Second Life Disruptive Technology

A disruptive technology is a technology or invention that helps create a new market, or removes and existing technology from the market.
I am not a user of Second Life. I have tried it, I have written projects about it’s capabilities, and I believe it the idea of it, however every time I have used it, I have not found that it has created a new niche market, in fact I think it has become somewhat of an outdated technology because of its cumbersome interface and the learning curve when using it. Some universities do use the virtual worlds as areas of collaborative learning and virtual lecture halls for their students, however I have not encountered an online university with a huge Second Life presence. I don’t think that Second life has changed the way we learn, have fun, and do business. I think the idea of virtual worlds may have started to emerge as a disruptive technology, but I don’t see Second Life to be as life changing as, let’s say, Facebook. Facebook is inundated in every aspect of society- from advertising to education, politics to religion. There is a Facebook page for almost everything, not a Second Life virtual world.
Second Life for education has been used to create virtual classrooms, and can be used to offer the space of a virtual community, however this has also been done with social networking sites in a more streamlined and effective manner- one can hop on their IPad and get a classroom update, rather than logging into a virtual worlds which at times can be cumbersome to navigate.
Virtual Worlds have become a higher education phenomenon; however tend to lead more toward simulated activities or proprietary activities geared toward a content are or concept, rather than the Second Life world as a whole.

Rhymes of History

One technology that rekindles history is the Wii family gaming console. As a child, I distinctly remember playing board and card games with my family well into the evening hours. As I grew older and technology such as movies and computers progressed, that family time seemed to disintegrate. This could be because my family was no longer ‘engaging’ to me…what could a game of Scrabble do that was better than a Saturday night at the video arcade? Now, however, consoles such as the Wii and the Kinect bring back that family time- with the added bonus of a technologically engaging format. This type of technology is geared toward the multigenerational family and could reasonably bridge the gap between the Silent Generation (1925- 1945) and generations Y and Z. A modern child can play an interactive baseball game with Grandma, and rekindle the aura of times past as Grandma tells the child about the female baseball league during WW1. What a great bonding moment!
Why is the Wii So Popular?