Homework 10 -- “Subject & Scope of Inquiry”

According to the article, “The virtual is opposed not to the real but to the actual. The virtual is fully real in so far as it is virtual…the virtual must be defined as strictly a part of the real object” (Boellstorff, 21). In today’s society, individuals participate in virtual worlds as if it is the real world. These virtual worlds are a way someone can interact with people everyday, and escape from everyday life. People who participate in the virtual worlds loose real life social skills, as you cannot interact in the same way with physical people. This is a result of someone being antisocial, and a lonely person. While virtual worlds can be used for people to escape from real life, people get confused with real life and virtual life. Some virtual games have animosity and this could carry out into someone’s real world. Like the real world, gamers are able to have a huge network of friends. This allows the users to feel like they are social and have a lot of friends. However, users are not interacting physically with different people, so they are losing the face-to-face social skills. While participating in the virtual worlds, people are able to be who they want to be, and recreate the person who they want to be. For example, a user can act a certain way in order to feel cool, or they could be the gender that they want to be. Being behind the screen allows the users to feel like they are accepted in society. The virtual worlds can have a positive or negative impact on people. Some people get sucked in and base their lives around these games, and others play for fun an hour a day. People who separate themselves from the virtual world to the real world do not loose touch with themselves and reality.