Farm ville : the hyperreal world we are in..

My son (6 yrs old) troubles me with the question "is this real?" when ever he is struck by a beautiful , attractive advertisement in the television.

 He must ve started asking this question, after me reminding him at some point of time that what ever he sees in t.v is "not real". But he experience that world through the ads and cartoons and its a tough time for me explaining to him that trains cannot talk as Thomas or watches do not ve magical powers as of Ben 10 and  the stuff in ads are impossible.

May be after years i may explain to him that these are 'hyper real' and i can have a sigh of relief.

What if he asks me : "What is hyper reality?"

let me try to explain:

You are a farmer in farm ville. You enjoy the nuances the cultivation, takes all the pains of a farmer, plant, grow.. experiences the pleasure of a good harvest... wow... and u encourage others too to be a part of this ....

Are you a real Farmer? But have'nt you imagined yourself as  farmer atleast when you are exploring the world of a farmer in the farm b'4 you..

This is what you call hyper reality.

being a techsavvy you may explore a world of your own in the web and live in it... this hyper real world is very powerful that it can break or make the real families..

The Warning signals popping up near the ads that you should not imitate the stunts performed here is not that powerful to minmize the effect the ad may create upon you..

We are glued up to the t.v and internet that we live through them... off late we ve stopped 'real' socializing and is busy with social networking via internet.

What is powerful - real or hyperreal???

Let me try to translate a part of M.Mukundan's short story "Kannan's place", the first one in the collection Age of Dinosaur:

"Ve u seen the twin towers burning down?"

"watched in T.V"

replied Kannn's father. Balan felt bad again. He turned quiet. Sensing this Kannan's father explained:

"buddy, we watch everything through television, cricket match, wars and all.."

Kannan contemplated : "In my dad's land what is watched in t.v is the truth, not what you see directly..."

In this story Kannan is the only son of U.S settled parents who opted to stay back in the old fashioned , no bath attached ancestral home..

today even the interior most villages in Kerala too would be watching the cricket match and wars and terrorist attacks through television.

and  the Taj hotel attack glued the people here too to the television sets and watched all the hullaballo as if a cricket match...

Conclusion:

The Indians too or the south Indians too ve turned postmodern. We are comfortable in the hyper real world we are in...

Jai ho to Farm ville...