I don't spend all that much time online and was quite hesitant to join Facebook at first, so I'm not in a position to really compare the "real" world to the "virtual" world because I am not a fully-fledged member of a virtual world like I imagine some gamers are. In a way I can understand the appeal of a virtual world, as a form of escapism from the real world. However, the real world is what is real and will not be going away so enjoying a virtual world too much can mean being less able to cope when thrown back into the real world.
One movie that I found absolutely fascinating and life-changing was The Matrix. This movie is centred around the concept of a virtual world and the real world but in the virtual world (in the Matrix) people are not even aware it is a virtual world that they are in, they believe it is real because they don't know any differently. It made me think about how "reality" is a bit of a difficult concept to define. For those people, although a real world also existed, they were completely unaware of it and so for them the Matrix was reality. Who is to say that what we are now experiencing is the "real" world and not some artificially constructed world that we have been wired to think is real?
However, this is a different line of thought to knowing a world is virtual and existing in another world that is considered "real". Knowing a world is virtual has appeal because it is different to the real world, otherwise it would just become the norm. Virtual worlds can sometimes help us appreciate the real world, after spending a lot of time online, going out into nature means that the aliveness and beauty of it all will be even more apparent after comparison to "virtual" worlds. The real world is always there and no matter how involved people get in a virtual world, their body reminds them that they actually exist in a physical plane which will always demand attention no matter what. The real world can't be escaped from through a virtual world. And, for people, virtual worlds can either enhance or detract from the real world, depending on the person's state of mind.
Hi meredith,
ReplyDeleteI really enjoyed this post. The Matrix was pivotal for me also. It was a visual montage of all the philosophical questions I had asked myself since I was about five years old! Is everything a dream? Have you ever fallen asleep and woken up feeling like you have been asleep for hours and it's been ten minutes? That shows how time is so different in the dream or sub conscious state. What if life is a dream?