Final Project

The Virtual Period

The world today has reached a time period where people have drowned themselves in a high tech society that life itself has become almost artificial. In a quote from The Observer, “ These people are so locked into the world, by default some sort of transcendence is located elsewhere, and obviously machines become the totem they imbue with sacred properties, wishes, hopes, goals, desires, dreams.” People are no longer communicating in a way that their actual bodies are present at a time and place physically, but rather virtually. Some people believe that computers are the greatest inventions of all time. I do believe there are many positive outcomes that have come from the world of computers, but I also believe that there are many negatives too. The Millennium generation is the preceding generation that has e-mail, news group, web forums, and online chats as the word of mouth phenomenon. This is the generation of growing up with the internet, providing a number of resources from online music to blogging. These human-computer relationships have gone beyond what anyone could imagine. From a US census on internet access and computing, “ Sixty-two million U.S. households, or 55 percent of American homes, had a web-connected computer in 2003. That’s up from 50 percent in 2001, and more than triple 1997’s 18 percent figure.”

As I begin to observe my life in a human-computer relationship perspective, I find that I also require the need for this technology on a day to day basis. Everything I do in my life, requires the need for this “machine”. School courses demand students to check their e-mail on a daily basis. These e-mails which inform students of countless events, alerts, and assignments. Assignments which now can even be submitted online. University courses which can be taken online making it efficient for students that have children or other responsibilities which make it tough for them to appear in an actual class. Also work areas which require the need for computer skills. My job absolutely requires me to work a computer. I am positive that if I was unable to understand the programs and how to access them, they would no longer need me as an employee for the company. At the end of the day I finally realize that I do need this machine for almost everything that I do in my life. It’s a requirement from society nowadays to access the world net, throwing every single person in this pool of virtual vitality.

Though computers have helped me tremendously in everything that I do, it has also changed me in a way. This “machine” has facilitated everything that I do. That can be an amazing thing but what about the living part in all of this? Am I always going to be dependent on this “machine” for everything that I do? These are questions that I ask myself when I think of how far the world of computers has taken all of us. For years I was stuck in my room in front of my computer on a popular web forum called “myspace”, missing out on beautiful days that I could have spent doing something different. This new virtual period is a period where people of all age groups meet friends online and take in virtual relationships. What happened to meeting people physically and communicating through eyes and mouth? People are losing traditional ways of communication and taking in the new way of typing and texting on a daily basis to express a feeling or emotion. It’s impossible to know what a person is really feeling through one or two words on a screen. Nothing can have a greater affect on a person than to be able to see a tear drop on someone’s face to know that they are sad or an amazing smile to know that they’re happy. Children nowadays have access to horrifying things on the internet which can be traumatizing. They are easily able to access chat rooms with strangers from all over the globe which the majority of the time can be a hunting ground for online predators. From a Times Daily report, “89 percent of all sexual solicitations are made in either chat rooms or other social networking systems and one out of 7 children, ages 10-17, will experience unwanted sexual solicitation online.”

The dependency on a computer to me has more various negative affects than positives. It can push friends and families away from spending too much time on it. As a person begins to excessively use the computer he/she gradually enters an artificial world. The excessive visualization of pornography on the internet can twist a person’s idea of sexuality. People that are dependent on a computer 24 hrs a day, push themselves away from a real life social environment as they spend increasing amounts of time on the computer. In a quote from Coupland’s Microserfs, “ One's perception of time's flow is directly linked to the number of connections one has to the outer world. Technology increases the number of connections thus it alters the perception of having experienced time.” Anyone can read this and understand it in a variety of ways but to me it signifies what technology won’t ever be able to do for us and that is the “experienced time”. So much time is lost online. The time that people could spend with friends and family and making memories. Computers are essential in many people’s lives. It has turned into a principal “machine” for work, substituting man. It is necessary though, for us to know our limit. These “machines” are killing the real way of life. People are becoming addicted to games, chat rooms, forums, and are forgetting to participate in real life events. People are exposed to horrific images and videos online that are affecting them in a way where nothing is no longer shocking and the things that were at one time unacceptable are becoming normal.

WORKS CITED :

US Census. “Internet Access and Computing.” January 16, 2006. http://maisonbisson.com/blog/post/11088/us-census-on-internet-access-and-computing/

Times Daily. “ Hidden Predators.” April 27, 2008
http://www.timesdaily.com/article/20080427/NEWS/804270353/1011

Douglas Coupland. Microserfs. Harper Collins, 1995.