What is the most commonly used oxymoron in popular lingo? Try to think, the answer after all may not be that difficult to find. And if you are still carrying on with the guessing game, here it is- Virtual Reality. Yes, virtual reality is most frequently used oxymoron these days in the fast paced technology driven world. Oxymoron because virtual can’t be real and real can’t be virtual. But people actually think it is. This incidentally is the greatest paradox of our times. We live in technopolies where techno-babble is the language of communication and society consists of technophiles.
Our modern society has made extraordinary progress in almost every field. Be it transportation, communication, agriculture, medicine, energy or anything else. Yet, this technological progress has done precious little to solve the social problems which today seem to be more prevalent than ever before. There is more fear, there is more insecurity, and there is more dissatisfaction. This is the paradox of our times. Here are some examples.
Modern technology has given hundreds of machines, gadgets and equipments that supposedly make our jobs easier. Automobiles, telephones, supersonic jets, cell phones, computers and what not. The irony is that despite these time saving devices most people complain of paucity of time. What has happened? We talk of leisure and yet complain of having no time.
Consider another example. We are living in extraordinary affluence. Gross Domestic Product figures of countries are rising to astronomical levels. Number of individual billionaires is rising. Net worth of people in high income bracket is growing. People are consuming more and lifestyles reek of wasteful consumption and extravagant living. And ironically in spite of economic abundance people are not very happy about it. Where lies the problem? The mindset. Aspiration levels are soaring, desires are growing, and need is being replaced by greed, thanks to the influence of advertisements. Moreover, despite claims to a better life style, more people are suffering from diseases which in medical parlance are called life style diseases.
People proudly boast availability of choices yet the range of choices has increased the problems rather than solving them. There is more intrapersonal conflict; there is more interpersonal conflict and incidence of depressive disorders has increased dramatically. And this can be attributed to choice overload, a kind of information overload. Many more such examples can be cited to suggest that the so called progress of technology has not led to progress of humanity. Not that we need to go back to the stone age. But we certainly need to reevaluate our technological progress in light of ground realities. Life expectancy may have increased but onset of old age diseases is catching early and younger people are today suffering from diseases of the old.
We need to live into the real world rather than the virtual one. There is an interesting story. As students of abnormal psychology, we were once taken to a lunatic asylum for a visit. In the ward, one of inmates was behaving strangely. He would be spot running on his bed for two to three minutes and then suddenly stop and raise both his hands in ecstasy. Out of curiosity, I asked the doctor to explain this. The doctor said that the inmate was imagining that he was running the Olympic race and the raising of hands in ecstasy signalled victory. This was sometime in the 70s. More than three decades later, I noticed a child of around seven or eight years, playing car race on computer. After a few minutes, I would find him raising his hands each time he would succeed in winning the race. Needless to say his behavior reminded me of the person in the asylum. Virtual reality is catching up, rather dangerously.
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