Digital Nation Pt.2

I think it is so interesting the way people use the social media that is available. Aside from all of the dating and match-making websites that exist now, other forms of media are also connecting people in the same way. The Blizzcon convention that Digital Nation showed led to an interesting realization for me. I just thought of MMO games like World of Warcraft as a fun game that allows people to interact with each other for the game. I have made several online friends through games, but its only in the essence of the game, I never thought romantic relationships could stem from a cyber world. Seeing people that had met each other through WoW and eventually got married was a very interesting scenario. The statement that the virtual world "wasn't isolating them, it was giving them a new way to be intimate" was intriguing.
The Second Life network wasn't a shock to me because I knew about it and knew that interviews and projects have been shifting towards being done completely online, but it was really cool to see how in depth it goes. People even make jokes as if it were actually them in this world, like when the man said he needed his glasses back because he couldn't see. It is an amazing idea that you could live in America, be employed in England, and work on projects with people in Australia, Asia, Africa, anywhere really and never actually know what these people look like.
When the swimming with whales experiment was explained, i was slightly concerned. the fact that virtual reality can convince young children that they have actually swam with whales seems like a bad side effect. I wonder what this can mean for the future of things like advertising. How will this be used for marketers to aim messages subliminally at children and have it be effective without anyone realizing? This makes me believe that the virtual experience we are going through can definitely change us.
The army gaming station raises some interesting issues. First-person shooter video games already receive a lot of attention for the reason that researchers believe it impacts how violent kids are today. If this is valid, then the idea that the army is using it to lure kids into wanting to go to the army is unsettling. I give a lot of credit to those who enlist and want to defend their country, but I don't think it is good to try and condition kids to want to go into combat. With weapons becoming increasingly remote-controlled, it seems as though these games are almost training tools. It also may skew the image of what war actually is. If children grow up playing these games, killing computers images that represent real people, how will that affect how they act if they are in the army, remote controlling a device to kill real people? I really don't know how I feel about the entire building, especially with recruiters walking around and speaking to 13 year-old kids.