound my physical constraints (like needing to access physical information) due to the unlimited content available online.

Being unlimited ultimately leads to grander outcomes and stronger platforms
For example Ruth La Ferla, a journalist for New York TImes explains, "That little corner is expanding, suggested Tom Hale, the chief product officer for Second Life. Mr. Hale said that roughly 250,000 items are created daily by residents using a built-in modeling tool or outside graphics program to construct 3-D objects to sell in the virtual marketplace"(La Ferla).

However, one of the constraints of Virtual Worlds is that this increased ability for creativity might expand expectations so much that ultimately, reality might become displeasing.

People spend a large amount of time on these Virtual worlds and ignore the outside world because of this.

We must question what is the benefit of us investing our time on this outlet.

I believe that there will be a presence of Virtual Worlds in our future because so many people are dissatisfied with their current living situations. These outlets will allow them to express themselves and live virtually any life they wish to have.

Therefore, even though Virtual Worlds will flourish in the future, I cannot say that these will benefit people to be successful and flourish in the real world.