Book Review: Virtual Worlds - Rewiring Your Emotional Future by Jack Myers
Published October 01, 2007
The only legitimate criticisms Myers allows are the concern that some websites capture too much of people's time, parents' concerns about how and where and with whom their children are spending their time, and safety issues. These are the issues that should, in my opinion, have occupied the bulk of the book, aside from factual and technical detail. Instead they are two or three sentences at the very end of the book, followed by another comment about "the evolutionary advances that are the promise of Virtual Worlds [and] offer hope for the future of human interaction."
Virtual Worlds: Rewiring Your Emotional Future concerns itself with a fascinating and increasingly relevant topic. Too bad the book is mainly focused on a Utopian vision of societal transformation through immersion in virtual worlds, with significant emphasis on advertising, though not with the dangers of a 24/7 connection between corporations and consumers, young people trained increasingly to be emotion driven, impulsive, and appearance conscious (building the self from the outside in). And too bad also that the bulk of the argument has very little support, in terms of sources and citations, so people can research and think for themselves. Or is that too intellectual an activity? If you are looking for a serious study of virtual worlds and their possible impact on society and culture, look elsewhere.
Abram Bergen is a logophile, thinker, reader, and writer. His research/writing interests include gender and sexuality issues, hybridity and identity politics, secular ethics, and ecosensitive technologies and lifestyles. His day job keeps him too much removed from the world of ideas and words.
- Book Review: Virtual Worlds - Rewiring Your Emotional Future by Jack Myers
- Published: October 01, 2007
- Type: Review
- Section: Books
- Filed Under: Books: Science, Books: Nonfiction, Books: Computers and Internet
- Writer: Abram Bergen
- Abram Bergen's BC Writer page
- Abram Bergen's personal site
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Thanks for your comment, Vikk. As I mentioned near the beginning of the review, the impact of virtual worlds cannot be ignored. The reason the book interested me at first was precisely because I expected it to take a serious look at the phenomenon, to study it, examine it from different angles, etc. It was, unfortunately, a book by someone whose mind is already made up, based, I think, on insufficient evidence. It is too significant a phenomenon, with the potential for a profound (for better and/or worse) impact on present and future generations, to arrive at easy, one-sided and premature conclusions. Please do read it for yourself. All perspectives need to be heard and examined.
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When I read the title I thought this would be a book that would touch on the consequences of living in virtual worlds but apparently you didn't find it so. That's a shame. Having worked in an environment where at least half of the staff played War Craft--including the GM--and having a 15-year old grandson taking his responsibilities to his online virtual friends more seriously than those of his real family, I continue to wonder at the long term effects of the growing virtual society and game playing. I have no doubt that there are many plusses. But I refuse to believe there the dark side is nonexistent. I still may read the book more for th sections you found interesting but it is a shame the writer chose content as he did--but understandably so.