Tag: Media

Virtual reality

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When I was a child, I imagined (and I’m sure most children have thought this) that an alternate world existed in the mirror. I used to look along the edges and try to peer along the sides, to glimpse round the corners, to see the surface from below. Hotel corridors presented impossible worlds of double mirrors where, frustratingly, you could not see between or around. I felt like I had to step into it, somehow.

Is this the appeal of virtual reality? As we create alternate worlds of existence, these become increasingly detailed and life-like. We create alternate virtual realities, and alternate virtual identities. To what end? I see it is useful in architecture; we can simulate appearance and performance datasets and pre-empt issues that may arise in construction. However, it does not replace human intelligence or sensory experience. Do we want it to?

In our alternative world of the internet, we have created new currencies – social currencies, cryptocurrencies, advertising and software application currencies…maybe most sinisterly as well, the currency of personal data. This whole virtual world exists, and grows ever richer in its level of definition. But just like the mirror, it isn’t real. It’s merely a reflection, an illusion of some kind, and we cannot pass the barrier into it.

The appeal of going beyond this mirror is lost to me. I enjoy the odd bit of escapism with a good film or book, but I do not see what the ultimate benefit or aim of this constantly plugged-in culture is delivering us. I can’t remember the name of the study, but a few years ago heard it posited that the amount of (physical) social engagements a person has per day has one of the most direct impacts on their life expectancy. If that’s true then I’d doesn’t bode well for our generation.

I want my children to engage with the real world, see it with all their senses. It is so full of richness and beauty. We have the real thing right before us, and it’s soul-destroying and fundamentally unnatural to remove ourselves from it. The alternate reality is all very good, but as a society we have become drunk and giddy with it. Like any drug, moderation and appreciating when it has its uses is more sensible. It’s time to sober up.

Media Surges

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What I specifically want to talk about in this post, is modern society’s addiction to social media. It’s probably a bit rich coming from someone who is ‘putting it out there’ and indulging in psychological navel gazing, but ‘in real life’ I don’t consider myself married to my devices and I am doing this, for the time being, as a sort of mental therapy. This topic is a bit of dark theme.

Without sounding Orwellian, I think we have all become ‘plugged in’ to this media machine, bombarded with so much information and subliminal messaging, perish the idea that you may have any time or inclination for independent thought. Before you know it, you are opinionated about stuff you don’t understand, and ready to walk out of work or school to demand government action. Follow whoever is loudest. Ignore the small print that explains the real, much more complex issues (and might actually demand different action): it’s long since submerged into oblivion. Sure enough nearly everyone, probably me as well, is swept along this urgent, gushing surge resulting in damaging changes to policy, funding and general societal opinion. But is it uncontrollable? Is it really just the result of a few random ripples, or is someone busy cultivating the momentum? Whatever it is, your elected government is already drip feeding the next surge to your children at school via the national curriculum. We have to stop tolerating this.

The problem is, unless you can educate yourself in all matters, what sources can you trust? Doesn’t everyone have an agenda? Can anyone not be ‘bought’? Or, more sinisterly, ‘silenced’? It really brings home the importance of education and nurturing critical thinking.

I’m not proud of today’s sketch. It’s probably a reflection of my mood as well. The surge starts, powerful, momentous, dragging along everything beneath it. Momentum peaks mid-wave, but too late, a crest inevitably forms and suddenly you are over the crest, devoid of energy, left with the consequences.