Is virtual less 'real' than real 'real'?
The tale of the half glass
Classic argument.
"This can never be as good as face to face"
"It kills the spontaneity of human interaction"
"How can you trust someone saying something on a website??"
"It's unnatural". "Plain dangerous".
"Get a grip... This is not real. Come back to reality"
Sigh.
I have nothing against real "real". Kinda solid, handy thing it is, especially if you want to taste a pickle, smell the coffee, feel the silk, or get a hug. And for situations where people don't have access to a virtual world.
I can't honestly imagine why anything else is "less real".
Start with the most taken-for-granted.
You get paid, shop, save, invest and make money online. That's real money, I am guessing, even if you haven't as much as seen it once in currency form.
You book a ticket for a movie and get a text that gains you entry into the movie hall. Which part of the ticket was unreal?
You look up info online and use it to solve "real" problems, either online or in "real world".
You exchange email and files that gets "real work" of many kinds done. You update websites with project progress. You communicate with customers, you report to your boss, you share water cooler gossip - online. So, what exactly was not real here?
You find an old friend unexpectedly online and experience a whoop of joy in your inside.
You rotfl and lmao about inane stuff like you used to do in college, all the while feeling there's nothing as great as a good laugh with friends
You find online that your significant other has a significant other that's not you. Gut wrenching moment for most.
You have a long animated chat with someone online and find yourself grinning, going red in the face, developing a rapid heartbeat, or even experiencing a serious urge to jump off the 21st floor.
That's not real? You got to be kidding.
To go further down this rabbit hole is to hurtle into a hatter's party of neurology, psychology, philosophy, linguistics, semantics, cybernetics or any of those fancy sounding areas that grapple with the question of "what is real".
But seriously, at an intuitive level, is the virtual any less real than the real real?
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Really real or virtually real - the questions raised are about utopia, dystopia and the human-ness of it all.
I don't think it is an either-or situation.
The tale of digital cultures
