Ground Bogo

There is no real life, only AFK

I am still not convinced that people fully grasp the significance of the web and its effects on human psychology.  Maybe others don’t spend as much time here or don’t interact with as many people online as I do, but I know for a fact that there is a collective (I was going to say army, but then people would claim I’m trying to spread fundamentalist ideas online or some other crap like that) of like-minded individuals out there who spend more and more of their lives in the digital world. Are we wasting our time here? Is this our life ending one minute at a time? I think not…

What makes your life significant? Is it not the trace that you leave through interaction with others? I do not mean to discuss the meaning of life here (how hypocritical of me, since this is exactly what I am going to do right after I close these parentheses), but I don’t believe that your existence in isolation has any significance. You go through your way and leave a trace, through achievements, impressions, all in the mind of others, and this is what will supposedly be left when you’re gone. This symbolic footprint will one day be your epitaph. And then you are no more…

How is real life different than your time spent in the digital world then? You go through the web, create, interact with others, leave a mark. Every facebook update, every forum post, every online character in a game, this is you leaving your digital footprint out there. Others see that, recognize it, and remember it to a lesser extent. Perhaps your impact on other individuals online is smaller due to the informality of the interaction, but you no longer need the minds of others to keep the flame of your existence alive. As long as the web lives, your trace will live. It is a different form of life, though. The concept of “you” as a human being and even an individual gives way to the concept of “you” as an entity. We use different aliases in the web. Every one of us usually has at least 5, some more than 50, which would mean that most likely, others would perceive 5 or 50 individuals; in truth, those individuals represent the same digital entity…the same person in real life. Out there you are split into many many pieces, but you are still you, nobody can change that.

As time goes by, more and more of our real life will give way for our digital one. This is no longer science fiction, this is happening here and now. The computer revolution gave us the web. Yesterday the laptop allowed us to take the web with us in our backpack wherever we went. Today the world is in our pocket, tomorrow it will be in front of our eyes, and the day after it will be in our heads. Your digital and analog (see, clever) lives will become parallel until the web becomes an essential part of our lives (and I really mean that, and no, the web is not essential for your existence today, you can end your internal dialog) and possibly takes over. A voluntary Matrix.

In conclusion, I don’t believe that the fact that people spend more and more time online should be alarming. Human civilization can exist both in the web and in the real world. This is still your life, and you should make the most of it wherever you choose, be it offline or online. As long as you don’t come here to run away from something, because one day you may regret that…