Comments on: Escaping the Real World

By: Ira

Ira — Tue, 11 Jan 2005 18:35:15 +0000

I think that increasingly we do not live in a very ‘real’ world and when people ‘escape’ to the country they are actually trying to find something more real than their everyday existence. What I mean by the world not being very real is that people seem to be very out of touch with some of the most important things in life: peace, happiness, justice, compassion – these are all things that are important to me but if we look around at the values being promoted by the media, they are not there.

By: Liam

Liam — Tue, 11 Jan 2005 17:53:51 +0000

I certainly can empathize with the feeling of wanting to get away. However typically when I get away, I get away from not only technology, but also other people, I guess I’m an introvert at heart. I’ve always lived in an urban environment, however there are always outlets where I can retreat, in Calgary the mountains provided that for me, and here I find that in about 20 minutes I can be alone in Mt. Royal. I usually don’t even bring my watch.

In that sense computer games have never really been an escape, they tend to be another way to connect for me, when playing video games physically with other people (on Nintendo for example) it tends to be the people I play other games (like soccer or football) with as well, it seems to be just another outlet for playful competition.

The online game I play has a smallish community (quite dysfunctional mind you) of about 2000-3000 players. It’s certainly something I enjoy, but it’s still something I retreat from.

By: Jean-Sebastien

Jean-Sebastien — Tue, 11 Jan 2005 16:10:52 +0000

I don’t play computer games, but I spend a lot of time programming… and I definitevely have the impression to escape from the ‘real-world’ when I program many hours straigh… don’t need to eat or go to the toilet anymore… don’t see the time going on anymore. On the other hand if I go in the nature… I have much more the impression to go back to the real-world, near the elements. But what’s the real-world anyway :o)?

By: sieber

sieber — Tue, 11 Jan 2005 14:49:35 +0000

I notice that many of my fellow campers still bring their cell phones so they can text message. I am never without my laptop on my vacations, even though I never end up using it. Computing and telecommunications has so seeped into our lives, I wonder whether we can separate ourselves from and really get away from the ‘real world’.