The first time I downloaded this app was two years
ago, and I was quickly addicted. In fact I became so addicted that I forced
myself to delete the app- although I loved being a professional dragon raiser, I
realized an addiction to raising dragons is not an attractive quality.
However, I only ended up deleting the app for about
a year before my brother reminded me of its existence. Low and behold, Dragon
Story ended up on the front page of my iPhone again this past Fall. Months
later I’m still ‘wasting’ (this seems more like a waste of time to other people
than to me) hours of my day feeding my dragons and breeding them to create new
and rarer types.
Through the ups and downs of my sophomore and senior
years, Dragon Story has been a constant for me (not including the dark days
after deleting the app from my phone). When going through social drama, I would
repeat the mantra “at least I have my dragons” in my head. If I received a bad
grade in a class I would convince myself that somehow I would grow up to be a
professional dragon raiser. Although they’re only a mere gathering of pixels, I
love hanging out with my dragons which only exist in a world where I alone can
interact with them.
Online worlds and games are our release and escape
from reality. Whether things are going well or poorly in life, we artificially share
information online more than we talk with other humans face to face. The best
times we have with our friends, when we receive good news, and funny family
incidents always end up online in the form of pictures and statuses. It’s
almost as if we need to prove to each other that we’re off doing something that doesn't revolve around being on social networking sites. Of course, the most
popular way of proving this is to put it online for everyone to see.
Even the bad times end up online. Fights between
buddies and family drama come out in the form of tweets more than anything. Why
do we do this? Why do we share some of our most private and intimate moments
for not only our friends but for the whole world to see? Often it seems we seek
the pity and helping hands of those friends who want to pick us up when we’re
down. We like to send out something that shows we’re sad in order to see who
will respond with help, to see who really loves and cares about us. Does that
make sense? To show that we really love each other through a computer screen?
Probably not. However this is the world we live in, and if that’s your
preference then that’s your own choice.
As college comes up, I’m making a January 22nd
resolution to start spending more real time with my friends before we scatter ourselves
all around the globe. If a result of this is less time with my dragons (who I
do consider friends of mine) then so be it.
