WouldntULike2Know- 2/28

In our breakout discussion groups today my group discussed Poster's position on virtual reality becoming reality for many. Through websites such as Second Life, one (being obsessed with the cult of the new) can, in essence, create a "newer, faster, better" self. What is so scary is that people have become so obsessed with this virtual community, that they have found ways in which to make a profit in this virtual world and to make their "old reality" (aka- their actual lives) better. "The culture is increasingly simulational in a sense that the media often changes the things that it treats transforming the identity of originals and referentialities. In the second media age, reality becomes multiple." (538)

By creating a better alternate lifestyle in the virtual world, I have to question the extent to which people are beginning to abandon thier lives and responsibilities in the real "old" world. If, this virtual life will mimic the progress and infiltration of daily existance similar to that of the telephone or the internet revolution on such a grand scale, how long will it be before we are all plugged into this virtual life. This thought process is shown in The Matrix and I find myself growing increasingly creeped out by this possibility. And, if we become so plugged into this virtual world, which differse drastically from our own because of the physical limitations this world presents, what, then, are the capabilities of the individual within the new reality, which is limitless?