Truth SADDER than Fiction?

During our family lunch together on Easter Sunday, my son related to me a story he had heard about a couple in South Korea who neglected their baby while playing a video game. Their neglect was to such an extent that their infant died of malnutrition. Wanting to learn more of the details of this case, I found an article on the BBC News site that was posted in early March. According to the BBC report, "The pair fed their own premature baby just once a day in between 12-hour stretches at an internet cafe." The BBC article goes on to say that an investigating officer reported that the couple "lost their will to live a normal life after losing their jobs and they indulged themselves online to escape from reality." Unbelievable? But wait, I am not done yet. The BBC also reported that the video game they were playing was all about nurturing a virtual girl called Anima. Ouch! Here was a couple raising a virtual daughter online while their living baby in the real world starved to death!

Truth stranger than fiction? Truth SADDER than fiction might be a better summation of this case! I do not know how people can get so distorted in their view of reality that the online world becomes more real than the real world! But all of us can learn something from this. Technology is great. But it is not to be used as a replacement for the real world. Yet for many (like this couple) it has become just that. Why? In the virtual online world, a person is basically in control. But not so the real world! The real world often makes demands on us that we would rather not have to face. So ... we escape to our virtual world which is much easier to deal with. So for all the good computer technology offers - there is a down side. So be careful! Do NOT allow your real world suffer because of too much time spent in your virtual world!

Thanks for stopping by . . .

pj