An escape from reality?

Have you ever considered the multiplicity of space that media creates? I hadn't until this week's Media lecture, but think about this; you're currently on the internet, you're reading this blog, possibly chatting to someone, playing online poker, checking out the latest headlines, whatever it is, you're in a number of virtual spaces at once, as well as still being in the physical world.

These spaces overlap and intertwine constantly, yet is there always a clear separation between these two (or more) worlds?

Media allows us to multiply the spaces that we take up. And not only that, but we can create new selves, multiplying our identities. The internet in particular gives this gateway of escape to many of us, in which we can be multiple identities in multiple locations at once.

Consider sites such as Second Life where you can create an avatar for yourself and "socialise" with others in this virtual world. Yes, it becomes a tad creepy, I agree, when people become totally consumed in this world... Some even to the point where they've opened up a rehab centre for World of Warcraft addicts to "beat pathological computer obsessions." (More here if you like)

It seems like an extreme stretch, but if you consider these people in the real world, I mean, to you or me it may seem strange, but I mean, perhaps they don't find their lives "fulfilling" enough, and see this as an escape from a mundane reality into a more exciting, self-created world in which confidence comes from the keyboard and mouse.

Though, I think it's scary that people have come to this overdriven obsession. Perhaps these sites are allowing us to become less involved with reality, and in a way they have created the issue, as without this option of a virtual escape, perhaps they would be out there in the real world, and through this forced social atmosphere they would not have become overwhelmingly consumed in another world.

This also brings us to Facebook, MSN and such... These are "social networks," yet ironically, how social are we actually being by sitting in front of a computer?