Merging Real and Virtual Worlds - Essay Example

“Just as water, gas, and electricity are brought into our houses from far off to satisfy our needs in response to minimal effort, so we shall be supplied with visual and auditory images, which will appear and disappear at a simple movement of the hand, hardly more than a sign” (1). In other words, the real and the virtual worlds have now merged. 

The term avatar comes from Hindu religious philosophy and means passing across or through, standing for the descent of a deity into the mortal world (2). Second Life is an interactive Web portal that allows you to create an avatar of yourself to pass across into a virtual world. The avatar you create of yourself can have the go of yourself and indulge in activities that your real-life person does not permit you to enjoy. So fly in the Second Life, if you are scared of heights in the real world. You are not limited by the limitations of your real person in the virtual world of the Second Life. You do not have to stir from your house for crossing over to the virtual. It is just mouse click away from the personal computer or lap tap that you possess. Enroll and leave the real world into the virtual world for as long as you want. Interact with other individuals in the virtual world. Join or form groups with the same interests. Start your business organization, and buy and sell real estate. The market is ever-expanding, with a constant migration of individuals from the real world to the virtual world of Second Life. Let your imagination fly in the virtual world for the virtual world is not constrained by the limitations of the real world. All this has become possible from the convergence of advances in audio and visual technologies, through innovations of technology in the field of information and communication technology (3). 

Second Life sounds great and is a precursor of potential virtual applications through advances in video, audio, and communication technologies and their convergence, in a similar manner as photography triggering a revolution in the reproduction of visual mediums including artworks. This convergence now runs without any control in our communities. However, the consequences of the conflict between the real world and the virtual worlds like Second Life have not been truly evaluated. There is a compelling need for the evaluation of what are the influences of the virtual world on the psychology of an individual and its impact on how the individual interacts with the real world and the resultant effect on society. What happens if the psyche of the individual in the virtual merges with the psyche in the real world, by the inability of the individual to keep them apart – the real self from the virtual self?