#onlinesupportgroups

[memorialmerits]

Pet Grief Support Groups: Finding Comfort After Losing a Pet

Losing a beloved pet can be one of the most

[memorialmerits]

Pet Grief Support Groups: Finding Comfort After Losing a Pet

Losing a beloved pet can be one of the most

[memorialmerits]

Pet Grief Support Groups: Finding Comfort After Losing a Pet

Losing a beloved pet can be one of the most

[lisa42k]

On the Line

Source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QnUztQc3TTA

There were television shows and movies that showed what the future could be like with the increasing advancement of technology. I admit, I believed that we would be hovercrafting to work in the future, dress ourselves using funky gadgets, own robot butlers and maids to cook and clean... Life would be easy and human beings would have control over all of it! I wasn’t the only one who thought that this would happen. 20 years seemed so long and within those 20 years, there was a belief that we would have the technology to do anything we wanted to do. There was no limitation to the creative juices that flowed in each and every one of us. The possibilities were endless and we could create a utopia, or an ideal world where boundaries no longer existed. 

The perfect world. The perfect life. 

We created something that was close to doing just that. The Internet. A way to connect to billions of people where anything was possible. I remember those days when computers and the Internet were not a part of my life. I didn’t own a computer until around 2004 and I was content enough to play made-up games with my brother and watch Wheel of Fortune on the TV. The world seemed so small to me, like I was living in a bubble that I couldn’t escape. If I wanted to immerse myself in something different it would have been through books, movies, and my favourite Teletoon TV shows. If I didn’t know something, I would have had to ask someone rather than use a search engine. Now that I think about, I don’t know how I lived without the Internet! It seems like such a distant past but when I really think about it, it wasn’t that long ago. 

Rather than living in a virtual dream, we are merging virtual reality with real life experiences. Video chat applications like Google Hangout and Skype is a combination of the virtual and the real, social media happens in real-time, touch-screen maps are easily available for when you need it. This is something that Professor Beth Coleman would call, “X-Reality” where things can happen at the same time in the same place in reality and virtually. Many things that you need are located in real places and virtual places. Instead of separating virtual reality and reality, they co-exist together. The binary between online and offline is not as clear cut as it used to be.

In the online world, you can be whoever you want to be. You can create an entirely new identity and do anything you want. There are many outlets where you can interact with other people, either through online gaming communities, blogging, online support groups, etc... There are thousands of possibilities and the sky’s the limit. Sometimes, the anonymity can be good for those who might seek comfort in another person but would prefer the privacy of their own identity. Of course, there are negatives to online identities as well such as the fact that there may be people with nefarious plans who may seek to harm others by using anonymous identities to their advantage. But that is a risk that people have to take if they want to keep using this technology. It is within this magical sphere of being online that opens up bridges for people to connect in real-time virtually. I find myself creating more and more online profiles for websites and programs that I don’t even use sometimes. I use my real name and enter real information and I think that it is the norm for people due to websites like Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram where the more real you portray yourself, the safer you would seem to another person. I don’t consider myself a dangerous person but someone who read my online profile and has never met me before would not know that. What I can do is try to make my profile in a way that expresses my identity in an honest manner so that I don’t seem hostile or fake. I use real photos of myself and share my contact information as well. Your identity online does not define you as a person but it is indeed a stepping stone to finding out who you are.