In today’s society many people exist under two names, one being their birth name, and the other being their online alias which tends to stay the same or similar from one thread to the next. Through the online alias you are no longer bound by the rules of a regular world. There is no censorship on the internet. There are no rules, and no one to govern them. People are emotionally and mentally free on the internet. Games such as World Of Warcraft allow people to transcend through just being able to say anything they would like, and they can actually start BEING someone else. The trouble with this is that we are slowly becoming a combination of both people. People start getting excited about going home to meet their online friends, to go to a virtual place, and battle other virtual humans online for ownership of the world. This excitement is beginning to spill over into our real lives. People are giving up being “John Doe” to become “Rexor the Demon Slayer”. This has got to have not only serious mental health risks aswell as also physical health risks as well.
People no longer desire to be themselves anymore. We all want to be the best, the most powerful, the richest, the most respected. Through things like online games and forums we all get a chance to do and say exactly what we want to. We can go kill monsters of epic proportions, we can argue a point and not be judged by education level or looks. We even have online dating services where we don’t even need to have physical contact with each other anymore.
It is even believed that with the introduction of virtual reality we may even have the ability to reach the “third state of consciousness” where the physical body is no longer needed. Just your thoughts and a world connected together through like-minded thoughts.
Personally, I find this a scary idea and I really hope we never get as far as a game where you FEEL like you’re in it. A person who already lacks the ability to keep a firm grasp on reality and separate the two from one another could end up permanently lost in a virtual world.
I’m interested in hearing your thoughts on the matter.
- Are people loosing track of who they REALLY are?
- Is the acceptable “normal” behavior of a human being changing?
- Is virtual reality something that should be available to the wide spread public?
Wednesday, February 14, 2007
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