As we are talking about Second Life more and more each day in class, I am starting to get a feel for this virtual world thing. Not that I am going to jump right in and join one but every time I google something about it, things pop up like “how to overcome obstacles in Second Life” or “how to cheat and get more money.” Is it really that popular? Are we not “in” on the new trend? I always felt as though I was never completely on top of the game when it came to new trends but I was never completely lost either. I have never even heard of these so called virtual worlds, other than the computer games I used to play as a child.

I came across this article “Are Virtual Worlds Good for the Soul?” It was very touching in the way that this particular virtual world names WoW helped certain students in different aspects of their life. “It [WoW] has proven to be beneficial to the students socially, academically, and therapeutically.” In general, these particular students lack social skills but have made social connections through being involved in this virtual world. Granted these relationships are not deep however the fact they are making relationships with others at all is noteworthy.

Not only has this virtual world proven to help with social skills, but it has aided in academics as well. A student, who has a learning disability, has all of a sudden shown an interest in reading because of the text used in WoW. The teacher has also noticed his emails have gotten much easier to read.

After reading this article, I have a completely different outlook on virtual worlds. Even though most of them are used for pleasure, this particular story was very moving. I am glad that children are finding ways to learn and help with social skills in a fun and effective way!

http://terranova.blogs.com/terra_nova/2006/10/are_virtual_wor.html

After watching “MTV’s True Life I live another life on the web” again and watching the girls exploit their bodies to lure in boys on the internet I started thinking about how many women do that, and not just women but girls too. I remember when I first heard of myspace and when I created an account, I found a girl that I knew from my high school and her profile picture as her standing in her bra and underwear posing in front of a mirror. She was only 14! What in the world causes these girls to think that the only way to talk to boys is through displaying their bodies on the web? I found an article titled “Babes on the Web. Sex, Identity and the Home Page” by Marj Kibby.

In her article, she talks about a site called Babes on the Web that was created by – no surprise here – a guy names Robert Toups. “It featured a list of women who had Web pages that included a personal photograph. Toups rated them on a scale of one to four on the basis of the appeal their image had for him.” Toups knew that several controversies would start to boil and of course, as he predicted, the National Organization for Women (NOW) complained along with the creation of a quite a few anti-Babes on the Web sites. One was actually called Babes on the Web II and it featured men instead of women “in an apparent spirit of the gender equity.”

I am not concerned about equality between men and women; I have already accepted the fact that men (and not all men) are always going to view women as inferior to themselves when in reality they need us and could not live without us. What I am disturbed by is the women and girls who are putting themselves out there to be gawked at and rated. Kibby states in her article that our physical bodies create a placement for our sense of self – our identity. The reason for their actions is that “most of the women choose to separate their sexual identity from their personal identity.” Therefore, most of these women do not accept their personal identity so they take advantage of their sexual identity. But why do girls feel the need to exploit their bodies on the internet; girls who have not yet come into their full development of becoming a women? It still remains a mystery to me and the internet is just full of these little girls.

Children and CMC

While writing my response to one of the discussion questions online I started thinking about when I was a child and had no CMC. Back when I played outside all day, hated being called in for dinner, and had to be in before the street lights turned on. When jumping on the bed and pillow fights was the highlight of my evening. So I looked up an article that talks about children using CMC and the impact that these children have on our future.

The article starts off by giving statistics, much like our first class. However, the article was written in 2004, so the statistics are not that current. A very interesting part of the article was about texting and reasons cell phone companies introduced texting. “The companies who provide these messaging services are more than happy to exploit kids' text habits. Vendors make the most of their money in the space from advertising displayed on the messaging program's interface. But premium services like custom wallpaper, decorative themes and online games are also taking off. By the end of 2004, total worldwide revenues in the IM market, which include enterprise and consumer segments, will be about $131 million, according to the Radicati Group. By 2008, that total should reach $413 million.” Obviously we see that texting is not going anywhere considering all the cash the companies are reeling in.

The article goes on and talks about how children and teenagers are often the first consumers to test out new advance messaging systems; so much, in fact, that they are teaching their parents how to use them. As a result, the parents, wanting to stay in touch with their children, are slowly picking up on these new techniques of communication. A perfect example would be my mother who did not start texting until I was in college. If she wanted to stay in touch with me, texting was the key.

Another interesting part of this article was how kids are suppressing the use of email with Instant Messaging and texts. “As these kids get older, we're going to see IM really take over as the preferred method of communication over e-mail," says Frazier Miller, director of product management for Yahoo Messenger. "E-mail is really seen as skewed towards older demographics. Kids will use e-mail to communicate with their parents, but it's seen as very stodgy.” I very rarely use email and when I do, it is usually for school purposes only. I can understand where this is all coming from and where we are headed because in a way I am still in this generation of teenagers who are constantly using IM and texting as the main source of my communication.

http://www.masternewmedia.org/news/2004/12/14/online_communication_and_collaboration_teenagers.htm