In today's New York Times, a psychiatrist presents a case study
of his 18-year-old patient, Mark. Everything about Mark is fake: from his piercings to his purposely disheveled hair to
his expensive jeans that have been stressed in a factory to look old. Mark suffers from a cognitive dissonance that the
Dr. Ablow believes is an epidemic of the times.
It's "a kind of identity disorder [he believes] has its roots in a society that has drifted free from reality and is creating [people] who are at most participant-observers in their own lives, with little genuine emotion - like actors playing themselves."
He cites many examples of this disorder manifesting itself in daily life, including an example that merits mention here on Joystiq. He writes of "elaborate Internet-based games [in which] people pay thousands of dollars to own "real estate" that isn't real at all."
Is the drive for virtual property and virtual identities harmless escapism or do you think that maybe the good doctor is onto something here?
