GAC002 Assessment Event 4: Academic Essay

How Vaguely Defined Virtual

Pets Shatters the Life of a

Cyber Citizen

Student’s Name: Thomas Pan

Student ID#: HEGA77314

Teacher: Yang Xia

Due Date: 3 March 2022

Word Count: 504

GAC002 AE#4 Hancheng Pan HEGA77314

Question: What are the differences and similarities between keeping a real pet and a

virtual pet? Which would you recommend? Support your views with research

evidence and example.

Under the unexpected rapid development of the internet and its extensions, virtual pets

are becoming more and more widely known as a possible substitute for real pets. Many

differences were presented between them and many argues over the topic of which would be

the better choice. I would recommend virtual pets, as there were more advantages over

disadvantages from my point of view.

Virtual pets and real pets didn't share as many similarities as most believe, considering

the fact that virtual pets are pretty far from the usual definition we have of pets due to the

infinite possibilities of our cyber world. However, they do share some similarities, mostly in

their functions as both virtual pets and real pets existed to provide people with friends and

accompany them. Both virtual and real pets keep their owner companies but usually in very

different ways.

For me, the difference between virtual pets and reals pets was something similar to the

more well-known choice between a virtual world, more known as Metaverse, and our real

world. The advantages of a virtual pet are significant and often very unique. For instance, a

virtual pet would live forever and wouldn't die nor face diseases or disasters that might lead to

excessive stress for the owner. The more possibilities given by a virtual pet could even widen

the definition for pets, as it became possible for those that could not normally become pets in

real life to become your virtual pet such as robots, aliens, or even speaking sharks, just as a

famous streamer who is known for streaming in a shark outfit noted on her stream," The

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streamer is not your virtual pet!"(Yining Lin, 2021) The greatest thing about a virtual pet is

that it lives in a virtual world, where one is capable to do a lot more and granted much more

possibilities along with his friends.  

A disadvantage for virtual pets, which is also an advantage for a real pet is that you

couldn't touch them. This disadvantage means that it is harder to build up intimacy with a

virtual pet than it is for a real pet. The sense of touch has been proved by many researchers as

a sense that greatly affects one's emotions. Examples were” The sense of touch owns both

emotional value and social characteristics"(Xv, 2020), and "different sensations of touch can

affect our social interpretations of the people around us in fascinating ways"(Suttie, 2015).

Many researchers have therefore tried to strengthen the relationship. Some try to develop a

virtual pet application for a smartphone as the platform, so that intimacy and interaction

between the user and the virtual pet can be enhanced with augmented reality (Chifu Lin,

2012). 

In conclusion, the 2 types of pets each owns distinct advantages, real pets are more

realistic and touchable while virtual pets are more customized and portable. Despite each of

them having its own pros and cons, there might be future technological advances that might

allow virtual pets to eliminate their shortcomings and therefore could possibly be a better

choice.

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Reference
Chifu, L.(2012), Mobile Application Design of Augmented Reality Digital Pet, National
Taipei University of Education [online]. Available from:
https://www.csie.ntu.edu.tw/~fuh/personal/
MobileApplicationDesignofAugmentedRealityDigitalPet_vol18_03.pdf [Accessed May
3 2022]

Hongmei, X.(2020), How Long Has it been since You Were Hugged? The Influence of Touch
on emotion, Zhihu [online]. Available from:
https://zhuanlan.zhihu.com/p/141538933 [Accessed May 3 2022]

Jill, S.(2015), How Touch Shapes Emotion , Greater Good Science Center [online]. Available
from:
https://greatergood.berkeley.edu/article/item/how_touch_shapes_emotion [Accessed May
3 2022]
Yining, L. (2021), The Streamer is not Your Virtual Pet, Bilibili [online]. Available from:
https://www.bilibili.com/video/BV18V411W7tN [Accessed May 4 2022]

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