Virtual Kids
As a kid, I still remember my mother never wanted me to visit a video game parlour. She never liked the idea of me spending hours on a virtual screen and reacting to hypothetical characters’ actions and moving with a turning car. She always believed that these Video Games are not good for our health in addition to our (me and my younger bro, Mohit) overall education. I always wondered that why she never has any problem when we play any outdoor sport or any activity with any kid of any social class. Never ever, the video games were our “good academic performance” promise. Our desperation was so high that we used to illegally (without informing Ma!) visit a video game parlour with our little savings. I was into the virtual mode with my brother being an exceptionally good player of fight games like street fighter. I always preferred to play team games with him rather being screwed in a ‘versus’ games. May be his reaction time was better than mine in the virtual world.
Mohit and I had good understanding towards this scene. Once, while playing ‘games’ we were caught red handed. One of neighbours informed my mother about it. There were no extreme reactions from her which was very unprecedented. Consequently, a big decision was taken, and soon we had our own ‘Media Attacker’ Video Game set. :)
Years later, when I have now crossed the innocent and the adolescent phase of my life, and have seen a rise in technological accessibility, I think the virtual games’ world is an inevitable reality of childhood. Kids have started thinking in the language of virtual games and have started living in virtual worlds. Web scenarios like SecondLife and games like Counter-strike have been able to magnetized young and elders also. We are now comfortably living with a co-existing virtual reality on Social Networking Sites like Facebook, Orkut, and Twitter etc.
However, a real time experience can never be replaced by any virtual substitutes. The overall experience is primarily monosensory i.e. they respond to only one sense of seeing. At maximum, di-sensory with the sound feature involved in an interaction. They do not respond to other senses like taste and smell. They do respond to touch feature but in monotonic manner, e.g. touch screen mobile phones. There is always the same sensation during this process and things are dominantly governed by visual options.
You must be wondering that why I have mentioned my childhood fantasies, my mother’s anti-video game stand and have described the technological innovations in interaction. With this, I have nothing new to say. Growing technological dependence has always been traditionalists’ and conservatives’ worry, and I am also becoming part of this notorious community.
With the new-age Virtual Games, I see a child not having a real time experience with others. This fact is valid for us (adults) also. All the emotions are governed by technology and it gives a user to adjust to an unreal comfort level. A child is always in a virtual world dealing with artificial situations or say levels of ease. Through experience of encountering different situations in a virtual reality, he develops a different perception about the outside world. Through course of this exposure, he may develop a confidence which is not relevant for the outside real environment. Till now, he has only seen limited emotions. Competition and success are such emotions which were unconsciously controlled by him. He lives in a world of Myth.
On retrospection, I find the joy of fighting with my established friends, over petty issues, priceless. There are certain things that I learnt the taste of loss and juice of winning, flavour of compromise, smell of team effort and fragrance of individual miracles can not be provided by any virtual world. To really experience, the real and natural emotions, virtual children will really require to come out of their unreal nest!
Mohit and I had good understanding towards this scene. Once, while playing ‘games’ we were caught red handed. One of neighbours informed my mother about it. There were no extreme reactions from her which was very unprecedented. Consequently, a big decision was taken, and soon we had our own ‘Media Attacker’ Video Game set. :)
Years later, when I have now crossed the innocent and the adolescent phase of my life, and have seen a rise in technological accessibility, I think the virtual games’ world is an inevitable reality of childhood. Kids have started thinking in the language of virtual games and have started living in virtual worlds. Web scenarios like SecondLife and games like Counter-strike have been able to magnetized young and elders also. We are now comfortably living with a co-existing virtual reality on Social Networking Sites like Facebook, Orkut, and Twitter etc.
However, a real time experience can never be replaced by any virtual substitutes. The overall experience is primarily monosensory i.e. they respond to only one sense of seeing. At maximum, di-sensory with the sound feature involved in an interaction. They do not respond to other senses like taste and smell. They do respond to touch feature but in monotonic manner, e.g. touch screen mobile phones. There is always the same sensation during this process and things are dominantly governed by visual options.
You must be wondering that why I have mentioned my childhood fantasies, my mother’s anti-video game stand and have described the technological innovations in interaction. With this, I have nothing new to say. Growing technological dependence has always been traditionalists’ and conservatives’ worry, and I am also becoming part of this notorious community.
With the new-age Virtual Games, I see a child not having a real time experience with others. This fact is valid for us (adults) also. All the emotions are governed by technology and it gives a user to adjust to an unreal comfort level. A child is always in a virtual world dealing with artificial situations or say levels of ease. Through experience of encountering different situations in a virtual reality, he develops a different perception about the outside world. Through course of this exposure, he may develop a confidence which is not relevant for the outside real environment. Till now, he has only seen limited emotions. Competition and success are such emotions which were unconsciously controlled by him. He lives in a world of Myth.
On retrospection, I find the joy of fighting with my established friends, over petty issues, priceless. There are certain things that I learnt the taste of loss and juice of winning, flavour of compromise, smell of team effort and fragrance of individual miracles can not be provided by any virtual world. To really experience, the real and natural emotions, virtual children will really require to come out of their unreal nest!
