Once upon a time, boys and young men (for it was predominantly those groups) were criticised for spending too much time on computers and playing games. One of the main criticisms was that it was deemed as “anti-social”, the other was that they should be running around outside playing with their friends.
Today, we spend a huge amount of time interacting with computers, iPads and smartphones. The big difference is that much of this time is involved in virtually interacting with friends, families and colleagues. Computers have come out of the closet and have gone social.
Computers have come out of the closet and have gone social.
Social media is overtly social: Facebook allows you to keep up to date with friends and loved ones all over the world; LinkedIn allows you to keep up to date professionally with people that you know well and those that you might want to know well in the future; Twitter allows you to share ideas quickly to a wider audience.
The most popular computer games today are also social. At home, Nintendo’s Wii has managed to encourage all generations to play computer games together. Massively Multiplayer games such as EVE Online and Lord of the Rings Online compete with FarmVille and Words with Friends to keep people playing together, virtually.
So if people are now comfortable about making and maintaining friendships online, through virtual contact, what implications does this have for the future?
What implications does this have for the future?
HistoryFuture is going to look at how our increasing comfort with living in a virtual world is going to change how we work, how we live and how this will impact the material world.