Liubov KHOKHLOVA

Virtuality – a new reality or a new challenge

Liubov Khokhlova

“So, today I have dancing class, meeting with friends and I’m going to ballet to the Mariinsky Theatre. Great, I have time to order little presents to my friends,” – I think so and finally wake up. Reluctantly I leave a bed and switch on the laptop.

I choose the cutest socks and arrange delivery to addresses of my friends. Most of them now live in different cities, and that’s great that you can arrange delivery to any address.

Choreographer from Novosibirsk runs the dancing class. Before the beginning Olga asks whether we can hear and see her good. Today we learn Charleston – a very popular social dance of the first quarter of the XX century. At first we learn base steps – touch, kick, cow tail, and then unite them into whole improvisation. I feel very comfortable to dance at home: nobody looks at me askance because of my mistakes and I can not to learn that dance bunch I don’t like. And I can practice in pajama!

By the way, I go to the friend’s meeting in pajama too. Because I can afford it. We with my girls will think that it’s pajama party. Kate lives in Nijniy Novgorod and we with Vera – in Ivanovo. But Vera is in hospital now and it means that we can see all three only in Zoom. We all need positive emotions at that strange time, that is why we will drink tea (Vera while can’t drink no one other drink yet and play the game “Guess the melody”. Kate prepares entertain program, and we choose the time for call that way to not cross with procedures.

At the evening a charming world of the Russian ballet is waiting for me. When I was a child I was engaged in dancing and my mom did not miss the opportunity to take me to some ballet and introduce me to the art. Today I will take her to the ballet. And it will not be just anywhere, but at the Mariinsky Theatre. The best dancers of that theatre will perform for us the Nutcracker ballet. Moreover it’s absolutely free! Great, that we can see translation from the Theatre at home.

Quarantine brings all our active life into online space. Do sports at home. Watch online. Staying apart is the best way to stay united. Keep your distance – stay together. Only together we make the difference. Safety first. Just don’t do it.

During the self-isolation we became those children who hear from parents: “Stop sitting in front of the screen, it will be better to go for a walk!” Our parents were confident that the real life is there. It is over the flats doors, in parks and in cinemas, at office or in trips. And we run outdoor to play snowball and to build castles when lessons were cancelled because of the frost. We stood in line before the cinema opened to see a new film. We considered the neighboring yard something like another country – the inviting and frightening simultaneously.

My generation grew up together with the technologies. My first pictures were black and white and were taken on Zenit. We listened to Prokofiev’s and Tchaikovsky’s music on vinyl records through a turntable at the Music lessons at primary school. I got my first mobile phone when I was at secondary school. When I went abroad for the first time I could get incoming calls only (and even with a special paid option), and posted pictures after a few days after returning...

Today I’m working in the IT-company, whose success depends from the Internet. As much better the mobile app we develop will work and as mush attractive the web-site we construct will look like as bigger income we will get. Internet gives me opportunity to earn money for bread. And for butter.

Sometime television became a new reality. The blue screen gathered the residents of the whole house around it. Then many families got the opportunity to have a TV. The ideal life on the other side of the screen attracted more and more. TV sets have appeared in kitchens, waiting rooms and even on the streets. Now we can observe similar processes with the Internet.

Children who were born in the 21st century cannot imagine their life without a Smartphone. Recently I saw this picture ... I was in a shopping center and already was on my way home with purchases when I almost ran into a child. About three years old boy spanked his parents, trying to keep up with them. In his hands he had a phone with a cartoon. And the

boy was completely immersed in watching. Without stopping. His reality is there. He was born with it and will grow in it. Good or bad - time will tell and how he will dispose of the opportunities that have fallen on him.

I cannot say who this boy will become, because by the time he graduates from school, the world may completely change. But in any case, he will exist in two worlds - real and virtual. He has a unique opportunity to use virtual reality for his own good - to learn something new, to receive information on a silver platter, to try himself in different roles. By the way, earlier this opportunity was given by in a children's camp. When you came to a camp where no one knew you, you could imagine yourself as someone you have never been. The humble quiet man became an activist, and the bully became a leader. If the test version did not justify itself, it was possible to return to the factory settings. And next time try something different. Today we can create an account on a social network and create a certain image for it. And then track how the community feels about that version of you.

You will say that there is a risk of losing yourself. But which of you can definitely say who you are? As a child you were one person, now you are another, and who will you be in 20 years? A year ago, we could go anywhere in the world, and now we are tied to one place. But we resigned ourselves to the limitations and accepted it into our reality. Maybe our wholeness is in variability? In the ability to adapt to a changing world and to accept challenges, in the ability to find good in difficulties and move forward, no matter what? Think about it.