24 March 2024
Disclaimer: This isn't a real life prediction, this is simply an idea that I may use in writing projects in the future. I've got no idea how the real world works, I just had a fun idea that I might write more about.
I don't know if this idea is already explored in any media, but what if there was a world in which technology advances so far that it becomes really cheap and accessible to everyone, and because it's accessible to everyone it becomes tacky among wealthy people. So like, everyone has some sort of brand new distracting tech device, something real overbearing. Like it goes over your face and you pretty much need it to do everything. All of your money is stored on it. All identification cards are kept on it. Any media is accessed to streaming services that can be accessed through it. QR codes are on everything, and you need the device in order to scan them. People talk over the internet because they can call each other with it, and it perfectly simulates a real life conversation. People are given them at a very young age, and if one breaks it is easily replaceable. Nobody goes on vacation anymore because there are enough digital simulations to last a lifetime (they still cost a lot of money though).
Anyways, in this world in which everyone lives inside of their own personal computers and keep pretty much everything they "own" within them it becomes extremely difficult to live without them. Any sort of physical items have stopped being manufactured quite awhile ago because most people don't see them as necesary, and there's no way to make friends outside of them because they automatically connect people with each other. Any real life connection can't match to the types of friendships this type of tech will create. In this world things like identity theft, hacking, and kidnapping happen all of the time. There aren't as many laws moderating what can happen within the internet (or whatever network comes after it) because tech companies make their own rules about what can happen inside of it. The government isn't really effective for anything in this world. It's been forgotten with the physical world. Companies control the digital world, and they do whatever makes them the most money. If someone gets hacked they could lose everything. All of their money, friends, possesions. People are kidnapped and murdered more often because of how distracted everyone is. Topics like lgbtq are censored because the companies in charge still want to recieve money from overseas investors. Speaking of overseas, people won't be able to hear about any terrible events happening in the real world because politics are censored on the network.
So now that I've painted a picture of what the poor would experience we can look at what rich people are up to. Basically using the network is so easy that it becomes a luxury to be able to own pretty much anything in the real world. Real vacations to actual destinations require a lot of money to get to. Any sort of physical money is only kept by people who have a lot of it. They can't be hacked because they don't keep anything inside of the digital world. They keep movies on DVD instead of taking a gamble with streaming services. Books are the ultimate status symbol; showing both wealth and intelligence. The only people who are really able to become rich at this point are those who are in charge of the big tech companies, or are related to those in charge. At this point there's such a big gap between the poor and the rich that they physically live in different locations. The majority of people living in large cities, and the small amount of rich people living far away from everything else in beautiful vacation spots, and large houses. People inside of the network will think that the people who have more digital money and are able to afford things like digital vacations and streaming services are the rich ones, when the actual rich people are so far away from everything that nobody even knows about them.
Anyways I was kinda just thinking earlier today and I came up with this. It'd be an interesting concept, y'know. It's probably been done before somewhere, but each person's take on an idea is different, so even if it has been done before, I'll be able to write something unique about it.