They are lone rangers, the cyber pioneers who trek through countless bits and bytes, they are somewhat socially inept: they are the gamers. Their kingdoms are internet cafes and dingy screen-lit bedrooms. Pasty, awkward characters, they lurk on the corners of normal society – uncomfortable without the shield of some dynamic avatar...
Ok, but seriously? I don’t understand gaming. I don’t. You sit alone in your room in front of a glaring screen radiating all sorts of dodgy electrical impulses in order to interact with other people who you’ll never meet and never have a real connection with (well, apart from that amazing troll kill you shared last month). What is the point? Rather go out there and do something real, kill a couple of squirrels (wow, got a bit carried away there – don’t do that).
Honestly though, there is a genuine danger in some cases that the virtual reality in which these people find themselves embroiled will become more real, more significant, than the delicate beauties of day to day existence. The glory in the mundane, the ephemerality of the fleeting moment, is lost in pixelated landscapes which stretch beyond the boundaries of nowhere.
Everyday I’m shuffling.
Sometimes I feel like God speaks to me through iTunes. I guess that sounds pretty blasphemous, but I really do. When I have a serious dilemma in which logic is ineffective or perhaps too effective, I put iTunes on shuffle and I really listen to the lyrics of the first song that comes up. Some part of me feels that, through this random selection from an admittedly limited collection of music, fate will intervene, team up with technology and give me direction, purpose or, at least, hope. So I call up my musical library, press play and blindly trust that the words of a stranger will shed some light on my situation. More often than not, I don’t like the answer.
No comments:
Post a Comment