Internet may create the isolated man

I attended a talk given by Cornell’s Entrepreneur of the Year, and IRL graduate, Jay Walker a few weeks ago.  One of the topics that remained with me after the talk was a social epidemic that may affect people in the future because of technological enhancements, especially in the area of the internet.  This social epidemic illustrates a world in which virtual reality technology with the use of the internet will create people who do not need to go outside their house to experience the “real world”, and thus, a whole new world of the “isolated man”.

In today’s world people can conduct daily life tasks without ever leaving their front door.  People can shop for clothes, buy groceries, talk to people, and a whole number of daily social activities all through the internet.

In the future, I can envision technology enhancements to the point that people can explore the whole world through the safe confines of one’s own home.  Through technologies in virtual realities and 3D holograms projections downloaded through the internet.

For example, a person just has to download a Louvre Museum package from the internet and through virtual reality technology, one’s own personal home can change into the Louvre Museum and anybody will be able to explore the world’s most rare exhibitions that were hitherto available half a world away.

Another example could be going to school, in which a person could take a course in an actual classroom setting through virtual technology with all the students and the teachers logged in together through the same internet platform.  This will be convenient in the sense that students and teachers will now not need to spend money and effort on traveling and go to school directly from one’s own living room.

Although these technological improvements may bring added convenience to everyday people, and perhaps help people who are paralyzed, sick in bed or or blind enjoy the benefit of seeing the world like everyone else, I can also foresee a social epidemic that could occur because of the use of virtual reality to “see the world”.

People that are naturally introverts who try to minimize social interactions with people may become more and more closed in to his or her own world.  If one can have social interactions in one’s own house, than one would not need to spend the time and energy to leave the house.  However, virtual reality can never replace actual reality.  If this type of virtual reality technology pervades society, it could create a world of lonely men and women who rely on the internet to reach out to the world, because they desire the safety and comfort of solitude.  Therefore, people will begin to interact less with other people and we may see the new world of the isolated man.

On the up side, we can always find ways to prevent this measure.  New types of therapy sessions can be created to prevent this syndrome of solitude.  The internet companies can have regulations on the amount of time a user can spend on internet virtual reality.  For example, even nowadays in China, the government has forced online gaming companies to enforce time caps on their online games to prevent players from spending more than a certain amount of time on an online game.  (http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/china/2008-11/10/content_7188303.htm)

The point I am trying to make is that future technological advancement can also create new social epidemics that do not exist now.  As technology becomes more advanced than so should social awareness programs; this will ensure that technology does not pervade the lives of people to the extent of shutting them off from the real world.