Cyber vs. Real

    So today in class we talked about Cyber communities and specifically Second Life. I am really intrigued about the possibilities that this new world holds, but at the same time I can see the problems with it as well. First, I think that the possibilities of e-commerce is huge in this new reality. Also, I believe it would be a cool way to view the web. Instead of viewing these flat one dimensional pages it would actually be cool if it were a world you could step into and explore. Along with that you could bring on a new level of interaction among different people around the world. I eventually could see this world like the movie "Matrix", where people feel like they are traveling to the place they study or that they are interested in. On the other hand as I stated in class last night, this would bring up obvious problems and problems that are not so obvious. Some of the obvious problems is the lack of real social interaction and physical activity for those engaged in this new world. This could lead to serious health and social problems. Another problem that was touched upon in class was the wrong behavior many users engage in while in those virtual worlds. Some of these bad behaviors are murdering, stealing, and assaulting. The one that bothers me the most is assault. I see eventually the lines between the cyber and real world will eventually blur. The more someone is wired into this world the more they will be open to be exploited and abused.