Morality, Behavior and Personality May Be Influenced Essay

Discuss how one’s morality, behavior and personality may be influenced by adoption of a cyber-ego in a Virtual Environment; in respect to both the person adopting the cyber-ego and any observers/participants within the same VE. When one is in a virtual environment for long, one soon becomes convinced that the cyber space world is the real world which is the turning point in his life after which everything turns against him. This virtual world that is mistaken to be the real world is a parallel world that one is in. the presence of one in the virtual world that is non–existent leads one to fall in a state is consciousness which is very different from the one in the real world. After this, one starts to think differently, act in a way one has never acted before and a lot of other things that soon do not make sense to him self either, but this is a fact that although one knows there is something wrong, one can not help it. (Johnson 2003) It becomes a part of one’s life and is difficult to get out of it. After being in a parallel universe that is all made up, there is different stimuli that then change and guides our behaviors. It is a journey which a lot of people find interesting. On their journey to no where, when they are entering the virtual world, they take along the best ethics that their religion could teach them, wonderful morals that they learnt from their parents since they were kids and the cultural ethics that they grew in since they were kids; all that is with them when they are entering the virtual world, but it is ironic that when they come out of it for something they are completely different. (Pritchard 2000) One is a completely different individual which some how loses all its values that were taught to him or her during their life span and all the ethics and morals that they learned while they were in school and all that goes deep down the drain. How the virtual world affects culture, values, morals, ethics and perception of which people are and of what the world is, changes; is what will be discussing through out this report. (Ess 2006) When one enters a virtual environment, it is a battle of what is real and what one has left behind. This is where one’s cyber ego comes into picture. In addition, Cyber ego is primarily what a person thinks of one self in a virtual environment. There is no doubt that there is a lot of artificial intelligence involved in the so called virtual environment that one enters in, but there is a problem of cyber ego that makes many individuals question themselves before entering an environment as such. The moral values are lost and this is not only true but has been experienced by many people who have made a mistake of entering a virtual environment. Talking to different people, people that one is not aware of as ever even existing before they started talking in the cyber world, it changes one’s attitude and the stimuli that one guided the person’s perception and state of emotion; this all mutate and make the individual a different person, for all wrong reasons. (Schultz 2005) There are a lot of things that have an impact on our morals and ethics. For example, the more time one spends on it, the more aggressive one gets. This aggressiveness can be because one can no more differentiate between the real world that one lives in and the virtual world that one is in most of the time of the day. This aggressiveness adds to the change in one’s attitude and hence personality. (Ess 2006) The changes in one’s attitude and personality all depends on how much one might be engrossed in cyber ego. How much one would want oneself to be a part of the virtual environment and adopt cyber ego is the question that will also answer how much a person changes and becomes a truly different person that one was not. It is the difference of decisions that one makes that leads one towards developing a cyber ego being unhealthy to an extent that it would drive the life long morals and ethics out of the person and make one a totally different person. Having this said, it is of utter concern of as to how the changes take place. Some claim that the fact that hours and hours of the week are spent in front of the computer screens being in a world that is non existent. Having a personality that is not the personality the person has in the real world, and faking that personality to be the real one; if so is done for hours, every single day of the week for months or even years, yes there will be a drastic change in what one believes and what one perceives. (George 2003) This will soon be followed by the changes in the person’s emotions towards different things in life, whether it is with family or friends or other loved ones. The emotions at times are not stimulated, because the person is so engrossed with something and being completely some one else that it soon loses the charm of the stimulation that it got from various stimuli from the environment that stirred the person to either be someone or to achieve something in life. After all this happening everyday there is no way one will not be stoic and indifferent to various activities going around it. (Rosinski 2007) Ever person has a threshold, to go beyond the threshold of a human being is par a normal human’s limit. This threshold although does stop the person from being someone that the person is not, but ultimately becomes so. In this journey of being some one, one is not in the virtual world is cyber ego and creates a totally different person with a completely different personality and lastly with distorted morals and ethics. (Francis 1996) Up till now in the essay, the affect of cyber ego on people who adapt the virtual environment had been discussed, but now the observer’s part of the thesis will be discussed. When a person adopts and gets used to of being in the virtual environment, one has a very different personality inside the virtual world. This personality and morals that one supposedly has is entirely and completely different than that of the real world. While people are observing the same person through out, they get a very different person outside the virtual world. Although if the same talk is held in the cyber environment, the person is said to have morals, ethics and cultural values – almost all of which go against the ones that the person has in the real world – people would not really know the difference. The question that a lot of the people adapting such habits as to being a completely and totally different person over the internet is said to be something that one should not be proud of. Although research tells us that it is in their hands to choose to be who they want to be while in the cyber environment. On the contrary, they can not be blamed to have a different personality and morals. (Pritchard 2000) Every person wants to be on the top of the world; having the perfect car, the perfect life, the perfect family, the perfect job and who does not want to be a millionaire. If not this, a person might portray one self to be something that one has always wanted to be in the real world. The reason being it is that people can not be that person in reality; things are not as easy as they seem to be. Saying that one wants to be a surgeon, is not that easy, one has to have the spirit, the ambition, the money to get in to a medical college, and a lot of other things too that come with it. (Schultz 2005) One can portray to be who ever one wants, with all the goodies of the world – only in the virtual world. People start lying, adapt cyber ego, and become totally different individuals. There is no reason why this fake personality would not affect the real world personality. Not only do the observers and other users of the virtual environment notice some cues, well the other users are doing the same too, hence they tend to pick up cues that way too, but the others out side this made up world notice changes in the individual as well. One of the changes that are quite prominent is aggressiveness. (George 2003) The idea of having different personality and morals in the virtual environment is for them to get internal happiness that they might not be getting in the real world. The reason why the world that people live in is so called the real world and the world that people adapt to and live in is so called the virtual world, is because the so called real world is so different from the world that people want to live in. The virtual world is all made up and completely fake and people get the easy way out by pretending to have things they do not possess and being some one they are not. They wish to see themselves as being worthy of such happiness and success. And regardless of the fact that they succeed in real life in it or not, in the virtual world they are successful. This gives them internal happiness and strength, on one hand it pushes them to spend more time in the virtual environment and portray them to be successful and on the other hand, they become more stable, emotionally. (Rosinski 2007) An individual is completely different which some how makes one lose all its values that were taught to him or her during their life span and all the ethics and morals that they learned while they were in school and all that goes deep down the drain. How the virtual world affects our culture, values, morals, ethics and perception of which we are is important to understand. (Francis 1996) People in the virtual environment and outside it are great observers, they pick up cues better when they them selves are involved in the same activities, hence observing the same person through out the time that they have been in touch, and they get a very different person outside the virtual world. Although if the same talk is held in the cyber environment, the person is said to have morals, ethics and cultural values – almost all of which go against the ones that the person has in the real world – people would not really know the difference. The question that a lot of the people adapting such habits as to being a completely and totally different person over the internet is said to be something that one should not be proud of. Although research tells us that it is in their hands to choose to be who they want to be while in the cyber environment. On the contrary, they can not be blamed to have a different personality and morals. (Pritchard 2000) After being in a parallel universe that is all made up by people in the virtual environment, there is different stimuli that then change and guides behaviors of people adapting cyber ego in the virtual environment. It is a journey which a lot of people find interesting and the reasons of as to why they might find it interesting have been discussed above. (Brown 2006) On their journey to no where, when they are entering the virtual world, they take along the best ethics that their religion could teach them, wonderful morals that they learnt from their parents since they were kids and the cultural ethics that they grew in since they were kids; all that is with them when they are entering the virtual world, but it is ironic that when they come out of it for something they are completely different. (Schultz 2005) To conclude what has been discussed earlier, we know that the adoption of cyber ego over the internet and in the virtual environment has negative affects on personality, behavior, ethics, morals and cultural values. There are various reasons of as to why people would want to adapt this virtual environment and would want to be a part of it. The idea of having a different personality and unusual morals in the virtual environment is for them to get internal happiness that they might not be getting in the real world. Then the real world and the virtual worlds were defined. The reason why the world that people live in is so called the real world and the world that people adapt to and live in is so called the virtual world, is because the so called real world is so different from the world that people want to live in. (George 2003) The virtual world is all made up and completely fake and people get the easy way out by pretending to have things they do not possess and being some one they are not. They wish to see themselves as being worthy of such happiness and success. (Brown 2006) Regardless of the fact that they succeed in real life in it or not, in the virtual world they are successful. This gives them internal happiness and strength. One can portray to be who ever one wants, with all the goodies of the world – only in the virtual world. People start lying, adapt cyber ego, and become totally different individuals. There is no reason why this fake personality would not affect the real world personality. On one hand it pushes them to spend more time in the virtual environment and portray them to be successful and on the other hand, they become more stable, emotionally and mentally too. Although this adaptation of cyber ego has its negative impacts on behavior and how one portrays one self to be, but it also affects the cultural values that one beholds. The morals and ethics that are affected go with it too. (Johnson 2003) Reference List Brennan , L. 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