Hiperealitas is the inability of human consciousness to distinguish reality and fantasy, especially in high-tech life. Real without reality.
Hiperealitas, almost always more fun than reality. In fact he is considered more real than reality. That's why we always see people busy with their cell phones while traveling on the train, in the waiting room, even when having dinner with a partner. They (or all of us) consider what we find on the internet, social media, messenger, it's more interesting than talking to people next door or seeing the scenery around. The more often we do it, the more bound we are with hypereality.
We can be in love with someone on Facebook that we have never met just because the photo. It could easily offend other people on Twitter, but we are polite people in everyday life. Or, easily degrading other people's beliefs on the internet, but (of course) dare not do it blatantly in the real world. So who are we really? We are in our daily life or we are on the internet?
In the swift flow of information, every individual moves freely to determine his perception. Although giving birth to new understandings and meaning, but also make the truth more difficult to obtain.
Have you ever had a friend who is so gentle and friendly everyday but his judes is not playing on social media? Or, a friend who fiercely ask for mercy on Facebook but very shy and quiet in the real world? So, what is our friend's original personality?
E-personality explains the differences in human nature in cyberspace and the real world. E-personality is very likely to lead to mental disorders caused by trauma, anger, disappointment, obsessions, overlapping confusion and pent-up. All of that is spilled on the internet, including social media, in the form of different personalities.
This personality is disconnected with the original personality and reality around. Such is the psychiatric illness of schizophrenia defined. Hypersonity and E-personality can lead us to schizophrenia if we can no longer act rationally in 'two realms' and do it continuously and lose control.
For example, feel ourselves really great and respected people because it has a lot of followers and liqueur in social media. So, wherever we go, we feel celebrities and demand respect. It may sound funny.
But I have a friend of this model. Got tens of thousands of followers on his personal Twitter account, he feels everywhere as an artist and assumes everyone knows him. Once when he was hanging out at a cafe and invited his follower to 'meet fans'. But no one came. In the timeline he went berserk. Fortunately, this friend still has control and not continuously so.
Hiperealitas not only the monopoly of internet entities, but also the mainstream media. The syndrome can even attack the media practitioner himself. When the 2014 election last, journalist friends from local newspapers in my area crowded up so Caleg DPRD city level until the House. They assume they often appear in newspapers (own), have wide relationships and are able to control the issue of news, enough to mobilize voters in the voting booth. They feel the reality in the media is the same as public reality or the real world. But no one was elected.
Hiperealitas brings us to the situation of having many friends on Facebook, but no real life friends. Often talked to someone in another country, but did not know his own neighbor. More information, but more distant from facts. The more knowledgeable, but the more emotional and impulsive. The more connected, but the less action. A day spent 2-3 hours for chatting, but chatting more with children or couples.
Take a look at our Facebook photos. So handsome, beautiful, successful and happy. Take a photo in front of a car or a tourist place abroad. Then compare it with our face in the mirror or the balance of personal savings. We can easily judge people from what he presents on the internet. From his writings we think he is clever, from his status update we think he is kind, or from his picture we assume he has a flawless physique. And we never met that person.
We easily ignore other things that live outside of hypereality. We can look so caring and empathic on social media, but at the same time can be very apathetic and permissive in the real world. Social media for our association is wider, but we are getting antisocial. We easily follow 'save this' or 'save it', but not necessarily willing to act in real. We eagerly mourn Angeline's death in social media, but not necessarily want to report to the police if we have a neighbor who daily beats her child.
Who are we really?
Hi Mikha,
This is an interesting article. You bring up a lot of questions that really make me wonder.
I try hard to be more present and aware when I'm in person with family and friends. It's not easy though.
I read somewhere the average person checks their smart phone 2,000 times per day!
I grew up in the old fashioned world before cell phones and the Internet, but I try to think back and I wonder how we all got along without these things.
I know technology has changed a lot of things for people these days, some good and some bad. The bad things are quite damaging though, like changing the way we think, greatly shortening our attention spans and creating new addictions that didn't exist 20 years ago (i.e. looking at our phones 2,000 times a day), becoming apathetic in real life and being a different persona online (as you mentioned).
It's all very interesting yet scary at the same time.
Thanks for the article.
Jess