Thursday, April 30, 2015

Afraid of spiders? Try virtual reality



Will Maze
Core Chem
Current event 9
4/3015

“Afraid of spiders? Try virtual reality.”

"Afraid of Spiders? Try Virtual Reality." CNNMoney. Cable News Network, n.d. Web. 30 Apr. 2015.  


http://money.cnn.com/2015/04/29/technology/virtual-reality-therapy-phobias/index.html


Startups and universities are starting to treat phobias using “virtual reality.” With realistic and immersive technologies like the Oculus Rift, therapists could help a patient overcome crippling fear using safe, easy-to-wrangle simulated spiders. This new way to cure people’s phobias could lead to something much bigger than a pair of goggles. People that suffer from medium to severe phobia can be cured in a couple of months, weeks, maybe days! I am very scared of crocodiles and alligators (even though I hardly see any and if I do its on break). If I were to use the “virtual reality” method I could potentially get rid of my phobia in a couple of weeks. Roughly 9% of the U.S. population suffers from a specific phobia according to the National Institute of Mental Health, which classifies it as an anxiety disorder. For example, A child who was afraid of pigeons would be started by facing a single virtual pigeon. A therapist sat near him to help with their coping skills. Many more pigeons would be added as the child would then soon become increasingly more comfortable with the birds.      


This is important to society because it can help people with their coping skills with their phobias. At the end of the day, even with the best animators and video, patients know real tarantulas aren't crawling across the floor. It's possible some people won't find virtual reality real enough to trigger anxiety, but Maskey says they haven't encountered anyone who didn't react yet. Virtual worlds won't trick a person into thinking they're actually on a plane, in a crowded square, being pricked by a needle or facing a horde of birds. But for many people who are afraid of flying, just the sound of a plane's wheels going up is enough to set their heart racing. This is significant because week by week the people with the phobia can get used to new stages of the plane or in a crowded space.

This article was very short and only gave a summary of what is really happening with this virtual world. There were not many other speakers in this article meaning we could not hear any other types of coping theories. Overall, this article was interesting and I did get a full understanding of what the experts were really trying to express with us and what types of coping methods really are working with these patients.  

4 comments:

  1. This review by Will Maze of the article "Afraid of Spiders? Try Virtual Reality," was extremely well done. It is a very interesting article that gives us a whole new perspective on technology. Although some are against virtual reality, it can prove helpful. TO get over phobias, studies say living the fear my help. I really like how he chose an article that was obviously very interesting and how he managed to keep the reader reading nonstop. One thing I wish he had done better though, was the first part of his first paragraph, at first I found it a little bit confusing and had to read over the first part many times. Another thing he really succeeded in doing was describing the articles main points very clearly. I knew exactly what I was supposed to know at the end of the review without even reading the article. Just something small that could be improved upon was saving his opinion for the opinionated section, it would keep the organization better. I also really like how he worded the paragraphs. I found this article very interesting and I was amazed to find out that such a thing like video games could improve the way we live.

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  2. "Afraid of Spiders? Try Virtual Reality." CNNMoney. Cable News Network, n.d. Web. 30 Apr. 2015.

    http://money.cnn.com/2015/04/29/technology/virtual-reality-therapy-phobias/index.html

    I read the article “Afraid of Spider? Try Virtual Reality”, which was critiqued by Will Maze. He did a good job with summarizing the article and I liked how he included the example with the pigeons because that helped show how the technology worked. Will did well on pointing out the weaknesses of the article and how it was short and didn’t have many quotes. Having quotes from people who have tested out the Oculus Rift and similar technology would have made the article much more engaging. I liked how Will talked about his fears and the way this new tech could potentially help him and how it could affect everybody. It was important to note that even though people know that these simulations aren't real, it still helps people face their fears in real life. I thought that the article could have gone over how the technology worked and could have done more research on the people who have tried the tech out. Overall, I think Will’s review was well written and the article was extremely interesting. It is good to know that this new technology is helping people face their fears.

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  3. Core Chem D even
    Mr. Ippolito

    I reviewed the CNN article titled, “Afraid of Spiders? Try Virtual Reality” that was critiqued by Will Maze. I thought he chose an interesting article and although he explained in the critique that there wasn’t much information on the topic, he gave a clear summary so we could analyze as much as there was provided. Also, all the examples that he gave of phobias that people have, like crowds or flying on planes, really helped in my understanding of the topic and built on his explanation of its significance. Lastly, I thought the statistic he gave on the percentage of U.S population that has phobias was an important addition because its always good to have examples based off facts, which he did both. While this was a really good critique, a few things could have been done better to improve on his writing. For example, in his summary paragraph of the article, he included a personal opinion of his own phobias. This would be great to put in the second paragraph where there should be personal opinions and thoughts, but it doesn’t sound as professional in the first paragraph. Additionally, his one source that he mentions (Maskey), he hadn’t given any previous background info on, so the person’s relation to the topic was unclear. This would have strengthened the reliability of the facts stated. However, it was overall a well written critique and I was impressed by the analysis that he gave in his paragraph on the topic’s significance because he really demonstrated a clear understanding of the topic and his opinion was well thought out.

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  4. Zach Zucker
    Chem"Afraid of Spiders? Try Virtual Reality." CNNMoney. Cable News Network, n.d. Web. 30 Apr. 2015.


    After reading the article “Afraid of Spider? Try Virtual Reality”, that was critiqued by Will Maze. He did a good job with getting to the main point of the article and I liked how he included the example with the pigeons because that helped show how the technology worked. Will also pointed out that there was a weaknesses of how it was short and didn’t have many quotes. Having quotes from people who have tested out the Oculus Rift and similar technology would have made the article much more accurate. Also I liked how Will related this to himself and talked about his fears and the way this new tech could potentially help him and how it could affect everybody. It was important to note that even though people know that these simulations aren't real, it still helps people face their fears in real life. I thought that the article could have gone over how the technology worked and could have done more research on the people who have tried the tech out. Overall, I think Will’s review was well written and the article was extremely interesting. It is good to know that this new technology is helping people face their fears. Will showed that he really knew this topic and he made me interested to find out more

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