Virtual Paradise...

Far too many times in my childhood have I seen those electronic 'virtual' pets. For those of you who haven't got the slightest idea, a virtual pet is a small electronic device called the 'Tamagotchi' (created by Japanese) that allows you to take care of a 'virtual' pet on screen. You can feed it, play with it, put it to sleep, clean up its poop and what not, with just the press of a few buttons... Outdated it is now though...

Along the years I always wanted one and when I finally got one, it seemed boring in a few days. But somehow, I seemed to like the concept of "virtual". Like you don't have to really bother about it much like you had to with a real pet. You could play with it when you wanted. You could ignore it for a few days, it will get sick and die. You can always press "reset" and have a new pet. Or if you got sick of it entirely, you could probably get a new device or forget it altogether.

Something that's really not there..."virtual"...  Like our "friendship" and "relationships" these days. Well they aren't all virtual I should say. But so many of them are and some of those that weren't, end up being that way. We are all selfish. We don't have time for anything (that's what we tell ourselves. You would always find time to text back to a call from an unknown number with the cliched "who's this?", no matter how busy you are.) The boom of the social networks is just coz it allows you this virtual world (alongside keeping in touch of course, but who was so interested in just keeping in touch until it was nice to have their comments on pics, the attention from strangers, entire conversations on walls, relationship updates etc etc.) A touch of anonymity, quite a lot of privacy (most people dont think so, but you in fact get more privacy online than in real life) and a hell lot of freedom. How? Read on!

Its about, not being in the best clothes, not disclosing your identity or hiding behind a fake one. Covering up your insecurities and troubles and being someone else. A lot of people wish to be someone else. Besides, how is anyone gonna know its you? Even bill gates's windows cant expose you until you switch on the webcam right? There you sit right in front of that computer screen, whiling away time in chat rooms (again virtual) or ogling at pictures people have uploaded and so fourth. You tend to find some person interesting and you spend hours chatting. You lie about yourself (saying "He/she's a stranger, how can i disclose my identity") make up stories to impress or say sad stuff to get some attention, live your fantasy at least in front of someone who believes its real and things go on. Oh! and not all of us lie, some of us find the comfort of telling them everything true coz they're probably far away and can in no way interfere with our daily lives... The anonymity provides a certain sense of comfort. All you have to do when you smell trouble is "close the chat window". You don't have the hassle of feeling guilty over what you said or did. Coz it wasn't a relationship/friendship you shared over the last few months with whomsoever it was or seemed it be. It was just a 'chat window...'

It's not always clear why such a second life... Its fun. Meeting and getting to know new people. Hear their lies, feed them with ours. (Nope, not all of us are that way. Just mentioning the majority). At least you find someone to believe that your fantasy is real, besides yourself of course.  Maybe we need to be our true selves at least once in a while huh? Like the old school proverb, "Your character is what you do when you think no one is looking"...  But a little bit of fun is good as long as you're not hurting anyone and as long as you're not addicted. I've made some of the best friends of my life, meeting them on fb first and then in person later on. So I wouldn't tell you its totally bad, though i havent done all the faking with anyone... Sometimes its fun. I give it to you fakers :)

And in this context, I'd like to quote a dialog from a computer game I've played...

"It isn't as easy as they tell you in grade school. But it is good to have strong values, and to maintain them, always and everywhere. It's important to have a balance in things. Yeah, balance, thats the right word. Coz a guy who wants too much from life, risks losing everything. And a guy who wants too little from life, might not get anything at all..."