After reading the first part of Castronova, I am worried when there will be a mass exodus into virtual worlds. I don’t ever see myself using a virtual world, but that could just be because of my current situation. In college, I am constantly surrounded by my friends and love talking to them and spending time with them face to face. I don’t picture myself wanting to spend ten hours a day online in a virtual world, instead of laughing out loud and talking to my real life friends. In addition, my opportunity cost of spending more than two hours a day online is too great. I would be failing all my classes because I would be giving up time to study to be in a virtual world. I cannot afford to essentially waste my time not being productive. I also do not like the idea of anonymity online. People can create avatars that don’t look anything like them and pretend to be someone completely different. While people can be misleading on Facebook, I know I only communicate with my friends, people that I know in the real world. Virtual worlds can be very private and people do not meet the people in real life with whom they are making alliances and friends with.

While I can confidently state now I would not move to virtual world, I cannot say that about when I am older. The social benefits increase as you get older because in ten years I will not constantly be surrounded by friends everyday. I will be busy with a job and making an income and maybe even taking care of a family. Hanging out with my friends would become a luxury and a virtual world would provide me with an escape from everyday life.  I am unsure when exactly the tipping point will be, but I do know a lot of cultural views need to be changed (for example people need to make more money to support their virtual world addictions) until we see a mass exodus into virtual worlds.