(OPINION)
‘Yes, I need life to be simple again. I am fed up of virtual life.’
I came across this ’throwaway’ comment on a Youtube vid clip and though it was really poignant.
There are probably millions (of us) who now live are lives like this to a greater or lesser extent. We live and breathe most of our lives in a virtual world and the daily commute of living and working in an online environment has now become the norm for the vast majority.
Our work environment has probably been gradually shifting to this paradigm for the last quarter of a century. We’ve climbed the learning curve of technology and peered into a software based world via our screen portal. We’ve honed our fingertip skills on the keypad and mouse, and touched the screens of the latest smart tech-toys.
Gaming and now Social Media have usurped our real world time even more. We’re absorbed for hours on end, vacantly screen gazing, occasionally interspersed with a cursory glance out of the window to acknowledge the real world is still out there and doing OK. We walk and talk to ourselves in a ‘device bubble’ semi-detached from everyone and everything around.
Technology now is so interwoven into our lifestyles now we hardly notice it. And when the next Tech revolution comes along no doubt we will again weave this seamlessly into our daily virtual attire.
Has there been a social impact? Most certainly in the way we work, shop and play. We only need to look outside at our own streets and towns. Maybe we’ve neglected the real world face to face communications that sustain communities? And are we hiding ourselves behind our screens just a little bit too much?
Its easy to turn cynical and be caught up in the sentiments and nostalgia – and maybe all the social ‘connections’ are still as vibrant as they ever were. After all its a whole new generation using different methods and means.
The song I was listening to on Youtube? – Scott Mackenzie and ‘San Francisco’. Admittedly I was engrossed by the images and clips of the era – its easy to be caught up in reminiscing and revitalising the free ‘spirit’ of this decade. How people communicated in real-time and skin to skin (no avatars) and the absence of smart phones was so absorbing to watch – and cheesily refreshing.
Rose tinted glasses maybe. Lets face it, most of the flower-power generation were in a dope virtual space for much of the 60′s communicating through their own technicolor weed clouds.
I wonder if we have really changed at all? The hypocracy in all this is I that watched the clip on YouTube and wrote this on my blog. But still its good to reflect on gains and losses made along the way.
Which world would we rather be in? – last word goes to ’SuperStonedWeed’:
‘Yeah I’d give it all up. The only one I have now is the internet’
No going back I suppose. (BTW anyone spot the Scott Mackenzie lyric?)
