Life Behind the Cam

by Steve Lazarowitz

I have strangers traipsing through my house at all hours of the day and night. People I have never seen before. People I will never see again. People I will never actually meet.

It doesn't matter that they are only here virtually. They impact my life in unforeseen ways. They are my friends, my acquaintances, my detractors. They are unique and yet all share the same strange affinity. At least part of their lives is virtual.

I don't know when it happened. I used to have real life friends and go real life places. I used to go to the movies and read books. Now I chat online, surf the web and read e-books. I receive FAR more e-mail than I do snail mail and I'm just about at the point where I'm ready to do all my banking on line, and even all my bill paying.

I feel like a character in one of my stories, trapped in a compartment, unable to leave. If I didn't have to go to work, I would probably be so wired in, I would stop going out altogether.

Actually, I am exaggerating a bit and projecting a bit. I have been to a few Broadway and off Broadway shows, a couple of movies and a few baseball games in the last couple of months. However, I currently spend more time online than I have ever spent before. Checking my e-mail has become an addiction. It's so much more immediate than snail mail. I can get a message at any time, response to it instantly, at virtually no cost to myself.

And now, finally, I have a cam. I little thing that sits on top of my monitor and lets the world see me. I don't know why I want this, as I am not much to look at, but my friends seem to like it. And I can show them parts of my life, a bit at a time.

I find myself trying to think of things to show my online friends (that will not get me arrested for indecent exposure!). I've brought my parrot out to meet them, showed them the e-books I've written, my Dream Realm Award, various paintings and prints I've collected, pretty much anything but my face.

What can't you do online now? People have cybersex online. They find life partners online. Hell, I met my real life girl friend online. You can pay bills, visit museums, read stories, even books, chat with family and friends, send and receive mail and even listen to the radio and watch streaming video. How much of my life is taken up by my online activities now? How much will be taken up in ten years?

Where will it go from here? What is next? I can already talk to people long distance, without incurring lost distance charges. Using the cam, in fact, it becomes a video phone. I remember as a child, watching the Jetsons and thinking that it would be so cool. I have it now and I was right.

Where next? Will there eventually be a peripheral device that allows you to have a more real cybersex? A sex toy that might be controlled by the other party, over the Internet? I've heard rumors of one, but have never seen it.

And what about music and movies. I can now watch movies on my computer. I have a DVD drive inside of it. I can even download movies from a number of different places. And Music. I have MP3s of most of my favorite songs, including some that I never thought I'd be able to find. There is less and less excuse to leave my computer chair.

In fact, I've recently invested in a back chair, a specialized computer chair to relieve pressure on my back while sitting for long periods of time. I have a wrist wrest and an ergonomic mouse and keyboard. Sounds like I'm laying in for a siege.

If I didn't have to eat, excrete and sleep, there are days I would never leave the computer chair. What will my life be like if this continues? How do people that telecommute to work, ever get away?

I was thinking about getting a dog, so I would have to walk it, but instead, I ended up with a virtual pet! The insanity seems to be spreading.

I no longer have to read a newspaper. Net news is far more immediate. I have magazines online as well. Where will it end?

I suppose I should be grateful, since most of my work is online. I'm an electronically published author. You can read my articles, my stories, even buy my books. Well, at least until recently. Seems I'm in the process of switching e-publishing companies as well, since the last one flaked out on me... but have no fear. This is the Internet. Changes can happen very quickly.

In fact, being a net writer, brings me much closer to my reading public. If you have ICQ and wish to chat with me, my # is 20464263. The fact that I know it by heart, while I have to think to remember my telephone number, should tell me something. I'm scared to think of what it might be.

I leave you with this final thought. With so much going on in the world today, gang wars, buildings being blown up by terrorists, racial tension, why do I even WANT to return to the outside world, when I can configure this virtually reality any way I want it? When I can block a person that annoys me from ever messaging me again? Where I can meet with long lost friends, without having to take a flight?

I'm not sure I have an answer. Until I do, I'm going to try to divide my time between worlds, so I don't end up like a character in one of my stories.

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