Technology, Virtual Reality, and a Surveillance Society

This is the last of the ‘blogs’ for my Communications class, as per usual, it is probably mildly confusing as I hate doing these and never know what to do for this Professors assignments.

A fully virtual world is coming quickly into our society’s future; advances in technology are bridging the gap between the physical world and the virtual one. This is a future that could never have been seen by our ancestors as these advances have happened at an extremely rapid rate. Modern technology allows us to do a variety of previously unimaginable things through a variety of different virtual experiences; conversations that cross oceans, alternative lifestyles, and mythical adventures. Currently technology has become so advanced that many people even prefer the virtual lifestyles and experiences over the physical world. Many people find solace through the virtual world, and it becomes a preferential form of socialization. Internet chat rooms, online communities and forums, and alternative virtual lifestyle platforms are becoming more popular with the new generations. Virtual reality is moving closer to becoming a fully integrated part of most people lives and there are even instances of people making money off of these types of alternative lifestyles. Certain websites allow you to buy and sell virtual forms of currency for actual money (http://www.gold4key.com/) and a limited amount of players are making a decent living from doing so- this being an example of physical survival based off of a virtual world.