Virtual vs Reality
Introduction
The definition of virtual is simply near, while reality is described as what we experience as human beings. Therefore, virtual reality means coming up with computer-generated environments that are immersive and so convincing to the users, that users would tend to react in the same way if they would be in real world. The idea that is employed here is to hinder the sensory input of the person using the software and completely and later use the visual and auditory senses to convert the world that is virtual to appear as though it were real. The fact is that everything that we know concerning our reality comes by way of our senses. This is to mean that our whole experiences of reality are only a combination of information that is sensory related. In turn, our brains sense ending up making the mechanism for that information. If one can present their senses with an information that is already made, their perception of reality will also have to change in response to it. They will be presented with a reality version that does not actually exists, although, from their perspective, it would be seen as though it were real. This is the virtual reality in simple language. In summary, virtual reality entails people presenting their senses using a computer-generated surrounding that is virtual that they can explore it in some ways. All these are made possible by an increasing technology in social media. This paper has a purpose of dealing with the topic of virtual versus reality, and it will discuss the advantages and dangers that are hidden in social media. In addition, it will discuss how one can manage their own profile by answering the question who you are. Lastly, it will explore the world of games proving that it is a different world and thus stating the manner in which individuals can return to the real world.
Chapter 1: Social Media
Advantages of Social Media
The first advantage of social media is that it enhances the impression management of users. A good example of this kind of platform is Instagram. Impression management is defined as every day’s process that occurs during interactions that give the picture of oneself (Seehafe 2017). Those who are participating in photo taking and posting must think about the impression that they portray, and thus they will post in relation to how they feel the post will be evaluated. Many of Instagram users always struggle to reach the level that they are expected by their followers. For them to reach a persona who is accepted, there are several comparisons that are made. This impression management is something that will happen involuntarily, although the actions that are related to impression management are known to many of the respondents. Instagram as a social media allows individuals to portray themselves in whatever manner and light that they select. As they do that, these users end up controlling their impression management (Seehafe 2017). The author says that there are those who post their pictures as if they have been put in front of a wall in order to make them look as though they are happier than what they are actually. The benefit with Instagram is that one can make his or her profile to look at the way the individual wants. In addition, the person can make others perceive him or her the way she wants. This is to mean that a person using Instagram is in control of how others perceive them. The participants will control how they are viewed by others by evaluating their posts. In so doing, they will be able to manage their impressions.
Social media promotes in-group favoritism. This type of social media is the social video game play. There was a study which was conducted that was in line with the previous research whose results confirmed that cooperative video games play has beneficial impacts on in-group favoritism. As they do that, they discourage outgroup discrimination (Velez 2014). The behavior of those who play the games is greatly influenced at a later stage by how they were behaving at the time they were gaming. What the author means here is that a co-operative game plays increases the pro-social behavior between the video game play partners even when the partners come from universities and backgrounds that are in rivalry. More so, if one plays a video game with a teammate who is very helpful can lead to an increase in the pro-social behaviors of the inmates. These mates could be those of outgroup and in group members in the same dilemma game. Some post-hoc analyses show that players who have helpful team members can even donate a lot of cash to the opposing teammates as compared to the one who has associates that are unhelpful (Velez 2014). The implication here is that social media, for instance, video games can teach the members the benefit of assisting one another when in trouble. This is learned from the fact that they can pay for an individual who does not have money to play. It means that they feel good if they see their friends, who were initially in trouble rejoicing and enjoying like they do.
The third advantage of social media is a means of communication. Social networking sites like Facebook allow individuals to make communications with others in several ways. Some of these ways include posting comments and updating their status, for example, if one is in a relationship and he or she updates it on facebook then information will be communicated. Other people also use this platform for chatting and sending their loved ones messages in a secret manner. Also, various people get information from Facebook when they read the comments that others have made and in so doing, information gets spread. In 2016, it was reported that Facebook had accumulated about 1.08 billion daily users and they were very active online (Young et al 2017). It is thus clear that social media generally has eased the way people communicate, making the world to be like a global village. This is for the reason that information on social media platforms like Facebook can be spread further and within a short time to all the people in the world because Facebook is a worldwide interface for communicating.
Dangers Hidden in Social Media
On the other hand, social media has lots of dangers that are hidden in it. The first problem is that it wastes time for many people (Sjöblom, et al 2017). It is said that more than hundreds of millions of users decide to spend their time to watch as others play video games. They watch the proceedings of the games through live video broadcasts, which are also called live streaming. They watch these on services like Twitch. This is a type of new media that has been creating and engineered by the current bandwidth of networks that is ever increasing. The other thing that has made it possible for Twitch to spread is an advancement in video packing and technologies that involve encoding of information. This is a culture that is generated by users together with the desire to see others playing video games. As the millions of people decide to watch information through live streaming, a lot of their time gets wasted on the internet and social media. A keen investigation shows that such people spend their time online not because they are doing a very constructive thing, they just watch others playing video games.
Social media like Facebook has a high tendency of causing addiction to users. Addiction is a state where an individual cannot do without Facebook even though it has no advantage to him or her. Research findings that were conducted Quan in 2010 showed that the motivation for facebook is something that is just self-driven (Young et al 2017). The behavior of an individual’s addiction to Facebook is always guided by a behavior that they do not even understand where it comes from. But they will just want to be on facebook. Such people would want to spend almost all their time there, being curious of knowing every post that appears. Addiction is considered to be a disease of the brain. This disorder is very chronic because even after one is treated against it and prolonged period of abstaining from the use of Facebook, the risk of actively returning to the addiction behavior remains to be significantly higher.
Addiction thus qualifies to be a psychiatric disorder. This disease is characterized by impulsivity, which is susceptibility to of a person to want to act in a given manner, having no apparent capacity to adapt to new behaviors as per the demand of the context (Thorens et al 2017). This trait of impulsivity is indicated by disinhibition, the person having unexpected and sudden threats of matters that are crucial so that they can easily satisfy pleasures that are immediate to them. In such situations, they tend to be hard to think about their behavior and put into considerations the consequences related to a given behavior. This is to mean that addicted people to social media are not even able to asses a stimulus before they can respond. What they do is to respond before they can asses the stimulus. Addiction can turn out to be a very dangerous thing to the ones who are frequently using social media platforms like Facebook. Instead of them using it, it is the one that starts using them.
Chapter 2: Managing profile
Who are you
Under the concept of managing profile comes the question of “Who Are You?”. For people to have an understanding of who they are, they must comprehend their selves in all their situations. In terms of social network sites, people tend to evaluate the information that is placed on their profiles so that they can achieve a desirable response and comments from other users. However, regardless of the motives for the objectives people will always be in control of their actions in a manner that sheds the most favorable impression of oneself (Seehafe 2017). One of the ways in which people can maintain a very high impression of themselves is through social media platforms especially Instagram. The reason for this is that Instagram will hold only the positive matters of a person. People can identify who they are by performances and how they manage their impression.
Performance involves an expectation of people in the society to like and accept the impression that we give. The impression that is given by a person is the exact character of that person. In this case, people are responsible for keeping a character that is acceptable when they are making interactions on a face to face basis, as well as on media networks. The performance of a person is given through the way he or she interacts on a daily basis, and through social media. The profile can be created through the modification and creation of the profiles of the person (Seehafe 2017). The other way in which performance can be enhanced is through the identification of friends and networks. People’s performances are supposed to hold up the very standards and do away with anything that cannot fit into ideal standards. It is thus clear that one gets to know who they are after they have identified their identity and their performances, especially on social media like Instagram.
For one to create their identity, the aspect of individualism sets in. Social media is also a good platform for impacting individuality in a person. The reason for this is that social media gives individuals the chance of playing with their identities. In this case, identity is the part of the self can be accessed and important in a given context and that has a direct interaction with the environment. The message in this passage is that if a person wants to know who she or he is, then it would be important for him or her to create his or her own identity (Seehafe 2017). This is for the reason that the identity of a person is his or her individuality. The individual aspect is what a person is, thus answering the “Who are You” question.
Chapter 3: World of Game
A Different World
The world of games has not been left behind. It improves with the improvements of the other aspects of technology. An example is video games. Initially, they used to have a social spectating element to them since the time that they were incepted. During the early periods of arcade games, people used to form gatherings around a person playing games to see how such players could do it. They enjoyed cheering players. These gatherings were important because they used to encourage an interaction that was face to face with people. Over a period of time, games moved from the arcades to the living room. This means that people could now watch a match at the comfort of their living room. People playing the games were no longer exposed to the stares of people who were watching them play.
Come Back to The Real World
However, there is a comeback that has been brought back to the culture of gaming. This has been made possible with the emergence of live streaming of video games. Video games have been the main reason why there has been a lot of studies that have been done for decades in the many fields of research. In contrast, real-time video game streaming is like a novel that has been developed that has the potential to bring a lot of contributions to the growing area of games research under the umbrella of information sciences, media and the category of communication (Sjöblom, et al 2017). Streaming has made video games to back to the real world because it allows the viewers to participate in a direct basis when the game is still going on. In fact, this is even better than how it initially used to be because the number of viewers has significantly increased with live streaming. This is because people all over the world can now view a video game while others play at the moment the game is still happening. The truth of the matter is that this is a virtual reality taking place.
Chapter 4: Conclusion
In conclusion, the paper has discussed social media in details by describing the advantages that it has to the people. Some of these include enhancement of the impression management of users. An example is Instagram where it assists users to control how others view them because they will evaluate the posts and comments on the users’ posts on such platforms. In addition, social media improves in-group favoritism. Lastly, it is a means of communication, making the world to be like a global village. On the other hand, social media wastes a lot of time of people. secondly, it has a high ability to cause addiction to users. This is a disorder of the brain that is difficult to heal. For people to know who they are, they must evaluate their performances, identity, and self-management so that they can realize the individuals that they are. As technology improves, so is the world of games. Initially, people could participate directly and enjoy games as others play. With time, spectators started watching games from their sitting rooms. But with the emergence of video gaming and live streaming, the real world of people watching a game as it is played is already brought back. Although in the real sense, this is a virtual reality.
References
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