Posts Tagged: future

Virtual societies are still a confusing topic for most people.  In a sense, these online worlds could encourage a further decline in real life social interactions among our already digitally crazed communities.  But virtual societies are an interesting phenomenon if studied closely.

We’ve all heard the stories of online world players being sucked into their games and devoting all of their free time (and even work time!) to progressing through the digital scenario.  This obsession has become so extreme in some cases that it disrupts not only the natural flow of the person’s day-to-day routines but also the people around them.  These virtual players are more a part of their online communities than the real world.  Food and sleep are the only elements of actual life that these gamers continue to resort back to in our actual human environment.  Otherwise, they have no use for reality.

It is interesting to note that virtual worlds compress human behavior by stripping away offline interactions and focusing on the core elements deemed important to its participants.  Virtual societies are not concerned with the day-to-day stresses of actual life.  Some may see these digital places as an escape from reality.  While online communities used to be seen as purely recreational, they are now being considered normal.  They are becoming ingrained into social situations outside of simple games by entering the corporate and educational realms.  Virtual classrooms and office meetings can now be found in virtual environments, allowing participants in any time zone and from any location.

We used to have the mindset of “I’m going to sit down and go on the Internet” during the 90s.  Today, the Internet is connected and always changing even when we may not be sitting in front of a screen.  This is now the case with virtual societies.  These are worlds that continue to progress no matter which players are online or not.  Nothing stops the progression just like in the real world.

By studying people’s habits, actions, and reactions to virtual societies, we can learn about basic human behavior.  It allows us to take away the burdens of our actual lives and see what truly motivates individuals.  Maybe we can learn a thing or two about ourselves from digital communities?  Or maybe virtual societies will become the only reality of the future.  Only time will tell.

In my last post, my questions centered around what actions could be taken by the institution of journalism to reverse the downward spiral it seems to be taking.

The first question I asked was what are other potential revenue outlets that could support the industry besides advertising. Right now, ads are the bandage that is protecting journalism. However, that bandage is not promoting healing and eventually it will fall off. I want to say another avenue would be to streamline journalism and make it a purely an online entity. However, while that might increase the number of journalists it would also take away the jobs associated with the “atom” side of journalism. While I brought this up in class yesterday, looking at it again I can see a more over arching problem within; and this can be applied to other industries as well. Part of the trade-off for moving to the internet to cut cost is some of those cut costs come from jobs that are required in the world of atoms, but not the world of bits. For journalism, it is the printing portion. Another example is the music industry. The internet provides so much exposure for artists that recording labels are essentially obsolete. I doubt these are the only areas suffering from this issue, so maybe instead of asking how to financially support the journalism industry a better question would be where those who would lose there jobs are going to find work. Instead of stalling the flood, perhaps it would be better to run ahead and secure a position stop the flood entirely. Instead of focusing on finding money, focus on creating jobs for those who will need them and establishing the training they will need.

The next question I asked was more of a what if scenario about what journalism would look like if profit was not the driving force. I am not asking people to look back and reminisce about “the good old days”. Instead I am asking people to look back and see what has occurred in journalism since the sixties to gather knowledge that could potentially be used to help the industry today and in the future. For example, how were newspapers et al. financially structured in the past and how has that changed over the years; are there any changes that are no longer needed or are only benefiting a few? I do not have the answers to this nor any knowledge regarding this situation. This is just an example of something to look at.

My final question regarded the potential coordination between local blogs and larger news organizations. According to the article, there are some partnerships in the works. Since the internet has made it possible to obtain hyperlocal news, these partnerships show promise. Local journalist can provide local news while larger organizations with more access can focus on more national and international news. The downside is this scenario could not be supported like Wikipedia. Eventually local journalists would need to be paid. However, if there is some promise then this is worth looking into and experimenting with. Risks will need to be taken to get the full story of the situation. I presume that is what journalists are told in school.