Do we have split personas'?

Do we live in a world, which is real or virtual? Why do we have two distinct personas’?

The world has increasingly become technology oriented. We need to log in check our accounts, mails, the news, the temperature, the financial markets, even to the extent a missed call from the maid which indicates another day of slogging in the kitchen in the heat (no replacement for the Indian bai, till now). The Japanese have been working on this secret project (imagine the billions) but this maid is generic to India only, no replacement.

The world has become dependent on this techno world for information and processing .We actually do everything, just about everything on the phone except for our basic ablutions. Love, sex drama they are just all available now downloaded for free or at any price.

According to philosophers, all human stems from perception rather than reason. Our brain uses this input, to interpret the world around us and create the experience of what we call a reality. But is what we perceive a reality? Or does the fact that the data passes through our mind and then we interpret.

So what happens when the virtual world takes over our daily lives, the networking connections? Face book has 500 million active users and growing, Twitter generates 140 character tweets all the time, trending, not trending, followers, the numbers; reducing all of us to tweeting like little birds. Have we all been blessed with the power of language, the language of the Gods and now chirping away like birds, avian-like .

The virtual world is a safe haven of imagination and creation away from real life world problems. As one user puts it, it’s a dopamine effect. We have become addicted to checking in, posting statuses,uploading the perfect photos, becoming photo snobs. Where has all the dirt, filth, grime, un-perfect pictures gone? Why do we run away from reality in a safe cozy environment so that we are temporarily shielded from excesses? Why do we have split personalities? A Dr Jekyll / Mr Hyde kind of split where on line we are on our best behavior , courteous, always saying and sounding right ; while in real life our beliefs are all opposite. Going by the support on feticide, environment issues online ( for example) we should have effectively solved these basic yet alarming issues. So are we all a generation of all talk but no action?

Yes , use the technology ( I do , too otherwise how would I bring this topic across) for its benefit but don’t cross the line . When was the last time you picked up a phone to say hello to a loved one rather than posting a one liner on the wall ? Coming to this wall , if it was  so easy to scale and bring down the walls which exist  between countries and borders causing war , strife mayhem ,technology would have served its purpose.

Ravneet Sangha.