The title sounds unbelievable, but it’s true. It happened in S. Korea. You can read the full article here.
“The couple fed their 3-month-old daughter once a day between marathon stretches in a local Internet cafe, where they were raising a virtual child in the fantasy role-playing game Prius Online, police told local reporters Friday… The Internet has provided such people with a paradise to escape to and simply get lost in.”
What is this world coming to? We live in a world where virtual reality is more appealing than actual reality. A world where evil and greed abound and where selflessness and generosity are scarce. A world where the vast majority pursue power and fame and next to no one notices those who serve and love in secret. We live in an upside down world where wrong is called right and we are fast losing our ability to tell the difference.
There is a deep need for people to escape their present realities because we are empty and depressed… Instead of dealing with adversity and seeking truth, we’d rather pretend it isn’t there and live in an imaginary world where we are successful and powerful. All the while the real world around us is crumbling to pieces.
Christ will one day return to set things right again. I have hope in nothing else in this life. Maranatha!
I’m not sure if the virtual world is a ‘paradise’ for people per se. I think it may be more that the ‘real’ world is such a ‘drag’ for people that the virtual world appears to be a paradise.
You know, in this world you have to worry over bothersome things like paying your mortgage on-time, taking care of the kids, and paying more taxes to bailed-out businesses – things like that.
This world can get pretty mundane, pretty quickly so I can understand the allure of the virtual world.
C
One way to see the problem is that virtual games and worlds such as the ones that the article discusses are fine-tuned and almost engineered now to deliver rewards and reinforcements with just enough frequency, increase in intensity and variability to keep people coming. In real life there is no such guarantee of a schedule of rewards – they are usually fewer, farther between, and not as consistent. Children need to learn via reward and punishment because they don’t have a developed sense of delayed gratification – they want it now – and virtual worlds provide that immediate reinforcement.
I would say that the bigger problem is the illusion you describe of power and fame, and how easily we are drawn to follow it.
John: What about the other part of the problem besides power and fame: how about darker things that people usually check/restraun themselves on like murder, malice, cruelty, and sex?
What an outlet the virtual world offers to us: the ability to ‘let go’ and do whatever we want to do without any restraints? That is the equivalent of an adult candy store.
I mean, isn’t that why some people drink? To let loose and ‘relax?’ To let go of inhibitions?
It would seem that virtual gaming is the logical extension of alcohol and drugs.
C
Shocked that something like this could happen. I echo all the previous comments but wanted to add that the problem of virtual realities may be broader than individual moral failure. A quote toward the end of the cited article, I thought, was telling:
“South Korea remains a very conservative society so people who fall outside the norm can come under severe stress and pressure.”
This suggests there are systemic issues regarding society as a whole that must be addressed as well. Implicit cues from one’s culture are extremely powerful and it’s something to be carefully navigated even in the church.
Thank you all for the great comments.
The rise in popularity of these virtual worlds is a definite sign that people are increasingly dissatisfied with this life. With the economy tanking, people are waking up from the American dream and realizing that money provided only an illusory satisfaction. It’s not that money in itself brought people any joy, but all the things that money can buy keeps us adults distracted and entertained so that we have little time to think deeply about life.
Now 43% of Americans have zero savings to speak of. The illusion of money and all of its false promises to deliver joy are no longer there.
In this hopelessness, people have 2 choices. Either they will drift toward some form of escapism. Or they will start asking serious questions about life. I am praying for the latter.
Ray:
I agree.
As Christians, we can do our part by living worthy un-compromised lives that get noticed.
Thanks for this great forum!
C
Whoa. I’m about a week late to this party, but I just wanted to say — wow. I can’t believe this actually happened.
I’ve seen video game takeover phenomenon personally, although never to such a degree, and I would suggest that part of the elusive “other half of the problem” (besides … fame and power; cultural cues; boring stuff like laundry in this life; all of which I think are valid concerns) is not that our current lives are too hard, but rather that modern technology has made life too easy.
You bring up a good point with the tanking economy, and I’m sure that it’s legitimate in the same way that troubles in centuries past might have brought out alcoholism in families — however, feats of extreme video gaming usually comes out from chronic gamers that have lived this way for many years. In this day and age we don’t have to work that hard for food and shelter, and so most of what much of the world does is work just for entertainment or leisure or status.
On a very metaphysical level, working hard to climb the corporate ladder is actually not that different from immersing yourself in an online role-playing game. In both cases, you’re pursuing status and gaining rewards of some sort (in the real world you get “real” rewards, but as John points out, the games are engineered better). In both cases, you’ll probably meet your basic biological needs (though there are oddball cases such as the one described in this article). And in both cases, your life will get consumed in a distraction.
scott, thank you for the insightful comments. you mentioned that gamers get consumed in a distraction because modern life has made life too easy. why do you think so many people crave distraction? we have more time on our hands and with that free time, is it that we need constant entertainment and stimulus and so people naturally gravitate toward online virtual worlds?
is there a fundamental difference between gaming and being too connected in social media? yesterday, a group called “Reboot” called for a national unplug day where we turn off our phones and laptops. i wonder if they are on to something. even the fact that i am writing a comment to a blog comment past midnight, am i crossing some lines and being too connected virtually?