After I wrote about sensory enrichment from nature, I was reading articles on virtual worlds trying to understand their impact on young minds. In this article, the author quotes a friend who says, 'It's harder to be futuristic than ever before'. Video games started out creating worlds which were alien and unfamiliar to us. It has come full circle with video games now tying to be as real as possible.
Pros
Kids too sick to travel use immersive VR to visit places they can't normally go to. It's a great way to learn about things you would not normally do or understand eras you have not been in. Many of the educational games are set in virtual worlds. There's Neopets a virtual pet game where kids who cannot have real pets adopt and nurture pets. This is a boon for people who have a space crunch or for people who do not have the time for pets. Avatars are a great way to get under the skin of characters. Games like Minecraft are even used extensively in schools.
Cons
If these immersive worlds get too real, kids might forget to look out of the window or for that matter they might never know about the world that exists outside the window. People escape to these worlds and never return in some cases. The hikikomori of Japan are examples of people addicted to the Internet. Addiction to these worlds creates people who have no real world relationships. This is the psychological abyss one must always avoid. Kids who grow up this way fail at taking up the challenge of dealing with real world problems.
Every new technology has pros and cons. It's for the parents to be good examples, so that kids enjoy staying in reality even as they enjoy playing in virtual reality. New technology should be used for the betterment of our lives, and not for hiding away in. Play in an unreal world, but make sure you are back in the real one
Pros
Kids too sick to travel use immersive VR to visit places they can't normally go to. It's a great way to learn about things you would not normally do or understand eras you have not been in. Many of the educational games are set in virtual worlds. There's Neopets a virtual pet game where kids who cannot have real pets adopt and nurture pets. This is a boon for people who have a space crunch or for people who do not have the time for pets. Avatars are a great way to get under the skin of characters. Games like Minecraft are even used extensively in schools.
Cons
If these immersive worlds get too real, kids might forget to look out of the window or for that matter they might never know about the world that exists outside the window. People escape to these worlds and never return in some cases. The hikikomori of Japan are examples of people addicted to the Internet. Addiction to these worlds creates people who have no real world relationships. This is the psychological abyss one must always avoid. Kids who grow up this way fail at taking up the challenge of dealing with real world problems.
Every new technology has pros and cons. It's for the parents to be good examples, so that kids enjoy staying in reality even as they enjoy playing in virtual reality. New technology should be used for the betterment of our lives, and not for hiding away in. Play in an unreal world, but make sure you are back in the real one
