The way our society spends its personal time has changed. People all around the country seem to have a new drug of choice. We have become addicted to their “online lives”. Everything from cell phones to gaming consoles to our computers and tablets, we just can’t seem to put them down.
If I had lived in my father’s generation, on my days off I might have woken up early to go fishing or hunting. In today’s world I along with a growing population fill my free time with playing everything from cards online to realistic war games such as Call of Duty. When I’m not at home and have down time the first thing I do is pick up my phone to see what’s going on in the world or play a wide variety of games, all of which are applications that work hand in hand with my social media. It’s almost impossible to walk around a public setting and not find people glued to their devices. Sometimes it even seems people are focused on these things in an effort to escape social awkwardness.
Online video gaming has even become part of the media convergence. If you wanted to, you could have watched this week’s presidential debate right from your gaming console. I would have thought you were crazy if 20 years ago you had told me that I would be able to watch movies, stream live music and news or play with people all across the world, from my Nintendo. However these have all become realities. Not only is it a seductive convenience but this gaming technology is also quite addictive.
The final step in the process is ability and overwhelming desire to broadcast all of our comings and goings and doings, to one another, no matter how mundane. A poor way of thinking or not, the reality seems that people don’t feel like things really happen if it’s not videoed and shared with the world.
We all see it and we know it’s not a healthy mindset. However no one is going to throw their phone in ocean, delete their Facebook account, or even put down the controller for a decent night’s sleep.