Leung Wan Yin , ID 10591475 ,2nd Blog Post How Virtual World Changes Our Life

Leung Wan Yin , ID 10591475 

2nd Blog Post How Virtual World Changes Our Life 

Watkins, S. C. (2009). We Play: The Allure of Social Games, Synthetic Worlds, and Second Lives. The Young and the Digital: What the Migration to Social-Network Sites, Games, and Anytime, Anywhere Media Means for Our Future. Boston: Beacon Press. 

In the reading The young and the digital (We play: the allure of social games, synthetic worlds, and second lives), The central arguments made by the author Samuel Craig Watkins are the young men fall into games (MMORPG-Massively multiplayer online role-playing games) instead of watching TV. And secondly, the gamer can make friends in the online game and interacts with each other between the online and off-line platform; and also how gaming influences the gamer’s real world life.   

They did research and the data suggesting the increasing population of the game player and the audience of TV was declining. Through interviews, interviewees explain why they prefer online game or performing activities in a digital way like social media, YouTube etc. Rather than watching TV or both at the same time. They suggest that watching is just sitting in front of the TV and do nothing, on the other hand, in games they are really interacting and it brings the result to them that are meaningful. Critically is through online game they can make new friends and interacts. Sometimes they will meet in real life and become real friends. In the reading, they raised many examples on how the relationship works, so there have fewer games for bases to tell the situation they are, WoW (World of Warcraft), Nintendo Wii, Second Life, and the player can reflect a lot of the truth.            

In the past people’s entertainment is watching TV or listen to radio. Nowadays people adapts to technology. Computer, social media or another online platform are choices for them to spend time. For me every day I will listen to the radio because I can do another thing at the same time but TV not so often because we have to focus on listening and watching to earn understanding. Ironically new technology is my first choice. It’s simply you the player and I can interact with someone I never met before. In online game you can do whatever you like on your role, and create your own identity. This is good because you never have chance to be another person in real but in game you can is kind to release emotion. And also I can possibly build up a friendship in-between the game and real life but first is communication with the person and not just because of the game. Some players are solely players, “just for game not for friend”. Indeed different type of game can affect in different ways, some can make you and others closer and some can make you down. Sometimes online game can help on social life and some can make you feel depressed.  http://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/gadgets-and-tech/gaming/shy-people-are-better-at-making-friends-in-online-video-games-9851541.html

The argument is to let the player and reader know how the game influences the media industry and our real life. People have to know the positive and the negative of the virtual world and like the interviewer Chase, he knows that he spends too much time on virtual world and instead of his own real life and for the people who are spent more than 30 hours on the game it’s just a “spiritual tonic”.

In the end, there has a question is nowadays “social trust” is happening on many people and it can really make friends easily and makes online to off-line usual and they may change the format they enjoy to use milling and not by the internet. Is time to back to pass communication way?