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How Does Virtual Realms Affect Society

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How Does Virtual Realms Affect Society
Virtual Realms: The Effects on Individuals and Society Social Media, currently the most dependent and addicting entity the world has ever known. Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Myspace, Snap Chat, etc. the list goes on and on, everyone is on it nonstop for twenty hours a day, seven days a week, and three hundred and sixty five days a year, no matter the time, place, or day. Social Media also happens to be equivalent to the OASIS, the monopolistic online virtual world that plays a major role in the fictional novel “Ready Player One.” Ready Player One was written by American novelist Ernest Cline and published in August of 2011. This novel ended up winning both the Alex Award and the Prometheus Award in the year 2012. Ready Player One is …show more content…
Although this addiction doesn’t put someone’s life in jeopardy, it is one of the worst and also pretty insurmountable. In the beginning of Ernest Cline’s novel “Ready Player One”, the main character Wade Watts is explaining the virtual world of OASIS to the readers of this novel. Watts claims that his “generation has never known a world without OASIS” (34). In other words, Watts asserts that OASIS has played an integral role not only in his life but also the lives of his peers. This proves how Wade’s generation is completely addicted to the OASIS and they can’t live one second without it. The same can be said of the current generation in the real world where social media is somehow a necessity to survive. The current generation logs on to Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, Myspace, etc. to see what their friends and family are doing during the course of the day. People waste so much time stalking their peers that they forget to make advancements in their own lives. Furthermore, People can achieve so many things during the time they are squandering using social media which gets them nowhere in life. Now that’s a guarantee! Social media is so dependable and addicting that it is negatively affecting individuals both in the real world and in the

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