Emotional Relations to Technology
In William Gibson’s “Burning Chrome” we see familiar intersections between emotions and the matrix. I also think it’s very common for emotions to intersect with the internet today especially when it comes to social media. For me personally, specific social media sites such as Instagram and Tik Tok can trigger different emotions from me daily whether it’s happiness, sadness or frustration.
I feel that many people can relate to this also. While watching videos on Tik Tok I will usually smile and laugh; exuding happiness. However some of the recent videos that were posted in the past few days following the 9/11 reunion definitely triggered me and made me feel upset. I think Instagram can sometimes hinder feelings of jealousy especially if a famous person like Kim Kardashian shows up on your feed and you can’t help but think “I wish I had that much money” or “How do I look like that instead". Some of these emotions are very tough to deal with sometimes for certain people much like the characters in “Burning Chrome”.
So I think it’s very relatable and that everyone can agree that social media and the internet in general have the ability to influence our emotions in so many different ways every day. So it makes me appreciate the parallel in William Gibson’s “Burning Chrome” to our actual reality even more.
