Privacy and patience - the price to pay for virtual land

Digital life in the Matrix (The Matrix) or Minority Report seems too far away from the current reality of e-mail, phone, laptop, Wi-Fi and RFID. But the computing world has had such a profound effect that living without them is almost 'impossible'.

Many people feel uneasy if they don't call, text or log in to the virtual world once a day. 'Technology is becoming' compulsory 'instead of human' choice '. We are bound to the virtual world and accept it to change our way of life, 'said Larry Rosen, co-author of TechnoStress: Coping with Technology @Work @Home @Play (Technology pressure: Public impact technology in work, family and entertainment.

In 2004, the US Census Bureau estimated that 62% of people in the country own a mobile phone. Yankee Consulting believes that rate will be 82% in 2009. As of April 2006, about 73% of people over the age of 18 use the Internet, up from 66% in January 2005. According to the US Department of Commerce, e-commerce revenue reached 25.2 billion USD in the first quarter of 2006, up 25.6% over the same period last year.

The Internet also provides opportunities for millions of people to share, confide, express themselves in ways they cannot do in real life. Pew Research Group said 31% of adults in the United States used to know each other through matchmaking websites such as Match.com or Yahoo Personals and many of them have established lasting, lasting, even to marriage.

Online communities such as Second Life or The Sims Online allow people to freely create virtual profiles with names, jobs and partners that have nothing to do with real life. The EverQuest online role-playing game, Entropia Universe also gives players chance to invest in virtual economies. ' The virtual world is always beautiful and charming and it won't hurt if people don't spend 80-100 hours per week immersed in it ,' Rosen said.

Although studies are still open and no conclusions have been reached, some psychological experts warn that overexposing in the online world will diminish the ability to communicate normally, making people feel empathy. feeling isolated and especially losing patience. ' We feel impatient to wait even though it is not long. Some people are still upset when the other person talks slowly or when there is no reply message , 'Rosen said.

' Children can now talk to each other anytime, stick with their iPod and have a little bit of logging into MySpace or instant messaging service. They no longer think it is technology applications, but believe it is a climate to nurture them , 'said John Horrigan, Pew's research expert.

E-mail helps people send and receive information quickly and IM messages create real-time chats. But this is creating a 'screen-side communication' phenomenon, in which language and way of speaking are so different that many people lose their sense of humor, even make others misunderstand when communicating face-to-face. .

Further, Barry Steinhardt, the chief technology officer of the American Civil Liberties Organization, is concerned that our day, every activity, every word, every thought we make will be easily recorded and control '.

Even today, the Global Positioning System (GPS), camera, RFID frequency verification chip and e-mail censorship tool have appeared around the world. Or just type a person name into the search engine and online phone book, we can easily identify their address. Visiting that local website, we will know how much their house is worth, how much they pay .

' Society and economy are gradually virtualized and will be completely digitized. It will happen in 20 or 50 years, 'Steinhardt said.