Virtual life damage real life - Essay Example

The article argues that a research carried out in 2008 in Americans stated that 28% of Americans confirmed that they were spending less time with their families. This statistics tripled the research carried in 2003 where statistic ranged at 11 percent. This shows that family bonding is diminishing by the day simply because of the advancement of technology (Turner 27). Television sets have cut the bond that the family would have chatting together in the living room (Sorensen 1). Fast foods and home delivery has diminished family meal times and children’s homework and plays have diverted to the internet.

These aspects are greatly contributing to families living virtue lives instead of real life. To begin with, family bonding has become the thing of the past because most homes do not have time to share meals (Sorensen 1). Despite the fact that parents are busy, they have opted for the modern virtual ways of replacing their presence in homes through advanced technology. The fridge and the microwave have replaced the parents in the kitchen because they children can acquire stored food in then fridge and warm them in the microwaves.

Online food orders have also replaced family meal times because the parents order food for their children over the phone or online which is delivered for the children to eat. All this aspects leads to children having enough privacy to explore other dangerous channels hence parental presence and love is necessary for family bonding. The cell phone and online chat is occupying many commitments that the parent would have had on knowing the children’s welfare due to the availability of cell phones (Sorensen 1).

The parents use the cell phones to keep track of where the children are and how they are faring. This cell phone and internet chat replacement deprives the children the much-needed parental love, which leads children to finding replacements elsewhere (Livingstone & Bovill 4). Children are currently living in families where they do not find anybody at home to relate to when they are not in school. The idea of such absentee parents is that they will check on their children’s welfare by chatting through the internet or by communicating through the phone (Turner 360).

The parents need to understand that spending quality time with them impacts more than modern technologies could offer. Due to lack of family bonding, the children or one of the spouses opts for the internet as the only available alternative. The internet has becomes people favorite because it offers virtue live that people prefer against real life (Voogt & Gerald 357). The isolated individuals and children bond with others by chatting online, which in turn occupies their time, and keep busy. These individuals tend to sink in the virtuous world of the web because it is simpler compared to the real world.

This is so because, children pretend to be adults, and adults pretend to be children. More so, women pretend to be men and vice-versa, and people give false information about their background, religion and accomplishments. These virtues aspects are the opposite of real life where people meet and socialize physically. The fantasies of the virtuous world lead people to live a fantasy life (Turner 30). Cheating cases have been reported where both men and women are the victims.