Summary Of The IRL Fetish By Nathan Jurgenson

The rapid expansion of technological growth is immersing our culture. The Nathan Jurgenson’s “The IRL Fetish”, argues that people have weird obsessions about the offline. Technological advances allow people to experience the online, but Jurgenson realizes that people are also fetishizing the movement against the online. People and novelists who complain the online world laments, “Writer after writer laments the loss of a sense of disconnection, of boredom (now redeemed as a respite from anxious info-cravings) …” (Jurgenson 127). People believe technological advances are changing the public’s mind that they must avoid and restrain from using the technologies because they are destroying our experience with real life. This new movement is educating

I believe people who are practicing self-control to stay “offline” to gain self-esteem are ridiculous. Like the author, I am disgusted by this obsession, and I know that offline cannot be achieved as long as we are alive. However, this real-life experience only exists because the people invent the idea offline for their pleasure. Jurgenson explains perfectly, “There was and is no offline; offline is a lusted-after fetish object that some claim the special ability to reach, and it has always been a phantom” (129). The offline is an ideal place created by people who only love social media, but feels guilty when they realize they are addicted to them. I believe people feel better about themselves when they practice restraining themselves from using their technological devices. This idealism also leads many people who fetishize the offline to become prideful, and they start thinking they are better than other people. In reality, they are the ones who are really addicted to the cyberspace, and their boastfulness tries to hide their real obsession. People will dwell in the cyberspace if they have any contact with it. People believe that the offline exists because they are obsessed and create an ideal place, but Jurgenson clearly explains that “offline” is like a Utopia which cannot be

The author knows that people will continue to fetishize over the offline. But, he is confident because the author is raising awareness to us who are fetishizing the offline. I think obsessing about the cyber world is a waste of time. Therefore, these people are searching for an ideal dream. Jurgenson believes the solution for this fetishism is to understand what "online" is. Additionally, we must understand "the real-life experience" which is a fabricated world created by people's fear of the addiction to the technologies. There is no solution to “log off” permanently. But, I think there is a way to log off permanently. I believe. If we die, the online and the offline will not exist. What would be life be like without the online and the offline world? I think life after death is joyful without the distractions of technological advances. Therefore, while we are alive in this world with advanced technologies, we should live in the offline and the online with balanced mindsets to focus on what is