#virtual communities

The conclusions that I have made about virtual communication and virtual communities are that they are all unique. Joining virtual worlds were not always easy because they are all different. Trying to get accustomed to them took some time because having to figure out how to navigate through the world was important. Interacting with people was easy because the worlds used special groups to distinguish how people could find others similar to them. This course was really a fun course because learning about CMC and how often we use it in everyday life without even thinking about it was amazing. Knowing your differences between your real world identity and virtual world identity was an eye opener because it helped me determine how I wanted myself to be viewed virtually and in face-to-face interactions.

The differences between my virtual identity and real world identity are hard to separate because I try to be the same person on both platforms because I do not like to feel like I have to live up to a identity that is not 100% me. I do interact differently virtually than I would in real world and that is mainly because I don’t ideally use gifs or images in real life to communicate with people. Virtually I am more open because it is not easy to read somebody emotion or interest through a character but only through words and actions. When in person I can use nonverbal to distinguish if a person is interested in the convo.

Virtual communication and virtual communities are in place to help people create identities and learn more about each other. While being behind a computer screen can seem exhausting there are benefits. I've learned throughout this course that virtual communities can be a positive and negative resource depending on how you use them. There are spaces were individuals can abuse their freedom of speech but also use it to create conversations that are educational. In the course, we studied different virtual communities and communication outlets and immersed ourselves into these realms. We started by joining servers in applications such as Second Life and IMVU which opened the door for our learning. Second Life was presented as the first big virtual community where people communicate and join different worlds. The application was hard to use at first but over time it became easier to be in the world. My experiences were nothing but joyful as I had my trials and tribulations, I enjoyed being in this virtual world. I've met different people that I connected with by learning about our similar hobbies/interest. I love being in the world of art in Second Life which provided tools to visit different museums to look at artwork. While communicating through CMC was difficult and was different. The use of chat tools in virtual communities help make your experience easy. I do hope that virtual worlds were more accessible when learning how to indulge in them. But, over time they become easier and second nature. I recommend using virtual worlds to enhance communication skills virtually because you learn how to connect with different individuals and make connections outside of the real world. Networking is huge in these spaces and if used properly can be very beneficial. 

My experiences in virtual worlds were all unique in their own way. Being in a Grand theft auto virtual world was way different than being in Second Life. Although I was used to video games of that nature it was easy to get adjusted to because I had been around it my whole life. My experiences in GTA were good and bad as expected. The good was being able to interact with people while trying to figure out who was a good person in the city opposed to somebody who would try to rob you or something of that sort. It was fun because it was kind of like real life because the server was created to make it as realistic as possible so people did not go around killing each other as they pleased unless it was a role play situation. These types of game are something i enjoy because interacting with people and having to stay in character is is something I enjoyed doing.

Learning that Second Life was more than just a place for people to interact but it was a place that you could learn about research and business things also. While in the world I was able to find areas that were topic or interest based so people could find others with similar interest. I like learning new things and different things to do so exploring the world was fun for me once I got the hang of it.