How far does our virtual life go?

source

Hi everyone! I was wondering who we are in all these virtual experiences we engage in. And some virtual experiences go far beyond what we would have imagined back in time. So, do we just love the virtual world or are we brainwashed? You do probably know that our brain can’t make much difference between real events and virtual ones.
I will go deeper with my topic by giving you two examples of what I mean.

First, I accidentally found that you can give birth on Second Life.

source

For those of you who don’t know, Second Life is a virtual world game where you can have your own avatar and you can teleport yourself in a lot of places, and make social connections with others. Those others are also real persons behind a virtual screen and impersonating different avatars. So, you can attend events, visit nice environments, engage in interesting conversations, in a quasi-real environment considering the high number of activities and the realistic surroundings. Anyway, it seems that you can also get married in Second Life and even give birth and this has been happening for many years. Of course, this kind of virtual experiences have been paid with thousands of dollars.

My intention is not to judge or to state what is wrong and what is good. I think the focus should be on things like: ‘Does it helps me having such virtual experiences?’ or ‘How much it affects me this virtual experience?’ Because I must say that in Second Life everything happens similarly to the real world, considering the preparation to become parents, the medical consultations, the child that has to be raised after he/ she is born. However, it seems that in Second Life you can give birth in a more spectacular place, such as the aquatic environment.

I do wonder how psychology adjusts to all these virtual events. Are these people just simply trying to experience new things or are they already losing track? Well, I think it can be both sides. It probably depends on how much you emerge in this virtual reality. And even the DSM - Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders changes its views from year to year. Besides that, there are ethical and cultural backgrounds that might shift the opinions on this topic.

Speaking of culture, another striking thing that might seem for some cultures at least as compared with others is the idea of getting married with a hologram.

source

Oh, yes…as you've heard, it does happen. For example, a Japanese man married a holographic 16-year-old girl he has been "in love with" for years and had organised a wedding in Tokyo. There is also a ‘marriage certificate’ from the part of the company that produces the hologram device which certifies the marriage between a human and a virtual character. An interesting business, isn’t it? On the other side, the computer-generated hologram lives in its spouse’s house and virtually accompanies him in his daily activities.

Given these facts, did technology evolve too much or is it just the perfect match between people's needs and virtual experiences? Well, to each his own thinking I guess...but I would say we still have to balance our real world and virtual realities to be physically and mentally healthy.

Hope you did find interesting these virtual marriages. It’s both funny and sad how some people want to have a specific experience in any possible way whereas others don’t know how to run faster from it, isn’t it? Be it a virtual marriage or other human-computer interaction, I believe the idea is to see what drives you there and if it truly makes a positive change in your life. Otherwise, the technology has evolved so much that I guess you can take a full virtual package of almost anything you want and neglecting the consequences which sometimes can be hard on yourself.

Wish you the best virtual experiences that can also help you grow in your real life ❣️

Maylena