Words are powerful. Community is one of them. What does this word bring to your mind? As you read it here on the Hive blockchain, with virtual communities a key part of its day-to-day activities?
Source: Creator Willi-van-de-Winkel on Pixabay
Virtual. Reality. The interplay with all 3 words in the title of this post is an intentional part of the subject of it.
Given their vital importance in human relations, communities have been around since the beginning of time. In comparison to them in real life, how should we view virtual communities? How truly "real" are they?
This is not a trivial question. And with the relentless and accelerating advance of AI and robotics, what is the future of some sort of virtual reality being marketed as community? Not if, but when that day arrives in the not too distant future, with what will we profess to be communing?
What is behind my asking these questions? It is the beginning of my following through on a conversationWhat Even is Neurotypical?." with @minismallholding, after my first reading of one of her posts - "
- Brings to mind a quote from the famous Western, "Lonesome Dove," near the very end - “I guess this’ll teach me to be careful about what I promise in the future.” If you have never seen it, many would consider it one of, if not the greatest, movies of its genre, of all time. You would have to watch it to fully understand the power of this quote.
With that, here we go into a topic for which books have been written. Let alone posts on the Hive blockchain. My small contribution will be to just touch on some key concepts and ask a few questions. 🤔😉
Viable replacement? Substitute? Or competition?
When I was first became aware of the Hive blockchain and looked into it, I saw some reference to something like people come for the money, but stay for the community.
Source: Creator RoadLight on Pixabay
In her response to my comment on her post, she mentioned the historic role women played in building and maintaining communities. What are these women portrayed as doing? More than likely, today's virtual version of what they used to do out in the real world.
How is that working out?
Knowing there is a thriving gardening community here on the Hive blockchain, I will propose at least part of an answer to the question. That is to point out the time immemorial war with weeds. Which are relentlessly advancing on our precious plants and choking them out.
They are competing for the same soil. In which the nutrients are fixed and finite, i.e. there will be winners and losers. And, sadly, weeds are remarkably adept at winning the war, without our constant intervention. What on earth does that have to do with the topic of this post?
Substitute the word time for soil.
Time. Our universal fixed constant!
While I have seen a considerable amount of conversation on Hive about the disparity in stake, etc., I haven't seen hardly anything written about the fact we all have the same amount of time!
Precisely 24 / 7 / 365.
Source: Creator TheDigitalArtist on Pixabay
What are we doing with it, knowing that it is not coming back? Subconsciously avoiding thinking about it at all? Consciously assuming somehow it will all work out for the best, in spite of any evidence to the contrary? Adopting a fatalistic "resistance is futile" stance?
Source: Creator darksouls1 on Pixabay
Whatever our answer, time is continuously slipping through the hourglass of our lives. There are no do-overs. There is no pause button. We can only go forward.
Openly stating the obvious, every minute I spend in front of my computer screen, typing away on my keyboard, is one less minute I have away from it, interacting with people in the real world.
Does the opportunity to interact with people all over the world have value? At least at first glance?
Yes.
Do these interactions have all the richness and diversity available to us when interacting with people in the real world?
No.
What are your thoughts? How do you feel about this topic?
Evolving? Or devolving?
If conscious thought is given to any of this at all, how many times do we hear some version of writing it off as just part of the natural process of evolution?
For those who believe in evolution, is there ever any thought given to the possibility of devolution?
- If in doubt, yes, this is a word. Referring to evolutionary degeneration. Stated simply, it would imply going backward, rather than moving forward.
Source: Creator geralt on Pixabay
As we sit in front of our computer screen, typing away on our keyboards, what percentage of the marvel and wonder of the human body's intricate design is being put to use? And the rest of it? Idling, at a minimum? Atrophying anyone?
If anywhere close to the latter, are we getting stronger? Or weaker?
Beyond these questions, I won't belabor this point, other than to simply plant the seed for the possibility of future conversations around it.
As I am just starting out on entering into the Hive portal and writing content for it, I can already guess how a post like this will be received. Assuming it is read, in the first place, which I knew starting out is pretty unlikely.
Source: Based on image of creator MissKarin on Pixabay
That is truly okay. I do believe in honoring commitments. And I have done that, as soon as I click on the "Publish" button. Beyond that, I will be happy to engage with others on this topic. If anyone finds it of interest.
Finishing this response to my conversationpost, I will ask two final questions: with @minismallholding, around the subject of her
In our "heart of hearts," would we agree that a growing number of us have a sense of something being wrong with the general direction of our lives? If even a hint of answering "yes," would that sense have anything to do with our overall health - physically, mentally, spiritually?
What? Surely not. Right?
- Maybe oversimplified, but a part of addressing what @minismallholding discusses in her post is our shrinking attention span. Particularly with our younger generations.
- In America, it is reported an incredible 77% of their young people cannot pass the basic physical requirements for enlisting in their military services.
Without our health, we are in trouble. For me and those near and dear, I do not want to ignore these questions. And, yes, I do struggle with answering them myself.
My experience in life is that it is far too easy to just give a nod to the easy off-ramp, go with the flow comments of others and call it good. Consider this post as a small contribution toward encouraging at least a little bit of critical thinking about the post's title, before lightly dismissing it.
If nothing else, perhaps it will lead to a focus on more balance in our lives. Now, I am going outside, into the sunlight, and taking a walk!
Best wishes, until we meet again,
QT
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Why am I only now suddenly realising that Virtual Reality is an oxymoron? 🤦♀️
I'm currently watching an anime series with my daughter called Shangri-La Fromtier which is based on a near future where many immerse themselves in online games via VR headsets. (I think there are a fair few movies that have this story line as well.) While the main story is the game play there is a parallel one running where a girl he goes to school with and barely notices has taken a shine to him and is trying to approach him in the game because she's too scared to in the real world. This virtual reality seems to be coming along at a much faster pace than I ever expected. My daughter recently got herself a VR headset and got me to try it. It's pretty amazing and I could never have imagined it becoming reality when I was a kid. It gave me motion sickness, though, so I won't be rushing to go back on it.
And those minutes go by very fast when we're engrossed in a screen. Just today I had a quick check of my Instagram and the next thing I knew an hour had gone by! If you've ever read the story of The Grey Gentlemen (AKA Momo) you'll know what I mean if I say that it feels like the Grey Gentlemen have paid a visit every time you look at a screen.
It has been suggested that we are losing the ability to read facial expressions and body language the more we interact socially online over in the meatspace (as @ryivhnn so eloquently put it). We certainly didn't evolve to not need physical interaction with other people and I see us fracturing more and more with each generation as a species.
I'm an introvert, but I grew up in a world without internet, when mobile phones were only just being invented. Therefore I had to learn to interact with people and deal with unfamiliar situations via communicating directly. My daughter is also an introvert, but with so much now automated, online and communication easily done with texts, she has been able to avoid a lot of face to face interactions and struggled much more than me to learn to interact with others.
I'm going to sign off here as it's past my bed time. No sunlight to head out into until tomorrow now, sadly.
@tipu curate 8
Very good, @minismallholding.
In the first sentence of your response, you have discerned what I would consider the heart of the challenge, for ours or any conversation surrounding the word community. And why I titled my post with the key words intended to stimulate a bit more critical thinking about it.
Your example from your family, with your daughter, is very sobering to me. Where the struggle comes, at least in part, is through the initial enticement of whatever it is with which we are being tempted. It is always appears attractive, at least at first. Part of that appeal, in my view, is we are only given part of the story. By design? Well, there is another topic which endlessly has been and will be written about.
Yes, we had to learn. Our younger generations are also learning. They are just not the same lessons. Any honest and open examination of how that is going should lead to some challenging questions, at a minimum.
Some of which can be found, as at least implied, if not directly stated, in this post.
In my "All or Nothing!?" post, which preceded this one, by design, it was intentionally focused specifically on how our political conversations have trended over recent years. I do not personally believe that mindset is in any way restricted, however, to just that topic.
It has seemingly bled over into our conversations about almost everything. Can we say there is a refining process involved with true freedom of expression? One in which various points of view are presented, when backed with genuine sincerity and good intentions, that lead to better outcomes?
I believe that to be so. And this post has been written, with that in mind.
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