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Ryann Hirt
ColWrit R1A
Prof. Grover 007
Nov. 27th, 2017

Can Virtual Reality Prove to be Beneficial to Teenagers?

Is virtual reality a positive source to create and reinforce already existing relationships for

anti- social teenagers? The overtaking of virtual reality in everyday lives has become a new

phenomenon at the turn of the 21st century, as computers became faster, chat rooms more

accessible, and the internet is at everyones fingertips with mobile phones. Virtual reality has

become seen as a negative thing for young adults to have access to, however having this gateway

serves as a positive admittance into social relations. A popular teen dystopian novel, Ready

Player One by Ernest Cline, portrays the positive effects of having virtual reality. In the novel,

socially impaired teenager Wade and many other gamers are competing on a platform called the

OASIS to obtain a treasure left behind by the OASISs creator, James Halliday. Wade and his

peers must solve puzzles, riddles, and defeat evil to get to the treasure. In the end, the underdog

prevails, and Wade is the one to obtain Hallidays treasure. In this novel, the audience sees main

character Wade and sub characters Art3mis and Aech grow more confident with themselves and

develop strong relationships with each other. In this new age of technology being widely

available for millions, there is a fear that virtual reality is an evil and causes negative impacts on

teenagers. One of the fears being that virtual reality cuts off all social relations and leaves users

seeming like loners. However, virtual reality can serve as a positive function to young adults and

this idea is further reinforced in the article, Online Communication and Adolescent Relationships

by Kaveri Subrahmanyam and Patricia Greenfield. In the article, Subrahmanyam and Greenfield

observe teenagers and how they communicate and form/enhance relationships using the Internet.
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Through Subrahmanyams and Greenfields observations, in conjunction with Clines novel, it is

evident that virtual reality allows for teenagers make new friends and enhance friendships,

protects the teens from any physical and emotional harm, and allows adolescents to escape

negativities of real life.

Virtual reality gives players the opportunity to make friends and improve their already

existing friendships. Subrahmanyam and Greenfield support that online communications allow

for friendship enhancement. In their article, they quote a survey based on teenagers and how they

felt about the Internet:

According to a 2001 survey by the Pew Internet and American Life Project, 48 percent of
online teens believe that the Internet has improved their relationships with friends; the
more frequently they use the Internet, the more strongly they voice this belief.
Interestingly, 61 percent feel that time online does not take away from time spent with
friends. (Online Communication and Adolescent Relationships, 125 -126)
Wades best friend is a player named Aech; despite being best friends, they have never met in

real life, just interacted through OASIS. They started off as strangers to each other, but the use of

the Internet and OASIS allowed them to improve their friendship. Id known Aech for a little

over three years. He was also a student on Ludus Wed met one weekend in a public Gunter

chat room and hit it off immediately, because we shared all the same interests Hed been my

closest friend ever since (Ready Player One, 38-39). Outside the OASIS, Wade has no real-life

friends, aside from Mrs. Gilmore. The OASIS allowed for Wade and Aech to improve their

social lives; this virtual reality gave them the tool to become friends, it didnt separate them or

cause them to take away time that could have been spent with friends. Subrahmanyam and

Greenfield mention that:

Online communication with strangers may offer some benefits for adolescents. One study
using detailed daily diaries found that adolescents who reported feeling lonely or socially
anxious on a given day were more likely to communicate that day via instant messaging
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with people whom they did not know well. (Online Communication and Adolescent
Relationships, 132)
In their study, Subrahmanyam and Greenfield support that online communications offer

teenagers the chance to be social in a safe environment where they are very unlikely to be

harmed. In addition, by being able to freely communicate with strangers online, this improves

the adolescents social relations as they are interacting with others and making friends. And

while online communication allows for a safe place for the teens to create new friendships, it

also allows them to communicate without fear of harm or judgement based on their physical

appearances. In the OASIS gaming world, there is a community of likeminded people. This

community allows for a support of everyone who shares the same interests and it seems like in a

community where everyone has common interests, then no one would feel left out or awkward

because of their interests. In the real world, social anxieties leave many teens to feel alone. The

OASIS system allows for strangers to become friends and spend time with each other, like they

would in the real world. In addition, it allows for opposite genders of these social outcasts to

freely interact without fear of being teased. This is further supported in Online Communication

and Adolescent Relationships, where Subrahmanyam and Greenfield state They [adolescents]

find instant messaging especially useful to talk freely to members of the opposite gender

(Online Communication and Adolescent Relationships, 125). This being freely able to talk over

messaging may be because messaging is very indirect. The strangers arent facing each other in

real life, so the fear of rejection is almost nonexistent. Despite being a very anti-social person in

real life, Wade seems to be able to talk freely with Art3mis. In Chapter 17, their email message

chain shows that there is plenty of flirting happening in their conversation. Both seem to

maintain their wits, even getting sarcastic with each other at times, but showing no signs of

nervousness or unwillingness to talk to each other. Even with their first encounter at the Tomb of
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Horrors, Wade is quick to be witty in their conversation. He doesnt stutter or in any way imply

that he felt nervous. Instead, in this scene, he seems quite calm. Through OASIS, Wade is easier

going; the audience knows he has social anxieties but that all seems to vanish inside OASIS for

Wade. The tool of virtual reality allowed Wade, Aech, and Art3mis to make friends out of

strangers that they met in this online world.

Virtual reality provides the tools for creating a new identity, should the users wish to

change their physical appearances. Players in the OASIS can use VR without fear of judgement

based on physical appearances. By using online communications and the platform of OASIS, the

players can be whoever they want to be without being threatened or hurt based on how they look

in the real world; they create an avatar to look however they please. Some created their avatars

based on their own real-world appearances, and others created their avatars based on the

appearance they wish they could have. Art3mis decided to create her avatar based on her real-life

appearances:

Her avatar had a pretty face, but it wasnt unnaturally perfect. In the OASIS, youre used
to seeing freakishly beautiful faces on everyone. But Art3miss features didnt look as
though theyd been selected from a beauty drop-down menu on some avatar creation
template. Her face had the distinctive look of a real persons, as if her true features had
been scanned in and mapped onto her avatar. (Ready Player One, 35)
In her creation of her avatar, she excluded a part of her body that made her self-conscious. She

had a birth mark that covered half of her face and while this didnt make her any less beautiful,

its understandable that anyone would be self-conscious by it. The OASIS platform allowed her to

create something she wished to look like and since OASIS is most of the players lives, she took

on a new identity without fearing that someone would judge her on her real-life appearance. In

addition, to protected physical appearances, the OASIS also protects the players real identity,

much like how virtual reality in this modern day is working hard to protect the personal
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information of adolescent and younger users. Subrahmanyam and Greenfield report in their

article that:

privacy measures have given adolescent users a great deal of control over who views
their profiles, who views the content that they upload, and with whom they interact on
these online forums. And young users appear to be using these controls. A recent study of
approximately 9,000 profiles on MySpace found that users do not disclose personal
information as widely as many fear: 40 percent of profiles were private. In fact, only 8.8
percent of users revealed their name, 4 percent revealed their instant messaging screen
name, 1 percent included an e-mail address, and 0.3 percent revealed their telephone
number. (Online Communication and Adolescent Relationships, 123)
Many platforms that adolescents use today on the Internet try their hardest to protect the

identities of their underage users and OASIS does the exact same in Ready Player One. In the

OASIS, when creating their avatars, players have the choice to give their avatars any name they

please as long as it is unique. They are also given the access to change their user names as much

as they please. Rarely any of the users of the OASIS use their real names online. In the novel,

Wade comments:

Anonymity was one of the major perks of the OASIS. Inside the simulation, no one knew
who you were, unless you wanted them to. Much of the OASISs popularity and culture
were built around this fact. Your real name, fingerprints, and retinal patterns were stored
in your OASIS account, but Gregarious Simulation Systems kept that information
encrypted and confidential. Even GSSs own employees couldnt look up an avatars true
identity. (Ready Player One, 28)
In the OASIS, their real identities are protected, and the players are given the chance to create

any identity they please. Virtual reality can aid peoples insecurities in their appearances and

allow them to take on the appearance they want and while doing that, it also ensures that the

players arent subjected to attacks on their real identity. Also, the users of OASIS cannot be

physically harmed like in the real world. In real high schools, often fights and bullying occur.

Online high school in the OASIS protects the students from any of those negative parts of high

school. Wade explains the amazing way the stimulation blocks these potential harms:
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He was about to reply but I muted him first, so I didnt hear what he said. I smiled and
continued on my way.
The ability to mute my peers was one of my favorite things about attending school online
and I took advantage of it almost daily. The best thing about it was that they could see
that you muted them and they couldnt do a damn thing about it. There was never any
fighting on school grounds. The stimulation didnt allow for it. The entire planet of Ludus
was a no- PvP zone, meaning that no player-versus-player combat was permitted. (Ready
Player One, 30)
Students can mute verbal attacks from classmates by actually muting the voice of the other

player. The teens are virtually disabled from hurting each other; the teens have a choice to mute

each other out and they physically cannot fight. Of course, in other parts of OASIS, players can

fight each other, but this results in the death of their avatars, not the actual player. Still, the

stimulation protects the students from physical harm by preventing fights/bullying from even

happening. Virtual reality ensures there are no dangers to the players, whether those dangers be

verbal attacks on appearance, or physical attacks based on hate/judgement.

In addition to allowing the making of friends and protection from potential dangers,

virtual reality also provides adolescents access to escape the harsh realities of their real lives.

Within Ready Player One, there are plenty of instances where it is stated that players might be

escaping the destroyed world humans now inhabit:

At a time of drastic social and cultural upheaval, when most of the worlds population
longed for an escape from reality, the OASIS provided it, in a form that was cheap, legal,
safe, and not (medically proven to be) addictive. The ongoing energy crisis contributed
greatly to the OASISs runaway popularity the OASIS became the only getaway most
people could afford. (Ready Player One, 59)
Not just teens, but other generations use OASIS as a way of escaping a dying world. It is cheap

and safe for the players to use, and it serves as an oasis from that dying world. Virtual reality

allows adolescents to get away from anxieties of their everyday lives. Wade mentions that

outside of OASIS, he faces social anxiety: in chapter 2, he tells the audience that attending

school in the real world wasnt a pleasant experience for him. He was shy, awkward, had low
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self-esteem and no social skills. But online, he doesnt have a problem with taking to people or

making friends. Wade attempted to overcome his social anxiety in the real world, he mentions

that

[he] tried [his] best to fit in. Year after year, my eyes would scan the lunchroom
like a T 1000, searching for a clique that might accept me. But even the other outcasts
wanted nothing to do with me. I was too weird, even for the weirdos. And girls? Talking
to girls was out of the question. To me, they were like some exotic alien species
Whenever I got near one of them, I invariably broke out in a cold sweat and lost the
ability to speak in complete sentences. (Ready Player One, 31)
Despite knowing Wade has social anxiety in the real world, the audience sees a different side of

Wade in OASIS, he has a best friend and hes freely able to speak to his crush, Art3mis, a girl!!

The social anxieties that he claims to have in the real world dont exist within OASIS. He is

comfortable within this technology and it shows. There is a change in his confidence as he

becomes more popular in the OASIS. He mentions his life inside the OASIS:

In real life, I was nothing but an antisocial hermit. A recluse. A pale-skinned pop culture-
obsessed geek. An agoraphobic shut in, with no real friends, family, or genuine human
contact. I was just another sad, lost, lonely soul, wasting his life on a glorified
videogame.
But not in the OASIS. In there, I was the great Parzival. World famous Gunter and
international celebrity. People asked for my autograph. I had a fan club. Several, actually.
I was recognized everywhere I went (but only when I wanted to be). I was paid to
endorse products. People admired and looked up to me. I got invited to the most
exclusive parties. I went to all the hippest clubs and never had to wait in line. I was a pop
culture icon, a VR rock star. And, in Gunter circles, I was a legend. Nay, a god. (Ready
Player One, 198)
Wade has found himself in the OASIS; hes popular, well known, no longer an outcast or low-

level player. From this quote alone, the audience can see his confidence change from what he has

told of his life in real life in comparison to virtual reality. Aech is also using OASIS as an escape

from the real world. Not much is known about Aechs life outside of OASIS but Wade theories

that despite him not knowing who Aech is in the real world, his home life might not be that

great. Like Wade, he seemed to spend every waking moment logged into the OASIS. And even
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though wed never actually met in person, hed told me more than once I was his best friend, so I

assumed he was just as isolated and lonely I was (Ready Player One, 39). The OASIS allows

for Wade and Aech to escape the torment of their real lives. The OASIS creates a stimulation

where they can be somewhere they want to be and be happy there. Real world virtual reality can

do the same thing for teenagers. Virtual reality can allow the escapement of negativity in the

teens life.

Virtual reality indeed serves as a positive piece of technology for adolescents. VR allows

for adolescents to create new friendships and maintain old ones, ability to create any identity the

user pleases, and it lets the teens escape the harshness of the real world. The readers see Wades

growth in Ready Player One because of the OASIS, which is this worlds virtual reality. He

gains confidence and makes friends from strangers. He goes from the underdog to the hero.

Virtual reality gave Wade the tools he needed to end the novel as Hallidays successor.

Works Cited:

- Cline, Ernest. Ready Player One . 1st ed., Broadway Books, 2011.

- Subrahmanyam, Kaveri, and Patricia Greenfield. Online Communication and

Adolescent Relationships. The Future of Children: Children and Electronic Media , vol.

18, no. 1, 2008, pp. 119146., www.jstor.org/stable/20053122.