Advantages to Having a Second Life Essay

Though digital technologies allow us to accomplish many things, we also have lost the ability to give each other our full attention. We prefer texting rather than fully engage in a conversation. An example in the book is Aubrey. Aubrey believes that texting allows her to stay in contact with more people at once because she can bounce from conversation to conversation. We as human beings, both children and adults, have identical patterns of compulsive disorders. We are obsessed with our devices. We never leave the house without our cell phones and what’s worse, we text or call people who are in the same house as us. While we are with our family and friends, we are also living in another world, where everyone accepts us for who we are through our cellular devices. Using our mobile devices, we can transport ourselves to different realities that we wish to have. These are online games that allow us to create our own avatar and live the life that we want to live. In that world, no one will be able to judge us for how we are. We are embracing ourselves through simulated lives with avatars and simulated relationships through virtual connections. Digital technologies have become the center of our social, economic, and professional

I took a look at the store and people pay money to customize everything about their avatars. Some people use their avatars as extensions of their personality or to show parts of themselves that they would not show in real life; while others make their avatars completely different from themselves. The choices are endless and people seem to spend a lot of time trying to make their avatar perfect. In Tom Boellstorff’s “Personhood”chapter of his book Coming of Age in Second Life Boellstorff describes how people make avatars that are completely different from themselves. He notes that one Second Life player remarked that in real life they are weak while in Second Life they appear strong. Along with this there is an option to pay a monthly fee and you are able to build rooms. People can create what they want their life to look like verses what their life is actually like. But, it is not just the fact that people can customize their own avatar but they people can create their own worlds along with their own rooms. What this reminds me of is The Sims where you could create your own world and people would spend days doing so. I spent some time looking at the different landscapes that people created for people to chat in. It made me think about how much time people spent planning out what they wanted their world to look like. Much like with software that lets people design buildings and rooms online the building part of Second Life lets people bring their ideas to virtual life. The builders are bringing their own material culture into their own virtual world. However, unlike the programs used to design jewelry, buildings, and rooms on computers now these landscapes will never be brought into the real world. But as Mike Press explains in his article “Handmade Futures: The Emerging Role of Craft Knowledge in Our Digital Culture” the use of computers to design is becoming a craft itself.

Through out my time raising my child, Grace, there were many concepts, key terms, and theories that I was able to identify and relate to from this Psychology, Human Development, course that I took through out this semester. I was able to watch Grace grow into a smart, strong and independent adult due to the knowledge learned from the course. I knew to start as soon as Grace was born and stay connected within her life through out the years as she grew throughout the different stages of her life.

It's a fundamental belief of mine that each one of us is brought upon this world with a major definite purpose in life. Everyone has a unique destiny for contributing to this world using their unique blend of talents and passions. I have no doubt that most people today work hard and stay busy with daily activities. The problem I've noticed is that many people live their lives without any sense of meaningful purpose that gives their lives passion and significance. They get caught up in the daily mechanical routines of life and they become creatures of habit rather than purpose-driven beings. Finding and shaping your major definite purpose is perhaps the most important thing that you will ever do in your life because your purpose is the driving force that spawns all the achievements that you will ever accomplish and it provides that unlimited source of motivation that drives you to achieve all the goals that you set for yourself and enables you to live life to the fullest.

Technology has made this virtual world that some people can’t help but get immersed in. A study completed by the Kiser Family Foundation concluded that “those ages 8 to 18 spend more than seven and a half hours a day with such devices, compared with less than six and a half hours five years ago, when the study was last conducted. And that does not count the hour and a half that youths spend texting, or the half-hour they talk on their cellphones” (Lewin). This is nearly

Tom Bissell’s, a teacher at Portland State University, main idea was to indicate to his audience why video games matter to him by using various argumentative appeals. One must ask themselves, can this author be worthy of respect? Can he give his readers enough facts to get his argument across? Will he try to give us a soft story to buy his way into in his argument? Throughout most of Bissell’s book, he uses the logical appeal by describing, in great detail, Fallout 3. Sadly he lacks the Emotional appeal to complete this argument and he loses my credibility throughout the article.

Thirdly, the media has presented various options that aid in circumnavigating life’s hurdles and challenges. As Staple notes, during his childhood, he was presented with situations whereby he had to prove his worth to other people other than his own family members (“Cyberspace”). Adolescents, in today’s world, can easily skip this and opt to send messages or video chat via electronic devices such as mobile phones or the computer. However, this comes at a cost: They develop ‘low-quality relationships in virtual reality’ at the expense of ‘higher-quality relationships in the real world’ (Staples 2). Therefore, these relationships may appear perfect when the teenagers are on a virtual space but are in reality not practical.

In Chapter 11, Sherry Turkle claims that the online words and massive multiplayer online role-playing games, gives virtuosity and fantasy- and something more; your performances put you at the center of a new community with virtual best friends and a sense of belonging. Most people that play the virtual game “A Second Life,” feel like their avatars are used as “practice” for real life. Their lives on screen may be play, but they are serious play.

Not only teenagers and middle-aged adults, but even young children are addicted to staring down at a blue screen. How many times during the past year have you walked by a playground and heard the contagious laughter of young children playing? I bet that this number is very small. When I was nine years old, I remember what my favorite thing to do after school was. It was to play. Similar to every other child at the time, running around an open field or zipping down a slide was all I wanted. But today, the hushed silence I experience as I walk past the devoid park gives me chills as I watch the swings and slides wait to give joy to laughing children that used to frolic here everyday, but now remain quiet in their secluded houses. Not because it’s cold outside, but because nine-year-olds today are copying our technological obsession. Did you know that on average, children get their first cellphones at age eight? Our generation is becoming the most antisocial generation yet. Although many people disagree and believe that using technology, especially cell phones, make them more social, I don’t understand how sitting at home on a Friday night, texting or blogging, is more social than hanging out with your friends and enjoying the company of others. Although numerous people disagree with me, stating that technology is making people more social, I remain committed to my belief. For people who

The benefits of a life review can include reflecting back on the most monumental points in a person’s life, allowing them to see the impact each event had on their life. The birth of W.J.’s children, helped to settle him into a less reckless individual. According to NAME., “Life review is a less expensive therapy that can be provided by advanced practice psychiatric nurses. Butler (1963) defined life review as a naturally occurring, universal mental process characterized by the progressive return to consciousness of past experiences (CITE NICB). In this life review, he was able to determine what his biggest regret was and could work through moving past that. It also helps the individual to focus on how they feel about their death. Often, we

A human’s use of communication is a major key to our existence here on earth. If we weren’t capable of communicating our survival would probably be hopeless. As Human beings, we have an extremely detailed system of verbal and non-verbal communication that has developed over time and familiarity. With the advent of technology at the end of the 20th century our communications has moved into the computer realm, in the form of computer-mediated communication (CMC) (Bevan & Sole, 2014). CMC is now a completely normal and very common way to communicate in today’s era. Even though CMC seems to be the preferred way to communicate in this timeframe, it is also seen as less personable and the ending of what we knew as real conversations.

The Second Life avatars both supports and fails the expression of conveying verbal and nonverbal communication between people. The

79,284,507, That is the number of lives lost by war since 1900. That is more deaths than the entire population of midwest America by nearly 12 million. I can’t help but ask myself, are two centuries of war really worth the cost of 80 million lives? Even more, is the pursuit behind any war worth the cost of a single life? For some people the answer to this question is a resounding yes; For others The answer is a blatant no; and for a few people they are unsure or even confused. Personally, I believe that war is never justifiable. That no worldly pursuit is worth the cost of taking another 's life. For the purpose of this paper I will be discussing arguments for both sides of this issue. I intend on using scripture to confirm What I believe to be truth. Before I get to my main points I would first like to share a story.

In Sherry Turkle’s Ted Talk, “Connected, But Alone?”, the speaker laments on how technology is hindering human connectivity. Instead of having face to face conversations, individuals can choose to keep each other at a distance through text messages or e-mails. Contrary to what Turkle states in her presentation, technology and virtual communication help people to stay connected and develop better communication skills than hinder them.

The life given by god has a very special meaning a value in which people sometimes forget to thank or either regret. Many students/adults believe that they are going to be popular if they have money and a good job buy forget that people are influenced by those who have learned something. Also a lot fail to remember, to earn value you must earn it.In today’s economy the government creates a value on the person by looking at the position they are held for. If you look at it from the society’s point of view they believe people should be given value according to what they do and what position they are. From an individual's perspective they judge themselves on what they accomplish and achieve.The value of the individual would