Virtual Worlds

We were asked to join Second Life and explore its virtual world.  Many of the participants in the course were uncomfortable with it.  When I first saw this a few weeks ago, it intrigued me.  How much fun would it be to create an identity and interact with other online identities?  My children used to love Webkinz which is a similar forum for children where you get a stuffed animal and put in a code.  You create your house etc.  Then after that we had a parent evening with a psychologist who spoke about boy/ girl relationships etc.  It was a great presentation.  Many parents had questions about technology usage.  One of the areas she came out strongly about was the negative influence of virtual worlds on our children’s abilities to interact with each other.  It really struck me and stuck with me.  I am not sure why I am more comfortable with something like Facebook or twitter and less comfortable with something like Second Life.  I do see it as having more potential to draw in both children and adults in an unhealthy way.  There is something so real and engaging about it with the visual world that is created, that it worries me it will be too hard not to get drawn in, in an unhealthy way.  For now I am not trying it.  I wonder if my grandchildren will roll their eyes at me the way I rolled my eyes at my grandparents’ reaction to the internet!