Communication Virtuality: The New People Religion

[Butterfly]

Between the PCs, iPod, iPad, and all kind of portable gadgets, I note that individuals tend to define themselves around consumer electronics gadgets as they were meant to give them meaning or direction.

Convenience is often quoted as the main reason for the acquisition of such gadgets, and that might be true in professional terms, but for the majority of people, those gadgets are a mean to vehicle certain needs or frustrations which has nothing to do with convenience.

Do they serve a purpose ? aren't they pointless ?

A lot of teenage kids are into iPods, iPad, Mobile gadgets, and BB to "enhance" their communication and keep in touch, but you have to wonder what are the real motivations for that. Could it be the convenience of hiding behind a wall because they have become unable to express themselves in RL ?

In some regards, the explosive success of online forums, blogs and Facebook serve a similar purpose. They seem to address a certain emptiness in our communication ability or they could serve a purpose by giving us some kind of dimension in a virtual world, a place in a kingdom that doesn't exist.

Doesn't all of this sound familiar ?

[Ripley]

Humans like to communicate. Nothing religious about it
Arthur C. Clarke ( wrote 2001 a Space Odyssey, inventor of the ComSat ) wrote either transportation or communication would get so good as to alleviate the need for the other.

[larvidchr]

^^
Yes very familiar people living behind gadgets, making their livelihood from information gathered on gadgets, the playstation generation without social skills and any real sense of reality, without naming names it's fair to say we have one or two kid's like that on this forum

[Bettyboo]

A lot of teenage kids are into iPods, iPad, Mobile gadgets, and BB to "enhance" their communication and keep in touch, but you have to wonder what are the real motivations for that. Could it be the convenience of hiding behind a wall because they have become unable to express themselves in RL ?

Absolue rubbish, it's just standard consumeriam and "keeping up with the Jones'".

In some regards, the explosive success of online forums, blogs and Facebook serve a similar purpose.

Now, this area could be used very prodcutively to support your virtual world ideas...