New media technologies are integrated into everything we do, work, rest, play, we now connect with friends, family and colleagues through mobile phones, emails, social networking sites and much more.

As Kate Leonard-Jones addresses in her Week 5 Blog, our heavy reliance on media to help us perform everyday tasks is so ingrained into our culture that it has become a part of us and our lives. Deuze (2011) states, “media is becoming invisible, persuasive and ubiquitous that people do not even register the presence of media in their lives.” New media technologies like these are blurring the boundaries between the producer and the consumer, where the content is produced by the ‘players’ themselves.

3D virtual worlds, such as Second Life are on the forefront of this new media development. Second Life allows people to escape their conscious reality by offering them the opportunity to live through a ‘second reality’ where the user is able to produce and consume the content to fulfil their wants and needs; which may not be attained in their conscious reality. This can pose problems and addictions for people that feel inadequate or low in their conscious reality. “As technology advances and life like virtual reality technology becomes mainstream, “addiction” to alternate realities is likely to increase exponentially (Conscious Living: Living in an Alternate Reality, 2011).”

Living in media is highly ingrained into our lives that we cannot seem to cope without it. Whether it is Facebook, YouTube, Twitter or Second Life; it seems as though we need to fulfil our ‘conscious realty’ inequalities with a ‘produced reality’, a second life.

References

Conscious Living: Living in an Alternate Reality. (2011) Self Improvement Tips, Advice and Ideas. Retrieved from http://www.eruptingmind.com/escapism-conscious-living/

Deuze, M. (2011). Media Life: In Media Culture and Society. Sage publications, 33(1), 137-148.

Leonard-Jones, K. (2011, April 4). Our Media Reality [Web Blog Post]. Retrieved from http://katelj.tumblr.com/