Virtual reality is a term that applies to computer-simulated environments that can simulate physical presence in places in the real world. This common place definition completely missed the psychological impact that is inherent of this technology.
Facebook... I was often told, is addictive. I experienced it myself. August 2009 ...till date, every instance of my insignificant life is archived in this public forum. My mood swings, my work-life conundrums, my love life glitches, my travel tales, birthdays, death days....passions... ambitions ... the myriad photos.... along with the access to similar such memorabilia of my 246 friends!!!
246 friends!! That is a significant number. Yet, when the night is endless & insomnia is inevitable....I am left all by myself..surfing the endless albums, reading strange status messages, enjoying the YouTube uploads and contemplating on who is really that wanted friend ... the one person ..I can access unconditionally at ungodly hours... devoid of any discomfort.
Appreciation for this virtual world dawns mightily when we are allowed to weasel our ways away from those idiots who also seem to be our friends. The ability to disconnect.. stay invisible.. claim network error & so on... the indefinite means of escaping the unwanted friend is so welcome. With the evolution of science, human bonds have withered. We have reached a phase where technology provides the solution of avoiding our dear ones at will. True, connecting has also become easy. But, isn't this virtual connectivity a compromise? We not only avoid the unwanted beings... but are well established in distancing those minds which are so etched in our hearts.
Work load always existed in all ages. Distance didn't. Friends and family shared the same realm. People met and spoke heart to heart. People found sense & love within their own society. Where is the joy of laughing if you do not see the fun reflected in the eyes of your beloved! How can you express grief in typed phrases? So these virtual friends .... how are they in any way.. comparable to real friends... ? Why are the real friends crossing over to being virtual friends...?
Today... I realized that my entire social networking tenure was revolved ... not around my real life... but what I thought my life should be... I thought more about those 246 beings out there... displaying pics ...posts... hungry for their attention... likes/appreciations/invites.. flooded my ego and I kept running away from my true self....my real society. Profile deletion was my first step towards sanity. I feel so free. I loath it every bit. :-D
The fact that we are incognito makes it so easy in the virtual world. There is either a gross misrepresentation of who we really are... or a fearless acceptance & confession of our brute existence.
Emergence of the internet has concaved the world boundaries. We now covet that which is so far and so unreachable. We love not real but virtual elements and that is where my madness piqued. Was I wrong to end this plasticity?? I have definitely stopped chasing this dream which has been my most beloved nightmare. A miracle...I am trying not to hope.
“Hope is the worst of evils, for it prolongs the torment of man” - Friedrich Nietzsche
