That little beige box

[MoeBro]

This box on my desk has captured me
has stolen my imagination, has become my drug.
This drug so innocent, so unoffensive,
so sinister
so addictive.
So harmless until that final bell rings.

This glowing cube lights my room,
behind me, the shadows transversing this cage
observing my movements,
my every stroke,
every definitive click.

As I try to break away, I longingly look back
desperate for another reply
desperate for another soul willing to receive my troubles
desperate for the anonymous company and satisfaction it provides.

Is this a waste? I can still live.
Cant I? There is more to my pitiful life than this beige rectangle
this rectangle with a single, reflective black facet.
This machine absorbs my thought.
This machine has made me barren.
I am a slave to the machine.

 

[MoeBro]

After almost 7 years glued to my PC, i still dont understand how it holds so many secrets, how it has captivated me for so long.
Why?
I come home, day after day, apparently only to sit on this machine
to wait, excited at the prospect of chatting to friends - friends i have seen or will see in the next 24 hrs, to people i may never meet, to play games.

Comments please

 

[mr_fluffy]

i understand the feeling. i know the deep down sense that somehow this isn't right. but isn't it? maybe we are some of the first generation to break through the shackles of the old-school, which defines real experience as that which is sensible only.

but, why can't vicariousness and virtuality count as experience also. maybe we will be the first to define the new paradigm. online and real will soon merge into the new reality, where never met friends, and never real experiences will play just as big a part in our lives as the friends we touch and hear day to day, and the things we physically do in everyday existence.

isn't tv the same? more and more the whole world experiences the world vicariously through reality television. is that any less a satisfying existence than going out there and doing stuff? who's to say?

personally, i detest reality tv with a vengeance, and i try to settle my internet unease by doing as much as possible to actually meet the people that i interact with on a daily basis, so that at the very least, as i chat and interact with them for the next n months, i have their image in my mind, and the real experience of interacting with them in my heart. at the very least, on the net you're interacting with real people. you hope. that's why meeting them is imperative for me, to allow me to assess wether what i experience online is the same in reality.

and yet, your piece strikes a chord, and is something that i've wondered about off and on for years. who knows? and who's to decide the validity of your existence? is your unease to do with other's perceptions of your life? or is the unease and internal questioning or your experience a more internal, existential angst search for meaning?

 

[Cosmic Mist]

*Sighs*

You hit me in the face with thoughts i have been thinking for ages Moe! It seems quite difficult to define why it is that day after day i seek to solace of interaction with people i have never met - their opinions as vital and meaningful to me as those of my "real" friends whom i see everyday in my physical reality.

I find the concept of living without the internet extremely difficult to conjure up in my mind - the prospect of living without it for an extended period of time seems extremely daunting. I know that i am not the only one out there who feels this way. You seem to echo these sentiments in your piece.

I wish i knew what it is that makes these intangible friendships so damned important - sometimes i wish i could just switch the computer off and leave the room, without that horrible thought that perhaps i am missing some sort of important social interaction.

Good stuff hon - i like your pieces. I like knowing that there are others that feel as i do.

Nice one Bruv!