I would never have thought that virtual worlds could help people understand each other better. William C. Diehls and Esther Prins wrote an article, “Unintended Outcomes in Second Life:Intercultural Literacy and Cultural Identity in a Virtual World,” for an academic journal, Language and Intercultural Communication. In this article, the authors explore the idea of how virtual worlds such as Second Life can promote intercultural literacy.Because many of the users are globally dispersed, a virtual world is a good place where people from all different types of backgrounds, cultures, and ethnicities can interact. By interacting with each other, they learn more about each other’s cultures and can harbor a greater appreciation for cultures other than their own. They also talk about how people form distinct cultural identities in these types of settings. In a virtual world, users don’t have to choose someone they resemble. They can choose to be of a different race, color, or gender and can go wherever they choose. By changing their identity, they can experience different cultures. They even bring up the question: can new cultural identities be formed in Second Life?

When I was reading this, it reminded me of my anthropology class that I am currently taking. It would be really interesting for anthropologists to study virtual cultures instead of real ones. This could really change how anthropologists study. Instead of immersing themselves in other real cultures, they can immerse themselves in virtual worlds and do fieldwork online instead of on site. I do think that virtual worlds can create new cultures. However, I do not believe that virtual worlds can help people really experience other First Life cultures. The only way you can really experience someone’s culture is to actually be a part of their culture for some time, similar to what anthropologists do. In the virtual world, you can’t taste other people’s food, hear their conversations and ways of discourse, touch their traditional clothing, or be a part of rituals. Culture is not virtual; it is something that has to be physically experienced.