NEEERRRRDDD

What defines reality? I ask this as a member of the computer game generation. I realized with a start yesterday that walking back to my apartment with the cold wind blowing and the grass poking out the snow on the ground that it reminded me of something, same as people get memories of past winters. Except my memory of winter was from Northrend. It's a place in World of Warcraft.

As I can stand the fictional cold of my computer game (frost resist, heh), I have probably spent more time out in the cold of Northrend than the cold of Iowa. I really despaired of being "grown up" when I discovered I had no desire to play in the snow. I remember clearly not caring about the temperature as a child, just wanting to bury myself in the ice particles whenever they came down. Now I look at snow with suspicion as something that is going to clog my car and seep into my boots.

But as I have a fairly good imagination, Northrend becomes real when I visit it and spend time there, back when it was the current expansion pack. I am aware of the cold and the wind there. It becomes a memory of sorts.


But it is not a real one, is it? Technically, it isn't a memory of a real thing, but it is a memory of a time in my life, an experience, and to some extent people. Now I know that is nerdy, but what else do we base our life experiences and memories on? I have some memories back to computer games because I live for the story. I have memories back to books as well. Books could be considered a false memory. Movies too, although I think those stand out in our minds as something separate, but often something stronger than normal memory. Some people mentally live alongside celebrities and experience their lives as strongly as their own. Their memories are tied to someone else's experiences.

In the information age, I think a large portion of what we recall and connect to our own lives is going to be related to media. I remember where I was during 9/11 and I remember where I was when I first saw Napoleon Dynamite. And really I was present at neither of those events. Now that we can see everything, that is going to be grafted onto the patchwork of our memories and our lives.