Escaping into a digital world.

For this blog I was tasked with finding something that perpetuates or supports the idea of digital dualism. This turned out to be more difficult than I had anticipated, as it appears that more people are becoming aware of how our digital and real selves affect each other.  In fact, when I used “digital self” as a search term it brought back articles on how our digital footprint affects our lives and how we can be more careful. The more I dug around the more I noticed that the most frequent mentions of digital dualism were related digital escapism. Digital escapism is where somebody finds their real life unsatisfactory and tries to build an online persona that embodies what they wish to be. This kind of escapism is most commonly seen in Massively Multiplayer Online Roleplaying Games(MMORPG’s), from World of Warcraft to Second Life.

I chose the blog “Virtual vs. Real-Life Identities – Is it Crazy to Choose a Virtual Life?”, by Christian Shire, because of a statement he makes in the end of his writing. He states “virtual worlds will start to legitimately compete with a real world existence”. I think that exemplifies the philosophy of digital dualism better than anything I have found in any other article. In his blog, Christian talks about why people create these avatars for themselves to detach themselves from the real world and how it is harmful to them in real life. The blog also contains an embedded video on the phenomenon of game addiction. 

I have met people who become so obsessed with maintaining their character and participating in their online communities that they neglect their real lives, even to the point that they urinate in soda bottles rather than leave their computer to use the bathroom. I have had friends who would save money that could have bought a car and spent it on a rare mount, something to travel around their virtual land in. These people reinforce the ideas of digital dualism because they want those worlds to be separate in order to give their avatars more importance. Because of this, I am inclined to find the promotion of digital dualism to be kind of dangerous. When people want believe that there is a separate online world, it may be because  they think that they can hide from their problems there and become whatever they wish.

Reference:
Shire, C. (2013, December 28). Virtual vs. Real-Life Identities – Is it Crazy to Choose a Virtual Life? - TroubleBlog. Retrieved October 10, 2015.