10 Reasons to Stop Apologizing for Your Online Life
General Discussion
These are good reasons.When speaking on virtual reality a few years ago, I made a point of stating that it's all reality. Virtuality doesn't mean something is not 'real', though it influences the aesthetics of that particular interface, object, or system.Theorists like Baudrillard and Eco write of 'hyperreality' voicing a postmodern uncertainty about it ... there are always certain trends, like the trend towards idealizing the unplugged past and bemoaning the present, that recur apart from their merits. It isn't that it's wrong to mistrust something, anything, that becomes a big part of our lives, as we should live examined lives in which we reflect on our choices and come to understand ourselves and our world. That responsibility is ours, though, and we are free to make choices.For most, finding oneself is a lifetime's journey. Most people will experiment with many things. Some consequences are moderated when experiments with one's identity occur online, and an argument can be made that we are the better for that. Of course, anything can go wrong and any life can become imbalanced. This can happen no matter what our propensities, whether we have any virtual components to our existences or not.Which is to say that feeling guilty or not feeling guilty without thinking much about either is both normal and probably a waste unless it is accompanied by a willingness to live an examined life, to think and reflect, to choose and to own our choices.I hope that all of you will embrace whatever it is that you love and be whomever it is that you are. Be your best self if you can be, wherever you find yourself.~EL
