Something has been happening in the internet world over the last few years. As the internet has grown and matured it has begun to dominate information and dissemination thereof, but information isn't the end of it. Little ones and zeros can do much more than tell you what temperature it is right now in Berlin or Bonn. Interaction with other people anywhere within the internet's reach is possible. It's not a replacement for face to face human contact, but it is a very powerful thing to go from telephone conversations to a public forum available 24 hours a day 7 days a week to absolutely anyone (with a computer and a phone line). The impact on the culture of the world is immense. The speed at which fashion develops, the style of advertisements and especially the marketing opportunities available have all grown exponentially. The growth incubated by the power of the internet is unparalleled.
Is there no drawback? Is there a bad side to all this wonderfulness? Child Pornography, Identity Theft, Scams of all types, Stalking, Software Piracy (and illegitamate distributions of all types) and Tax Evasion (and I'm sure much more) were all facilitated as well when the internet was released.
However, the internet has been around long enough for social equilibrium to have reasserted itself, mostly. It is constantly fluctuating, but for the most part the ebb and flow of data has not had any majorly disruptive effects on modern culture in the last few years. (I may be very wrong about that, but until I'm corrected I'll keep thinking it.)
The issue today is how to exist in this information saturated world? With everything at your fingertips you have to learn how to use your fingers to know how to reach everything. Search engines are constantly trying to improve their ability to anticipate what you want, and simultaneously tell you what you want in the form of subtle advertising. Video games are creating worlds more and more realistic, both graphically and socially. The internet has indeed opened the doors to video games modeling social behavior within their design.
Navigating a world populated with computer controlled identities is the pre-internet soup of the day. Existing in a world populated by human controlled characters is the current craze. People may say that the internet is for porn, or for e-business or for public trade forums, but I disagree. I think the future of the internet, the area in which we will see the most money flow is the internet social video games. By this I don't mean the real-time strategy (RTS) games, or the first-person shooter (FPS) games. I mean the games in which you NEED to talk to people, make friends and develop relationships. This could be an RTS or an FPS, but most commonly they are massive multi-player online role-playing (MMORPG) games. The attraction these games carry is that you can beat up on computer controlled enemies along side another person in a virtual world. There is, in reality, nothing to lose in this virtual world aside from the real world money you spend to play. It's a no-risk social environment. Before the internet bars were almost the only place that existed that was anything like this. People want to meet people. People are scary. From grade school on we learn to fear people and the emotional abuse we suffer from them. In a world where your real identity is secure (relatively) and personal attacks are policed by game moderators (relatively) everyone can feel like they have their own private table at the back of the bar where they control who comes and goes, who they talk to and what they talk about (relatively).
Again, are there any drawbacks? The obvious one is abuse of this new system of social interaction; liars and fakes. It would be easy to pretend in a world so completely fabricated, and it is even encouraged in the medium itself, being called Role Playing implies a certian level of fantasy or make-believe. If that were all that could be wrong with this new technology bars would be in real trouble.
In my opinion the biggest drawback is that human beings are not meant to function in a risk-free world. It's not real, but it's something everyone wants. Risk is dangerous, but without it there is no reality. There are many things we do to deal with the dangers of life, or our fear of that danger. We run and hide or we stand and confront. The former is temporary. The latter is risk and when it works it's very satisfying. In the world of MMORPGs this process is recreated. With the help of real people you can face obstacles, even other players and choose to hide or to confront. In the games you will probably also have problems that seem a lot like real life problems, like who can use some vitrual item or other who will get a reward for actions performed in the virtual world. The resolution of these issues is in every way but one exactly like real life. The one way in which they are different is that the issue deals with virtual material, not real material.
Before the advent of the internet computer gamers were regarded as social deviants. They were, in fact, recessed from mainstream society into their personal virtual worlds where their lack of social understanding didn't matter. Social video games are potentially the best thing that ever happened to these computer game hermits, except for one logical fallacy. That logical fallacy is the assumption that since the game is by nature social it follows that the social needs everyone has can be satisfied by playing the game. That's just not true. We need real risk and real people. Real people being physical people, with actual faces and voices. Touch is key to normal hormone balance. If you don't believe me go a long time without touching anyone and measure your hormone levels. (Of course there are exceptions, but in most cases...) But most importantly, the rewards are recursive in these games. The process of social interaction in reality (not virtual) is highly goal oriented. We want things and we try to get them from or with others when we can't get them by ourselves. Wether the goal is understanding and compassion or a cookie doesn't matter, when we recieve it we have it and there an end. In the virtual world the rewards are virtual. When you recieve it, the moment you turn your interface off the reward ceases to exist. Rewards are important to us because we invest them with the sum of all the effort we put into getting them. This investiture is almost always emotionally significant, and the possibility of permanently losing the subject is emotionally repulsive.
Playing these games and meeting goals does build real relationships with those who help, but the whole process is tainted by the illusion of risk and with an unhealthy emotional bond to things that only exist when the game is played. The fact that it almost satisfys many of the needs we all have through it's risk-free risk and illusionary rewards makes them dangerously addictive. It's like a carrot dangling in front of a horse. It will never satisfy the horse's needs completely, but it looks like it will so the horse keeps walking toward it, never having its needs met but constantly trying.
Unlike child pornography or identity theft this problem is not illegal and is not universally applicable. Everyone is not equally prone to developing an addiction to MMORPGs, but there are many who are. There are therapists who treat only video game addicts and make a career of it. It is being increasingly recognised as a social disease. What this means is that it is up to the individual, and to some extent the individual's friends to police it.
Please, if you find yourself wanting to play online video games more than you want to interact with people in real life, or you find yourself drawn to get that next item instead of going to work or taking care of your child, PLEASE for your own good stop playing them. The internet is a powerful resource, but it is a resource not reality.
