Virtual Road Trips
A recent NPR story about 2 men traveling virtually across the country using Web 2.0 tools caught my attention. As someone who has made the drive across this country and stopped at Petrified Forest, as they have, the story made me curious. Also, there is an ongoing discussion via comments on the NPR page. The men taking this trip, Marc Horowitz and Pete Baldes, mention how they have become better friend during this time, how much time they have spent together, and how many interesting people they have met along the way. At first I was quite skeptical about this form of 'travel,' but as I think about this more, I wonder about the qualities of the experience. Perhaps, their experiences on this trip versus a trip through the reality of the American countryside are analogous to what Dewey (I think it was Dewey!) wrote about the qualities of experience. He differentiated between the idea of 'experience' and 'an experience.'
This story was broadcast on NPR last Sunday and then this past Sunday (August 23, 2009), they shared some listener comments. One comment related to how these men may be experiencing these places, but that they are doing so with limited senses. Because they are relying mainly on their vision, they cannot feel the wind, hear the crickets, smell the desert, etc. As more and more virtual experiences are possible and as they are increasingly sophisticated, how do these experiences compare to our experiences of reality. Will there be a time when we cannot remember or it does not matter if something happened in reality or in a virtual world? I have heard of some people who are quite active in Second Life who do not always differentiate between what happens 'in world' and what happens in the world of the rest of us. Is this a problem? As experts are now writing about 'Nature Deficit Disorder' could reality deficit be the next issue? Since children spend about 7 hours per day in front of a screen of some sort, they are in school about 7-8 hours per day, and then need to sleep about 8-9 hours per day, that does not leave much time for reality to intervene in their lives.