The greatest illusion is not magic
In real life, it is tougher than tough to create a personal space for oneself. How many children are fortunate enough to have their own room? Only the rich or filthy (Because if you are a stinky beggar, people would stay away from you thus willingly hand over the power to you to have your own space or you are a corrupt businessman who gains hold of a property through means of deception or you are a squatter or criminal illicitly dwelling on a land which belongs to someone else) or both (filthy rich or like the mentioned cunning businessman who also is rich) are able to occupy a terrain with their purchasing power.
I think that humans retain animal instincts even though civilization, modernization, globalization etc play a role in the process of human evolution. Humans need to expand their territory. They need to conquer lands. They want to stroll freely around places as did ancient tribal people who led a nomadic life, trekking through forests and opening new lands.
But in modern times, the human activity is both restrained and segregated by architectural structures, with the law at work (One cannot trespass other people’s property). One must abide by the system of traffic. To go somewhere, one must only take the routes that are available. Maybe, the road to success is paved the same way, with only a few options yet increasingly getting congested. The physicality of the world has become both so rigid and divisive that even with the convenience of automobiles, one is confined to access certain places that are indicated in the map. Thus, whenever I am driving past the mountains around Genting Highlands, there is an inner desire to stop my car by the road and walk into the woods for the woods are like the Garden of Eden, loaded with forbidden fruits. I wonder there is any human in there. I wonder there is any ferocious tiger in there. It is not only my affection for nature that draws me into the wilderness but rather I am magnetized by the desire to explore somewhere out-of-bounds.
As most humans are incapable of ‘colonizing’ any geographical space within the real world, they turn to the cyber space in order to establish their imaginary territory. The cyber space is built with infinite possibilites. There is no limit at all, so to speak. One can do things that are prohibited in reality. Friendster, Windows Live Messenger or Facebook are facilitators which have formed platforms for us to create our own space. Without them, I will not be writing or rather, typing here.
The question is: Does being literate in the cyber world bring me capital in the real world? One may be the most skillful player in DOTA, knowing how to ‘farm’, i. e. accumulate wealth. Does it mean that this person is equally smart in earning money in real life? One would know the entire set of combinations/moves for a character such as ‘King’ in Tekken and he can crush a virtual opponent readily but he may be an obese boy who knows nothing about martial arts in real life.
I think that the cyber world is giving people the illusion that they are in control of their lives. Maybe, because of their failure to function as ’successful’ individuals in real life, they turn away from reality and indulge in a world of fantasy that empowers them in a way that real life never. In Facebook, one is only to look good. One is to feel proud with the number of ‘friends’ displayed on their profile. One is to have numerous testimonials, i. e. praises or compliments about a person. One is to have her or his best photos uploaded. With this SNS (Social Networking Site), everyone can be beautiful both externally and internally or internally if not externally.
Furthermore, everyone seems to have become a scholarly author. People like me here may produce a seemingly sophisticated or critical work that never may be recognized in the real world. I can be both vicacious and witty in my conversations on Windows Live Messenger but in real life, I may be a social ‘noob’.
Because people are faced with a loss of identity in the real world, people compensate such a void with the construction of ‘false identities’ in the cyber space. One deliberately creates an identity that she or he thinks would represent her/himself and also one that she or he wants people to see or know. One can practise hypocrisy in real life but it is much more likely to be exposed than in the cyber world. In the cyber world, the bona fide culture does not exist.
The cyber world is a figment that deludes people into thinking that they constantly are both expanding and maintaining their virtual ‘Lego’, through the addition of ‘friends’ on their profile, for instance. It also gives the impression that it is a space in which there is freedom of speech but those who usually would listen to you are people (pretty much like you) who are devoured by this system while the real world is still running unaffected by this cycle of messages. Because the world is subjugated by the all-too-confusing compound of ideologies and consequently, a sense of both loss and powerlessness, the only freedom left in the real world for attaining a sense of freedom is to dive into the cyber world. Despite knowing the fact that the sense of freedom or power is false, some may claim that it is better than having nothing at all. In other words, the cyber world is a portal of escapism for many.
The people really benefiting from the cyber world are those who have created Second Life, Warcraft 3, Facebook, YouTube etc. In real life, they are being paid millions. All the users are pure consumers who have been made to think that they are gaining some edge in reality, by decorating their profiles on Facebook, as if they are competing in a beauty contest, so as to gain popularity in this ‘chimera’; by familiarizing themselves with the heroes in Warcraft 3, as if assuming the life of a character, so as to be prided with their tactical skills; by publicizing their journals, as if they have become poets, so as to achieve a blogger status such as that of Jeff Ooi; by uploading personal videos to YouTube, as if theirs are quality documentaries, so as to be the spectacle of masses.
The only valuable knowledge of the cyber world is that which teaches us how to operate its logistics, transforming tasks in the cyber world to capitals in the real world. Being a good socializer in the cyber world does not equate with being a good one in real life. Being a creative designer for profiles on Facebook does not grant us a job as an interior designer in reality. And my favourite line would be: Being a good video game fighter does not make you a good fighter in reality.
