What fictional world have you ever wished was real and you were a part of, and why?
When I was younger, I used to wish that Pokémon were real. I would walk around my high school and dream about how cool it would be if we could all catch these creatures and bring them with us everywhere. I think I liked that idea because it empowered kids with the responsibility to care for these powerful creatures and become lifelong friends with them. Also, having a fire-breathing dragon in my pocket seemed neat, to be fair.
-David
Yep. Pokémon all the way.
-Andy
+1 Pokemon
-John
+2 Pokemon
-Dylan
+3 Pokémon
-Tessa
Pokemon cause you know why
-BakedBread
My own Charizard!
-Tarantulette
Harry Potter!! For the obvious magic purposes
-Halley
If I got to be a witch, Harry Potter for sure.
-Hannah
Harry Potter. Ever since I saw that water spell in Half-Blood Prince, I’ve always thought it would be cool to have all the water I will ever need. No need to buy water bottles cause I would have a never ending water supply!
-Vengeful_Corgi
Star Wars universe all the way, to this day.
-Julie
I wanted Star Wars to be real. Mostly because I wanted to use the Force. There are so many cool things to explore, and so many different types of people/creatures. The world is so different from anything I’m used to, yet it isn’t so different that it’s uncomfortable or uninviting.
-Jenna
DBZ as long as I get those super sayian powers.
-Andy
I wanted so badly to have DBZ powers as a kid.
-Julie
Avatar the Last Air Bender. This could be partially be because of the fantastic job they did of depicting this world, but I’ve always loved the idea of have the power of controlling the basic elements and seeing everything that they were able to do with it.
-Christian
I second Avatar. It’s basically Asia, which is my favorite part of the real world. Also being a bender would be super awesome
Coby
I would probably have to say to live in the universe of full metal alchemist. Anime is great cause anything is possible and there are multiple that I’d love to live in. But that one specifically because it’s magic that you simply have to learn and be proficient at! Not randomly chosen but it’s up to the individuals!
-Caven
I’d love to be in the Series of Unfortunate Events world as the Baudelaire’s older cousin who helps them out in their adventures.
-Socialist7
I could teach Klaus how to play sports and be like a protective older brother figure to Violet, maybe drink wine with her at times.
Elite Dangerous. I wanna fly a real spaceship through hyperspace damnit.
-asdfzach
RWBY, everything is also a gun, need I say more.
-jordyboysw
Never Land from Peter Pan. Kind of dating myself!😛🤪😂
-Janet
Narnia.
-Karina
Eragon. You have a mind mate of your dragon and live forever to be able to see the world evolve and change. Plus you can use magic that makes sense.
-Steve
Artist’s Statement
The contributions of others were a primary focus of the Community Curation Creation project. Entries from social media were what I used to answer the question, “What fictional world have you ever wished was real and you were a part of, and why?” In looking for answers, I first turned to Facebook, where I’m connected to my immediate friends. I was able to receive answers from people that I know well, and some of the answers were fairly easy to anticipate, since I knew them. To get some more variety, I also turned to Reddit, where communities are driven by interests rather than acquaintances. To expand the community I was receiving answers from, I turned to the Subreddit “r/AskReddit,” a place where anyone can ask the general membership anything. Relying on the participatory nature of the media culture that exists within Reddit and Facebook, I was able to collect a fair number of fictional worlds that people dreamed of being part of.
The idea behind my prompt was inspired in part by Jane McGonigal’s commentary on collective collaboration from Reality is Broken. She observes that we find reality trivial in comparison to games, which I extended to fictional worlds in general. While this prompt didn’t help anyone find “epic contexts for action” or immerse them in “epic environments,” it did examine what the collaborators wished they could experience. Every fictional universe that they mentioned has fantastical and/or science fiction elements associated with it, and they all illustrate stories covering an epic scale. Clearly there we desire something more exciting than our current reality. New media is beginning enable us to immerse ourselves into worlds and stories more exciting than day to day life.
“Connected Learning: An Agenda for Research and Design.” (Ito et al.) observes that with the growing participatory culture emerging due to new media, it’s becoming trivial to connect with peers with similar passions and skills. It’s also an opportunity for older generations to connect with younger generations and pass on knowledge and wisdom. Using this project as an example, the entries I received through Facebook were all from people that I know and see on a regular basis. They were also generally within my age group. On the other hand, the entries I collected through Reddit were anonymous. I don’t know anything about the people who posted in response to my question. They could be old or young, professionals or stay-at-home parents, etc. The variety of interests that potentially exist when leveraging a large online community like Reddit allow for diversity in comments and input. While my project was just for fun, it’s a demonstration of how “today’s social media environment offers the potential for supporting access to deep social engagements driven by knowledge and expertise.”
