When people are feeling glum or isolated, we often find comfort in electronic activities. They're a place where you can distract yourself with something or someone else. Picture it, you're feeling particularly upset, and there seems to be no cure, except to sit in front of the T.V. and munch on your favorite snack, while getting absorbed by the make believe lives presented on screen. This is a familiar scene for many people. Ernest Cline’s “Ready Player One” is the story of Wade, a boy in his teens in a dystopian 2044, who spends most of his days on the OASIS an online virtual world, where there are no limits (literally!) It’s not only Wade who spends his time on the OASIS, but practically the entire population. When the creator of the OASIS passes away, a contest to find a virtual easter egg hidden within the game is announced. The winner of this competition will inherit his multi billion dollar savings. Wade is among one of the many people who is searching for the easter egg. Wade spends all of his time on the internet, not just trying to find the easter egg, but escaping his bleak reality. The internet has become a comfort for Wade, and many people, when the world is just too harsh, and tough to bear, and he learns that the attraction of the internet can be hard to beat although he eventually does.
Throughout the book we see how completely immersed Wade has become in the virtual world. Wade is constantly on the internet, and doesn’t partake in any other activities, including lots of activities that we would consider a part of our everyday lives. For example Wade goes to school in the OASIS, “My avatar materialized in front of my locker on the second floor of my high school... I glanced up and down the hallway. My virtual surroundings looked almost (but not quite) real. Everything in the OASIS was beautifully rendered in three dimensions.” (Pg 27) This lets the reader know how virtualized the world is, and how limited human contact is. It also suggests at what our world may become, and what it seems it's already started to become. In addition almost all exchanges with people are online, and all of Wade’s friends he only knows through the internet, and not in real life. This shows that Wade lives his life almost entirely online. This also makes us see how widespread the obsession with the online world has become. Throughout the book we see how electronic the world has become.
When Wade feels alone, and isolated from human contact, he seeks refuge in the OASIS. Wade doesn’t have any friends from real life, but only from the OASIS, including his best friend Aech. “Despite what I’d said to Aech, knowing that I was about to meet him in person after all these years made me more nervous than I already wanted to admit. (pg 320)” This shows how Wade feels alone, and spends all of his time on the internet, because he has never had any friends in his ‘real’ life. In addition the quote “Being human totally sucks most of the time. Video games are the only thing that make life bearable. (pg 10)” is an almost literal translation of the previous statement that ‘when reality is too hard to bear, people often go to the internet for comfort.’ This informs the reader that because Wade has never had the opportunity to really connect with others off the internet, or while he hasn’t been online, he feels that being human “totally sucks most of the time.” When people find that reality is too hard to bear they often try to escape reality on the internet.
Although the internet may be a temporary solution for one’s unhappiness, fake connections will never beat real ones. This is shown after Wade meets his long time virtual best friend Aech, and begins to feel the joys of a face to face relationship. “ 'Are we going to meet them now?’ I asked, doing an extremely poor job of hiding my apprehension.” This shows growth in Wade, because he realizes that going on the internet may have been a fun pass time, but actually being with others, and seeing your friends in real life is much better. The idea that real connections over weigh electronic ones become clear to Wade, after he wins the easter egg contest. After he has won he is taught a lesson by a pre programed avatar of the creator of the OASIS “ ‘I created the OASIS because I never felt at home in the real world. I didn’t know how to connect with the people there. I was afraid, for all of my life. Right up until I knew it was ending. That was when I realized, as terrifying and painful reality can be, it’s also the only place where you can find true happiness. Because reality is real. Do you understand?’ ” This shows that Wade may fully be able to have a life that isn’t filled with the superficial/ temporary happiness that is brought to him from being constantly online. It can be confusing and difficult to make, and keep relationships with people, because real people are complicated and we can't control each other. Although the real world may have ups, and downs, it also will make us feel true emotion, and that is something that is hard to really feel from electronic activities.
When people feel overwhelmed with their real lives, they can escape reality by going online, and they often do. This may be a seemingly fun remedy, but as is shown in Ernest Cline’s “Ready Player One” the happiness that is gotten from living in a virtual world ultimately doesn't measure up to the happiness that is gotten through real relationships. Talking to people, and forming bonds that exist in the real world, are better than letting the internet become our real world. The society we live in today is so electronically oriented, and it seems that we are going in the direction of a world where our online connections outweigh our real ones. Earnest Cline's "Ready Player One" reminds us, that although reality can be rough, it's real, and it's the only place where we will find true happiness. The next time it may seem easier to escape to the internet instead of being in reality, ask yourself if you're just trying to avoid living in the real world around you.
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