Walter Mitty Flies Again

Life slowly gets more social as the COVID restrictions continue to ease – emphasis on slowly. It is (or was before 2020) my wont to have solstice and equinox get-togethers at my house. The timing appealed (and still does) to the atavistic side of my nature – such celebrations date back to prehistory – and it doesn’t conflict with parties held by others on Memorial Day or Labor Day or whenever. For the first time since the autumnal equinox of 2019, I hosted one this weekend. It was nice to see some of the usual suspects again, though the turnout was less than half the usual number. This mirrors the experience of a friend who hosted a party last weekend. Though some of the missing truly had other obligations, it also is hard for many of us yet to break social distancing habits even with a vaccination card in one’s wallet.
 
Perhaps we've also lost some taste for sociality. One hopes that after a year of imaginary life via surfeits of Netflix, video games, YouTube videos, and daydreams, the real thing has not grown disappointing by comparison. But maybe it has for some of us. (The original Star Trek pilot – initially rejected by execs but later re-edited and aired as “The Cage” – had a premise something like this.) In truth, the past year probably just amped up pre-existing trends. Well before COVID, people were spending ever larger quantities of time in virtual worlds. Modern tech makes it very easy to immerse oneself in them…not that any of us needs tech to inhabit imaginary worlds. A Harvard study back in 2010 found that the participants (who numbered in thousands) spent an average of 46.9% of their waking hours daydreaming. Said Dr. Matthew Killingsworth, one of the researchers: "This study shows that our mental lives are pervaded, to a remarkable degree, by the non-present."
 
This is not necessarily a bad thing. Dr. David B. Feldman noted in Psychology Today that while there is a risk (for some) that the paler realities of the real world compared to fantasy can lead to depression, daydreaming also can be beneficial. By and large, dreamers are more productive, refreshed, and creative. Albert Einstein was inspired to pursue relativity by daydreaming about walking on light waves. Writers and artists of all kinds rely heavily on their fantasies. Classic adventure/scifi writer Edgar Rice Burroughs (Tarzan, A Princess of Mars, Pellucidar, et al.) said, "Most of the stories I wrote were the stories I told myself just before I went to sleep." Gore Vidal in a 1963 article reassessing the 23 Tarzan novels picked up on this remark and asked, “How many consciously daydream, turning on a story in which the dreamer ceases to be an employee of I.B.M. and becomes a handsome demigod moving through splendid palaces, saving maidens from monsters (or monsters from maidens: this is a jaded time)?” Quite a lot, I’d venture.
 
The advantage and, at one and the same time, the disadvantage of accessing imaginary worlds through tech is that they are not products of our own imaginations – at least not primarily, though it is fair to suppose that each player puts a personal mental spin on the experience. The negative assessments of virtual lives in some corners of the press nonetheless may be excessive. Video games in particular are commonly blamed for everything from dulling minds to desensitizing gamers to violence. The evidence on this is mixed at best. Said researcher Tom A. Hummer, PhD, "Asking what are the effects of video games is like asking what are the effects of eating food... They can have benefits or detriments depending what you're looking at." They can hone coordination skills and they can be mentally refreshing. (So I’m told: I’m not a gamer.) They also can be addicting, however, and addictions seldom are a good thing. Whatever the case, solitary gaming – or even gaming with anonymous online players – isn’t much practice for re-entering social life in meatspace, as it is charmingly known.
 
There is a phenomenon on YouTube and other video platforms that strikes me as particularly telling: reaction videos. Most of us find pleasure in watching movies or shows with a companion, thereby making it a social experience. On a reaction video we anonymously watch people we don’t know watching a movie or listening to music. Some of these “content creators” have tens of thousands of followers. Via the comment sections they even offer a modicum of interaction, but this is still a far cry from real company. That such sites are so popular says something, though I’m not entirely sure what it is. The experience is fundamentally parasocial. Parasocial relationships (as between a fan and a celebrity) are imaginary – or at the very least one-sided. Leaving aside the fringe people (including stalkers) who delude themselves such relationships are real, parasociality isn’t necessarily harmful unless it crowds out real world relationships, and even then harmful only to oneself. Nor does it harm anyone else to live a virtual life to the point of, for example, eschewing actual dating in favor of LovePlus software and realdoll.com hardware, but it’s hard to count the result as a life achievement. (No wonder the US birth rate is at an all-time low.)
 
I suppose the trick is to emulate ER Burroughs, something I’ve not done as successfully as I ought: be a Prince or Princess of Mars in one’s head to one’s heart’s content, but use the imaginary experience to inform one’s real life goals and values. Reimagine a past experience but write a novel based on it that ends better than the real one. Walk on a light wave. See you on Barsoom.
 
 

Devil Doll – It's Only Make Believe