This Virtual Life

As the media becomes ever more lifelike and sophisticated, we spend more time in front of our TVs and computer screens and less time with real people in the real world. Simultaneously, scientific innovation is offering us robots, biotechnology, artificial intelligence, virtual reality and a whole new, simulated, 'virtual' environment. In this provocative book, psychologist Andrew Evans analyses the phenomenon of new media technology and looks at crucial new evidence of how this increasingly virtual world is affecting us, our society and our children. He asks whether we are deserting essential values such as truth and reality in a society dominated by spin and escapist 'lifestyle' entertainment. Is there an 'escapist' lurking within us all that yearns to break free from the daily grind into some simulation of happiness? Are multinational companies exploiting our desire to escape by selling us packaged fantasies as a solution to living? Will the brave new world of technology lead us to creativity and happiness or to global disaster? Evans questions where this technological evolution is taking us, and whether we can afford to ignore the changes happening within our society. This Virtual Life warns that we have become so reliant on escapist fantasy that we have become blind to some of its consequences.