A Thorny Take on the Virtual World by a Crotchety not-so-old Man
(Bare with me on this, I had to bang this out in about 30 minutes, so I'm sure there is some funky language and spelling)
I know, it's been a long time since I've written a blog entry. That's because I've been in a period of major transition in my life, a transition that is continuing to unfold as I write today. I'll spare you - the world at large - the deep personal moments of clarity and unfortunate awareness of things I wish I didn't realize about myself, and just say that at the ripe age of 38 years I am only just beginning to implement some of the hardest lessons my life has offered me. I'm not going to list them all here, but I hope to expound upon them sometime in the future. For now, I'll focus on a more recent lesson. Real life humans have lives packed with challenges, victimization, losses, wins, happiness, anger, love, hate, and all the other bits that make up life in the real world; the real world versus the "virtual" world. You see, one of the lessons that has reared its ugly bulbous head to me in recent years is that nobody has any obligation to give a shit about you, the individual. If there is any implied obligation, either morally or in other ways, to being a human, it is an obligation to help your fellow people, and do what you can to make the world in which we all live a better place. On a side note: How ironic is it that the right wing Republican church goers are the ones advocating a survival of the fittest economy that pushes aside the government's role of providing for the most unfortunate in our society? Anyway, in America, the real world has developed into an individual self-gratification free-for-all. And this self-indulgent, almost irreverent "I got to get what's mine" worldview, has unfortunately invaded the "virtual" world too; the world of Facebook, Twitter, and the dozen or so other areas where people can post to the world at large a "what are you doing?" message. It's as though the virtual world has simply become the space where people sell their wonderful personalities and beautiful lives - free of all the baggage of their real world lives - to other people, or "followers" in the case of Twitter for example. To put it bluntly, this disgusts me. I'm dreadfully sick of Facebook updates like "I am so lucky. My life is so full of beauty and meaning." or whatever. Okay, so perhaps I hate these messages for some other reason, such as I'm not genuinely happy with my own life, and so I don't think others should be happy with theirs. Sure, whatever, send in the psychoanalysts. All that aside, I am pretty happy with my life, but not at all happy with the country in which I live it, nor the people who run it, and there are a great many other things about life in America and planet Earth for that matter that are so drastically lacking that I could hardly list them all. My point here is simple, there is so much suffering, so much need for understanding, for caring, and for working against the status quo, how can anyone feel content sending a message out to the world at large that is all about YOU, and how happy YOU and how great and perfect YOUR life is, etc? Sure, maybe every once in a while, when you are experiencing genuine joy in your life, you should share it, but even then, as a courtesy to those of us who might not be feeling that way, send a little of that happiness and love our way, not just right back at yourself and your followers. Sometimes Facebook, especially, becomes a LOVE ME fest. Yes, I'm an idealist. I'm a Utopian Futurist. I believe that things like Facebook can actually make a difference in the world, can actually lift some people out of low places, inform people about things they otherwise might not hear, and so on. It can be so much more than a place for parents to update what's on the minds of their children! Man, that annoys the hell out of me! In the end, I am an optimist, and I believe we can do more with the virtual world, in fact make the characteristics of the virtual world the ones we would like to see in the real world. But to do that, we need to share our real selves in the virtual world, so that people the world over can connect with us the way we really are, not the way we are in our fictitious world where there are no downs, only ups, all positive, all the time. Maybe then, real happiness with one's own life, will come through loud and clear, and not be annoying and alienating to the millions of people who might NOT be on the same high. What people are interested in is who we all really are, not the face book that we publish. More on this to come, but for now, please discuss!
