3.16.2011

The Aging Dinosaur: Virtual Reality vs. Reality Reality

It seems unfathomable to me that our world has developed so far beyond interpersonal relationships and into the realm of AI that contact with other people is becoming more and more virtual. This has been going on for quite some time, beginning with chat rooms, online gaming, and now the ever annoying facebook or social networking platform. When I say that, I say that with some humor, I am one of the millions of individuals on fb. Although lately, I am beginning to become perturbed by that social network, not that I'm looking for another one. I have friends, close friends, and family all over the country and my only connection with them is through fb? That's so fucked up. I even have family locally and my only connection with them is via fb, how disturbing is that? Granted, I don't necessarily want to see all these people everyday, or talk to them everyday, but the personal disconnect that is fb is quite unsettling. At first, the novelty was interesting. I could find out what my friends/family were doing, but now it's an inundation of status updates, attention seeking "look at me" posts, which not only seems to be a form of virtual pollution but has got to be the most arrogant and conceited cry for attention in a forum that is responsible for severing human contact. It does have its advantages. When you have friends and family all over you can keep in touch, although you could actually talk and see those friends and family through Skype if you are so inclined in utilizing technology, you could also use a phone, making the experience less barren. It does function well as a platform to disseminate information, that is undeniable. Events that are happening are distributed via facebook invitations, but with the ease in doing so, the amount of events that are now taking place has risen exponentially, as have the "specialty" pages on fb.

I am an individual that would rather engage others in person, but distance makes that difficult, the phone is preference one for me, preference two is email, fb is further down the ladder in my book. The ability to network is my main reason for utilizing facebook. Although my main preference is the phone, there are some individuals that are just not good at returning calls if you cannot connect initially. Others are just not good phone people, they call you and they don't maintain the conversation or barely initiate a conversation and yet they've called you. I've called people and it seems like I've caught them at a bad time, but they don't inform you of that, usually they treat you like you've imposed yourself on them, it's a phone for god's sake. I'm not sure if it's because virtual reality has forced an awkward wedge in between people, you know, virtual distance, yet it has also created virtual closeness. People don't want to be bothered and they can use technology to their advantage, e.g. caller ID, IM blocks/online status notifications. I wonder if all this technology and the advances in virtual reality hasn't placed humankind behind the proverbial eight ball. We aren't necessarily as social as other animals on our planet, but interaction occurs on a daily basis for those of us that leave our homes everyday. If you want a job, you're typically asked whether or not you're a "team player" or if you "work well with others." Well most people have jobs, and in the countries that unfortunately exist as third world countries, the people still interact with one another and actually exist in a more developed social structure than those of us with computers, cell phones, flat screen televisions and any other smart technology you want to throw in there.

As someone that loves the outdoors and nature, I have a difficult time navigating between virtual reality and reality reality. Ironic enough, I work within virtual reality.

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