Modeling Reality with Virtual Worlds

Virtual worlds are a form of online communities where an individual can create an avatar and interact with other avatars created by other individuals in a host of different 3D virtual environments. There are many ways in which virtual worlds can be used including the following: commercial gaming, online community building, education, political expression, and military training. The pros of using virtual worlds is that it allows the user to customize their space and live a luxurious lifestyle without breaking the bank. Anyone can live like a celebrity either by purchasing a mansion, clothing, or shoes without the hefty price tag of the real product. As noted in "No Budget, No Boundaries: It’s the Real You" by Ruth La Ferla of the NY Times, for $40 you can purchase a host of simulated wares, from several pairs of high boots to a house. Also noted in the article is how one woman who like all people lives off a budget has an online inventory of over 40,000 items including shoes, handbags, and other extras.
A second pro about virtual worlds is the ability to bring people with common interests together. As shown in the article "iReport: 'Naughty Auties' battle autism with virtual interaction" by Nicole Saidi, a virtual world created by Davil Savill who has a type of autism known as Asperger's Syndrome, has allowed other individuals with autism to create an avatar and interact with others who have autism. Autism patients have difficulty socializing and communicating but through interactions in the virtual world. The article notes how through chat sessions Savill learned how people used symbols to express themselves and enhance text through the use of smiley faces, or angry signs.
One of the cons about virtual worlds is that you do not know 100% who you are actually talking to. Virtual worlds have become great places for predators to pose as someone else and lure others into meeting in person. Virtual Worlds do not provide us with the interpersonal interactions that we get from face to face communication with others, which can lead to decreased social skills and withdrawal from society.
Virtual Worlds definitely foster creativity, as they allow us to perform a multitude of functions by allowing us to model our homes, and even create our own life-like replicas of our favorite destinations. The sky is the limit with virtual worlds because the goal is so that you can do what you won't normally be able to do in real life. Virtual Worlds have become more widely used and in the future maybe we will be able to as in the movie Surrogates, leave our bodies and physically control the avatars ourselves as if our world is the virtual world.