While co-directing the Understanding Islam through Virtual Worlds project with Joshua Fouts, I traveled to four continents in the physical world and interviewed people from 25 countries in the virtual world called Second Life. What we learned and experienced in the virtual world has since crossed over into the physical world in interesting ways.
The Psychological Impact of Virtual Worlds
Second Life has long been plagued by a misguided media narrative that latched onto its novel and cartoonish appearance while missing the much larger point: For the first time in history, geographically dispersed people are sharing a space limited only by their imaginations, and are visualizing together how the space is used and built upon.
Mosque communities have sprung up all over the virtual worl d as they have in the physical world, built from the ground up by various individuals and organizations. In Second Life, mosque projects and sites related to exploring Islam range greatly. Some seek to promote diversity by not requiring head scarves (avatars have no real skin to cover) and allowing digital shoes in virtual mosques, since they don't track dirt into sacred space. Others insist on adherence to physical world standards as implemented by the various projects' directors.
Experiences shared within virtual worlds, particularly user-created environments, are not perceived as trivial by those who partake in them. People can collaborate on developing the infrastructure of virtual environments, while social media platforms, though valuable for other reasons, have flat, standardized user interfaces.
Further, virtual experiences can help in overcoming shyness, language barriers, or other impediments to meaningful communication, creating the perfect medium for exploring cultural...
