Realism in 21st Century

Realism in 21st Century The world, in view of the fact that it was created is changing. With the changing desires and demands of today’s standard of living, individual needs to be in sync with the demands and trends of modern day living. Not too long ago, people were seen doing stuffs that have turned out to be more of a routine in today’s humankind. Every single day a new type of technology is been introduced in today's world. So, the question arises that is theses changes necessary in today's world? If yes, does it have a good or a bad impact to the human society in today's world? We need to talk about in which approach hi-tech advancements that pace into our daily lives have altered our lifestyles in the very last few centuries. In today’s world each and every single people rely on new and advance technologies. Everyone loves new technologies and gadgets that promise innovative and better ways of living. A pace of life is frequently increasing with the increase in new technologies. Nowadays somewhat more a quarter of the earth’s population can be found in the industrialized societies. And half of the population still lives on past agriculture, but they are also relying on machines. The remaining of the world’s population, however, is no longer of either the past or the present. They live in the future, within the most important centers of cultural and technological change, in New York, California, Cambridge, London and Tokyo (Toffler, p. 38). A new part of technology is like a new relationship to an individual, it will be cool and thrilling at the first, but sooner or later it gets addictive to the people. I doubt technology’s give your word to improve the quality of life, makes our life easier and simpler, but it gets more addictive and makes one lethargic. People have turn out to be physically and psychologically dependent on many behaviors and substances for centuries. The compulsive and frequently use of these technologies have negative impact on our daily lives. The key life areas that appear to be impacted are relationships, health, employment, and financial status. In the present day people find their reality have changed because they have to get used to the new culture and behavior according to the pace of technology. Presently people like to live in this current industrialized era but some of them are overwhelmed by the change of new technologies and inventions. Changes in the life are important, but the acceleration of changes leads to the victim of overchoice and impacts on our personal and psychological, as well as sociological, consequences (Toffler, p. 2). Philip Morris now it is Altria Group, for example, when it was introduced in USA in 1954, it only sold a single major brand of cigarettes i. e. Marlboro specifically to men. By now Altria Group has introduced additional 16 new brands with so many options with respect to size and flavors (Toffler, p. 265). Not only in cigarettes there are many overchoices in food, clothing, gasoline, and many more. There is a huge diversity in education industry too, students have a huge selection on what field they want to study and nowadays students can even get their degree online. More often than not society does not leave freedom for avoidance and as a result one need to adjust and learn about the new technologies that become part of our lifestyles. These days when people are faced with having to decide one option out of many popular choices, they will start on to think about imaginary trade-offs. The people do make their best choice out of the variable products, but afterwards it affects their level of satisfaction they had from the one before. The people now can’t escape this situation of freedom because they are not committed to the choice they make. People don’t know that the current loads of choice over and over again lead to feelings of loneliness and depression. The creation of the Internet has been the main source of innovative information, connectivity, and possibilities to create new private freedom. There are presently more than a billion web pages of information on the Internet about every topic that you can think of. The Internet users around the world have been increased by 444% since the starting of the 21st century (Internet Usage Statistics). In this era, computers and Internet are an important part of everyday life. Computers are used everywhere. Today Internet and computers can exactly take us to the different worlds and different realms of reality by a thought referred to as virtual reality. Inception is the latest â€Å"virtual reality† movie of this time. In this movie Leonardo DiCaprio plays an unlawful with the technology to plan himself into the dreams and ideas of others. The characters spend an important amount of time entirely powerless with beeping tools nearby. In the meantime their minds are busy occupied navigating avatars in a virtual world of Inception. In this movie, a machine would let you to connect to a virtual atmosphere by getting into someone’s dream. Even in the movies â€Å"The Matrix† and â€Å"Avatar† was computer generated and were in the different world of imagination. In â€Å"Plowing the Dark† by Richard Powers, on one side of a story a band of researchers in Seattle working on a 3D reality on how an empty white room that can become a jungle, a painting, or a Byzantine cathedral. And the other follows an individual kidnapped and held hostage by terrorists in Lebanon in an empty white room, equipped only with his imagination and memory. In the novel, the two stories overlap, but the people in the different stories do not know one another and never communicate. But at the end, the imaginative experience of Adie and Taimur intersect, with Taimur’s control leading to an unexpected change in Adie’s life and Adie inspiring Taimur at a serious moment. In this novel, the author addresses this issue of creating an inspiring character of life in an unreal environment that becomes frightening real to us (Powers). The novel â€Å"Plowing the Dark,† alludes to several poems including â€Å"Sailing to Byzantium† by W. B. Yeats. In this poem, Yeats highlights the aspect of world he lives in, is scared of becoming older and complains about the world he lives in, so he decides to escape to the city i. e. Byzantium where the poet can achieve immortality. In all the movies (â€Å"Inception,† â€Å"The Matrix,† and â€Å"Avatar†), the novel â€Å"Plowing the Dark,† and the poem â€Å"Sailing to Byzantium† the people wants to escape the real world and wants live in their own virtual mind and places they created. Virtual reality is becoming more prominent and dangerous as the days passes. One can assume a second identity in their imaginary world through the Internet. In 2003, a game called â€Å"Second Life† appeared on the Internet, is an online virtual world mainly targeted to the children who are aged thirteen and over, and as of 2011 â€Å"Second Life† has more than 20 million egistered user accounts (Secondlife). They can get married, have children, rob banks, and shoot people all in the name of fun. Virtual reality makes it a good tool for education because it allows children to learn in a more interactive environment where they are m ore likely to retain information. But it also has some negatively psychological and social effects. These days many students are showing a decrease in usual emotion and affection due to their stable communication with lifeless cyber friends. Cyberspace can be a help out, but when used in the wrong behavior it can be very damaging to our physical and mental well-being. Virtual reality in fact minimizes the significance of our physical bodies and encourages people to misuse their time. It causes people to get lost from exact relations by focusing on the mind freezing effects of video games and online cyber world. In this generation, the Internet is so ingrained into our lives that life without the access of Internet is completely unimaginable. The use of the Internet offers a variety of benefits to every person in today’s world. Internet has a giant amount of information added on it every day and it’s developing as the most powerful source of information. Also, use of the Internet makes easier to find jobs in a minute. One can also buy and sell things on the Internet. Last, the Internet is one of the most important tools in educations seeing as it provides a massive amount of information and is the greatest source of reference for teachers and students. The Internet has influenced, and is still influencing the way culture communicates in a lot of different ways. The rise of the Internet has caused people to communicate differently in areas never dreamed of before the Internet came into existence. In the book, â€Å"The Shallows: What the Internet is Doing to Our Brains,† by Nicholas Carr argues that surfing the World Wide Web is causing the damage to your brain. This book has been expanded from the article, â€Å"Is Google Making Us Stupid,† by the same writer Nicholas Carr. In this book, Carr describes how human thought has been changed through the centuries by â€Å"tools of the mind† – from the alphabet to maps, to the printing press, the clock, and the computer (Carr). This all tools are very useful in this 21st Century in getting directions, determining time and finding information on the computer through the Internet which is very faster and saves a lot of time. This all tools are easy and convenient in today’s life, but the effect of all this tools is that it is breaking the focus and the creativity of the human brain. Carr in the article, â€Å"Is Google Making Us Stupid,† stated that one he was a scuba diver in the sea of words, but now he zips along the surface like a guy on a jet ski. This is nothing but the Internet, which, with its search engines, blogs, social network such as Twitter and Facebook, pornography and online games has chipped away the capacity for concentration and contemplation. I totally agree with Carr, that when we use the Internet, we totally enter into a different environment; we enter into the world which is not real, that leads us to quick reading and diverts our thinking and distracts our brain. Right now, you can take example of me, as I am writing this paper or whenever I find myself assigned with a research paper for class I get simply unfocused from looking up references online and manage to find myself on completely unrelated websites. The pop-ups and the advertisement usually get our mind diverted. Then after half an hour of researching I find myself on checking the emails, uploading status or new photos on Facebook or either playing games on the computer. Then I realize that I have wasted almost an hour doing nothing instead using the time sensibly. Yes, Internet is the main source of information, but is actually affecting our brains. Not only Internet, the smart phones, TVs, online video games and many other digital technologies also damage our brain. According to a survey published by Forrester Research, Americans are now spending a large amount of their time using the Internet than watching television, and the amount of time people spend on the Internet has increased 121 percent in excess of the last five years (Joshua). The amount of time spent on the Internet not only has been increased by the teenagers or adults, but also have been increased by up to six to eight hours a day among the people over 66 years. But the rapidly increase in the use of Internet has not affect a drop in television consumption for the reason that the Internet, and mostly the mobile Internet, cleanly creates additional facilities and opportunities for the nation to consume media. In today’s world, TV is still important, but the content where the people are getting from is changing. Nowadays, most of the people are getting the content from the use of the mobile Internet. Smartphone and tablets are a life changing to many users since it is so personal, in terms of how and how frequently the device is carried and how it is used to connect and to expand relationships. Smart phones went from being a luxury and became an everyday tool for students, employees and the businessmen. For a lot of us, communicating with friends and family used to mean writing letters and cards via mail and have to wait for weeks for the response. But now we communicate with each other through emails and text messages in a fraction of seconds. Now younger generations have forgotten how to write and spell a complete sentence due to rapid increase in text messaging. Teenagers are totally reliant on simple tenses and a limited use of vocabulary, and that to with the help of spell check. At the same time there is also a reduction in a personal face to face communication. Nowadays, people just text message their friends, chat online, do discussion on the blogs, and they even date online. Due to these changes; the people have mentally changed their communication skills. People don’t know that more and more use of the technologies gets addictive to them and changes the mental and physical shapes of the brain, and can lead to a decrease in the sense of self and human identity. Our neurological systems are actually being spoiled, and we are less able to process and remember information, even if we are continually reading, or surfing, online. The person who spends more of their time playing games and reading web pages are experiencing visual problems. Most people are clueless that how the cell phones affects their brain by the radiation. In J. D. Salinger's â€Å"The Catcher in the Rye†, the main character of Holden Caulfield views the humankind as a place where the most human behaviors such as love, sympathy and kindness are all been overridden by the power of money and technology. Holden Caulfield is desperately holding to the concept that necessary human kindness is far more vital to a joyful way of life than material wealth and technology. Holden in the novel feels similar to a loner or a rebel in an environment where the people are dishonest and corrupted, and he is badly looking for someone to talk to that will make him happy. In the beginning of the story, Holden says, â€Å"As a matter of fact, I'm the only dumb one in the family† (David, p. 67). In the whole story, Holden describes himself as a failure and immature, and also has been told by his parents, friends, and teachers number of times but still, Holden every time hangs to his ideals and looks his failings as almost laughable. In the story, Holden is suffering from mental and emotional problems due to his attitudes and behavior. The only thing that can â€Å"cure† Holden, as stated in the story, is to get more and more interaction with the people around him. From the novel, â€Å"The Catcher in the Rye†, possibly one can learn from the main character, â€Å"Holden Caulfield†, that in regards to corruption, wealth and the dream, foes not matter how expensive and attractive it is, but only the true pleasure and satisfaction can only be establish from within. Holden also oversimplifies the whole lot and in his view children are straightforward and innocent image of wholesome life compared to adults who are by now influenced by the accepted public way of life, which adjusts or fakes everyone’s realism. An individual in our society today feels that, they are separated from one another and has lost the interaction between people same way, as Holden in the novel, â€Å"The Catcher in the Rye†. †¢JOSHUA, BRUSTEIN. â€Å"American Internet Use Catches Up With TV Use. † (2010): Web. 2 May 2011. . †¢Ã¢â‚¬ INTERNET USAGE STATISTICS. † (2011): Web. May 2011. . †¢TOFFLER, ALVIN. Future shock. Bantam, 1984. 38. Print. †¢TOFFLER, ALVIN. Future shock. Bantam, 1984. 2. Print. †¢TOFFLER, ALVIN. Future shock. Bantam, 1984. 265. Print. †¢CARR, NICHOLAS. â€Å"Is Google Making Us Stupid? â€Å". Atlantic Magazine July/Aug 2008: Web. 2 May 2011. < http://www. theatlantic. com/magazine/archive/2008/07 /is-google-making-us-stupid/6868/>. †¢DAVID, JEROME. The Catcher in the Rye. Little, Brown and Company, 1951. 67. Print. †¢POWERS, RICHARD. Plowing the Dark. Picador USA, 2001. Print. †¢Ã¢â‚¬ Secondlife. † Web. 2 May 2011. <