For a long time many people have accused Hollywood of giving the wrong idea about romance or life in general, by setting some patterns for how relationships and life in this world could be, in a very appealing manner. Also video games where thought to have wasted the time and brains of many people. Starting with super Mario who saves the princes and ending with the online games were people get to plant gardens and raise sheep. The fact that they resemble things we see in reality made it easier for many to resort to movies when they couldn’t live their romantic dreams in real life, while those who resorted to video games have found a sense of victory when they win or get high scores. People found that those movies or games satisfy the needs they can’t satisfy in their real lives. They’re all from reality and that is why they attract people, but they are not real!
Now we have a new kind of obsession which in my point of view sums it all in just one big obsession; Internet and the insanely fast growing communication technology, which has turned into an addiction to a large number of people. It’s a kind of addiction that makes it hard for people to even get out of their houses and get normal lives. Online; people can be anything and anybody. They can be rich and famous in a number of games, plant gardens filled with virtual fruits; they could also date beautiful avatars! Or they would spend lots of hours in chat rooms talking to many people they have never met before and all at the same time.
Please don’t get the wrong idea. I’m not saying that meeting people online or communication over the internet is a bad thing. However, I’d like to say that spending too much time on the internet to an extent that makes almost everyone a person knows an online acquaintance is a pretty serious issue. Because then they’d be settling to the virtual life and giving away living in the tangible physical world. I know that some might find online interactions to be more satisfying than real-time ones. But when people seclude themselves in living only this type of life, it means that they give up on their real identities for the sake of being someone else online. Enjoying this for a while could be considered ok, but if it takes a person many years to realize what they’re missing then they have a problem.
Some gain the respect and appreciation they have always looked for online that they decide online is gonna become their lives. They gradually forget all about actual human contact until people become one of their biggest fears. I mean it must be confusing to see actual human facial expressions when all they see is smiley faces...!
No matter how animate they become I can’t believe they could be enough for anybody. Others would go to the extent of convincing themselves that the problem is with people and just use it as an excuse or a cover up for their lack of effective communication skills or the unwillingness to understand the other. In fact they take it further and push away anybody they think will intrude into their comfort zone, which brings us to the actual reason why they hide behind a screen instead of facing people.
No matter how animate they become I can’t believe they could be enough for anybody. Others would go to the extent of convincing themselves that the problem is with people and just use it as an excuse or a cover up for their lack of effective communication skills or the unwillingness to understand the other. In fact they take it further and push away anybody they think will intrude into their comfort zone, which brings us to the actual reason why they hide behind a screen instead of facing people.
Whatever the reasons are, low self-esteem, fear of miscommunication, fear of getting hurt or physical appearance issues; people better work on the reasons that made them hide in the first place, what made them give away any chance of having people who are made of flesh and blood in their lives. They need to understand that avoiding getting their hearts broken will not stop it from eventually happening, but what they also need to know that it never killed anybody.
Realistically speaking we can’t stop the development or technological evolution because it’s the future. And if technology is so controlling and apparently substitutes the real life for some people then the next step should be finding a way to convert those who like it that much into robots so that they get to really live! And that just seems unrealistic at the time being. So to avoid getting ran over by this madness and getting the real life mixed with the virtual one, people need to draw a line to separate the real life from the virtual. They also need to start thinking of the chances they can have far from the artificial life.
I must say that using the internet to meet people then getting to meet them in real life is nice but to keep it an online relationship is kinda sick! I mean how can a girl ever get a long stare that would freeze her body when all she looks at is a flat screen with a male avatar at the other end?!!! I didn’t forget the invention of web cams nor belittling its efficiency. And although it is the closest thing to a real human contact, in my opinion is not always the best. Some things will always need to be executed the classic way in order to really work. People need to believe that nothing will ever replace the feeling of fresh air filling their lungs or the touch of another human beings hand or a real human hug when they really need one, just nothing!
June - 2010
Major Magazine
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