Parasites; What is, like, reality, man?

In class, we've spent a lot of time discussing technology, and the ways in which it is changing, taking over, intruding, metamorpho-sizing us. The subject I want to discuss today is... a popular internet acronym, one that now seems to prevalent that I almost have to confer backronym status to it to remember what it actually stands for.

"AFK"

Technically it stands for Away From Keyboard, but AFK by itself pretty much just means away. Out. Not in the computer world, not in the internet. In reality. And that means that the "AFK"-er has become separated from the "AFK"-ee, disconnected. This raises a question for me: is there an outside, or is there just an "AFK"? And if there still is an outside, as a concept, how long will it be until "AFK" replaces it, where the reality of the internet and of technology actually supersedes the non-computer world?

I think that time is coming. Right now, I'm sitting on my bed, typing on my laptop. I can see everything in my room as I type this, but I'm interacting with none of it. Once I shift away from this keyboard, however, I feel part of the outside again. But to even call it outside supports the idea that technology is somehow the inside, the focus. The world is apocrypha, the computer is central. The change from computer to outside is very similar to another experience I frequently have, but for some reason I never connected the two until today... as a fairly introverted person, I spend a lot of time in my head, but am forced to put on airs of extroversion when other people intrude on my solitary nature (not to sound melodramatic here, I enjoy the intrusions most of the time). The shift in perception is similar. On the internet, I'm entirely in my head, in a way all internet persona's are an extension of my introverted mind. Not that I don't socialize and make use of the Internets social networking capabilities, far from it. Still, it's a very comfortable way to relax and recharge. Then something actually comes up, something intrudes, and I have to go AFK, and the world pushes in on me with things. With outside, with reality.

I wonder if anyone else feels the same way. AFK is an interruption, but it's an extremely organic one, as it serves as the transition between two mental states...

I have more, maybe. I'm not sure. For now my friend is here, and I have to work out.

AFK