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Our Shared Reality is Fraying


Its been awhile since Facebook has been around, right… since the end of 2006 right about when the very first I-phone (smartphone) that was launched in India was the iPhone 3G in 2008.  This brought about a massive change in our generation and perception of reality. 

With smartphones social media, came all the uncompromising people with it! What this means, is that, the I-phone generation brought along with it a sweeping generation of people who got glued to using their cell-phones and laptops, living and breathing in a virtual world! 

Communication became more online and ‘text-based’ rather than spend time in face-to face interaction, because its simple; we just get more time to construct (frame) what we want to say and even get to refine it. There are times when face-to-face interaction can even be too emotional and messy and who wants to get involved in that? 


The ‘cuddle chemical’ – oxytocin and the ‘pleasure chemical’ – dopamine are a result of mainly two chemicals our brains produce, leading to social media addiction.  It has even been scientifically found out that while dopamine is stimulated by unpredictability-by reward cues, snip-bits of information; it is the very same thing that social media triggers! The urge to use social media –Tweeting for example leads to a stronger pull of dopamine in people than resisting alcohol or cigarettes! WOW!



Now both these two chemicals in our body lead to different changes in our bodies. 
  • Oxytocin leads to lowered stress levels, increased feelings of generosity, trust, love and empathy. 
  • Dopamine urges us to take action towards goals and motivation. 



Therefore there involves a lot of feelings behind the usage of social media and social networking. 

Remember movies like the Dark Knight and The Matrix which were set in worlds where people didn't even realise that they were living in a virtual space… For them of course, everything is real and tangible, right from the clothes, food people and other people. 



Have we ever stopped to think if this is true about or world or is it just not important? Today there are so many devices being used – a work computer, a personal computer, a tablet, a smartphone, a video-game console, a media player, a smart TV and a smart refrigerator. 



When you extend this outward, it has been estimated by 2020 there will be 50 billion objects connected to the Internet. That means for every person there will be 6. 6 objects connected to the Internet. This is about a world blanketed with sensors. These sensors are taking information from physical objects that are in the world and uploading it on the Internet. 

It's a world where your environment transforms as you walk through it as technology that you may not even be aware of is monitoring your every move. Fast-forward to the future and immediately the room identifies you and taps into a cloud based profile such as climate control, music and lighting. You may have had a long day at work, but the room already knows! Based on the calendar app on the phone biosensors on the screen and the biosensors that detect stress via blood pressure levels and heart rate. So it turns off the usual rock music that you listen to and switches to a more soothing classical music. Wow!           

Now the problem is not with the Internet, smartphone or any of the devices that have come along with it; but it's the psychological damage that has been caused because of it. There is the idea that we are living our lives inside of a digital simulation, a massive computer program the size of the universe. 

The simulation is an experience of an environment of an environment. Is it really possible that every day of our lives something is happening inside of a simulated reality that looks and feels totally real to us? 

This is exactly what social media, our digital environment and our smartphones do to us.  Can we actually trace the difference between the fundamental reality and the simulated one? 

Elon Musk, an entrepreneur who is trying to single handedly revolutionize transportation both on Earth and in space with Tesla and SpaceX said that, we are simulations living in a virtual realm. He said during an interview “There’s a one in billions chance we’re in base reality.”(There are multiple layers of reality, with the topmost layer corresponding to reality as it most superficially appears to us, and the bottom (i.e. base) layer corresponding with reality as it actually is.)

Musk elaborated on the idea during the interview:

The strongest argument for us being in a simulation, probably being in a simulation, is the following: 40 years ago, we had Pong, two rectangles and a dot…That is what games were. Now, 40 years later, we have photorealistic 3D simulations with millions of people playing simultaneously, and it’s getting better every year. And soon we’ll have virtual reality, augmented reality. If you assume any rate of improvement at all, the games will become indistinguishable from reality.



 Elon Musk on simulation: 'The odds we're in base reality is one in billions'



However, as great as social media may be to stay connected with friends and family and even to share information and important information about our lives, it becomes a great source of addiction that carries with an ability to make us feel incredibly lonely if we do are not online! Social Media has all the great benefits of keeping us updated with the latest news but it also makes us increasingly lazy! Social Media creates a sense of an online community for different topics where you can interact with people online (on different topics) but at the same time you may never know them and it could easily affect your reputation or children cab be victims of cyberbullying.   

In today’s times social networking is eroding our ability to live life comfortably offline. Although we are far more connected, owing to Internet based social networking devices it has made us far lonelier and distant from one another, claims social psychologist Sherry Turkle, Phd. People feel isolated from the real world and they even Facebook friend people who are not their friends, or who they don't even know! This only provides an illusion of companionship or friendship.      

Connected, but alone? (Sherry Turkle | TED2012) 



Although in the past it was sufficient to just have a website, with changing times there are now changing protocols i.e. usage of social media, smart phones, etc. We have to individually be responsible for restraining ourselves from misusing this freedom and these tools that have been devised. There can be no other escape.    






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