Who Cares About The Real World As Long As There's A Virtual World?

NewsAlert directed me to this article about people who detach from the real world as they get more and more involved in the virtual worlds of cell phones, text messaging, and even Second Life. I probably wouldn't have read much had not NewsAlert quoted one interesting point, and added good commentary.

From the article:

What, after all, is a 15-year-old supposed to do in what John Muir called "the grandest of all special temples of nature" without cell phone service?

"I'd rather be at the mall because you can enjoy yourself walking around looking at stuff as opposed to the woods," Nguyen said from the comfort of the Westfield San Francisco Centre mall.

In Yosemite and other parks, he said, furrowing his brow to emphasize the absurdly lopsided comparison, "the only thing you look at is the trees, grass and sky."

And NewsAlert's commentary:

No word yet from Al Gore on this one.

What are the lyrics to that John Mayer song?
"Some day my generation's
gonna rule the population
so we keep on waiting
waiting for the world to change."

I hear there's no global warming in The Sims or in Second Life :-)