With the creation of the virtual worlds, the landscape of social connectivity as we know it can change drastically. The creation of a virtual world allows individuals to share their creativity and thoughts with others in a meaningful way, offering ways to socially connect with others.
For example, minecraft is a gaming virtual world that allows an individual to share with others their architectural and creative view of a landscape. Through communication, they can share with others how they envision the world can be built, and why it is so, creating a connection with another person through the virtual world.
In other cases, a virtual world can be used for hypothetical training and stimulus. The government already has such a program running to help prepare soldiers for certain conditions and precautions. By creating the virtual world to interact with, the soldiers are able to explore the surroundings of an area before actually going into the area physically. Pretty neat stuff.
And in a completely different spectrum of virtual worlds, people can catch up with old friends and families through a more engaging way than a video-conference or phone call. So many different dimensions can be expressed through a virtual world than can be expressed in other traditional mediums.
Virtual worlds has an interesting way of fostering creativity. The main thing is that people really feel like they can establish a good connection and vibe with others through the virtual world. This in turn allows them to work together more cohesively, and have the thoughts build off one another. It is no secret that creativity is generated easier between individuals who have a sense of connection between one another.
In the future I think virtual worlds will be the new market to be tapped. Seeing as how it can literally be created to substitute any social interaction, I think it will be a topic of extreme interest for nearly stagnant technology companies. I can see it being used for educative purposes, and even therapeutic services (helping to get over social anxiety). The educative aspects to such a growth is definitely intriguing, however I fear that the next generation of kids will start reverting to be more socially awkward seeing that they might one day live in a world where virtual interaction is more prominent than physical interaction. Let's hope there's a balance to be found!
Links:
http://www.cnn.com/2009/BUSINESS/11/05/second.life.virtual.collaboration/index.html
http://www.forbes.com/sites/dianemehta/2013/04/30/after-second-life-can-virtual-worlds-get-a-reboot/
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