their subconscious minds (in adaptation to the digital world).
Dreams are defined by recollections of the day, concerns of the upcoming future, or personal interests and desires. These ingredients are not necessary but are common among people. What is curious is that in the gradually more digital world that we live on today, only a handful of brains claim to have had dreams with the Internet. So, have you ever had a dream about the Internet?
“No, not that I can remember,
I’m so sorry”.
For some, the dream world is just a world of emptiness. Darkness and lost memories. Some people don’t remember their dreams, therefore, don’t know if the Internet has been part of them. It is probable that it has, but will always remain a mystery. In the Western culture, dreams do not play such a significant role in life and that is something to take into consideration when taking our thoughts deep into what lies amid the leashes of the subconscious.
“No, I don’t remember dreaming with the Internet… In my dreams I am mostly in contact with nature or outdoors.”
Dreams may also take people to desired places. If people don’t give importance to the Internet, or don’t perceive it to be a location where things can happen, the opportunity of it being involved in our dreams is less plausible. When there is no awareness, probabilities decrease. When I started asking people about dreams and the Internet, days later, people called me to let me know they had just had a dream about it. They became aware of the possibility.
“NO!!! That’s so creepy.”
That is why, for some people the idea of dreaming with a place that is unknown and not easy to picture because of its lack of physical properties may seem creepy. People may limit themselves to avoid thinking of possibilities that they had never thought about before. They block their senses filtering what they believe to be not ordinary, leaving the “weird” deep into their subconscious, in this case, the Internet. It works in a if-other-people-do-it-it’s-ok fashion, if not so, it’s creepy.
“…from a username called Sponge factory, and
Sponge Factory was asking me whether I
wanted to work for them or not
… and I agreed.“
On the other hand, people who embrace technologies and are open to accept the surreal and the coincidental are likely to tolerate the idea of having the web offer solutions to some of their daily concerns. Heavy users of social networks, such as Facebook, may dream that (in this case) a Sponge Factory that is interested in hiring them for their summer job, contacts them. When daily concerns are buried in the subconscious, they may pop out in dreams. Julia desperately needed a job for the summer. She got it via Facebook chat!
“I connected to the library of one of my favorite artists…
Sujfan Stevens
”
When there is an extreme interest in a particular topic, dreams may serve as a corridor to fulfilling fantasies. Kate is a fan of singer-songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, Sufjan Stevens. With the help of a local network connection and the possibility of sharing iTunes libraries, a link is created between the dreamer and the musician, offering an experience that represents the importance of the Internet nowadays. “I connected to his library…and I listened to songs that hadn’t been released.”
“I just got random stuff,
to clothes.”
Recently, Joaquin has been eagerly looking for computer parts in different websites to order stuff online for the new computer he is building. Real life context helps explain why the Internet infiltrates into dreams. Yes, dreams are known to be random, but there is a reason for the subconscious to offer specific thoughts to the dreamer. Dreams abolish natural sensory and physical limitations taking us to places and making us imagine things.
“Well, I fell asleep while
playing online poker in my computer… And that’s what my dream was about…
and…I continued playing.”
Ian’s dream was directly related to what was happening in his life in the real world.
…to be continued, would appear in the TV screen if we were watching a TV drama of his real life.
And in the dream world: the continuation of the drama. The mind sometimes vehemently welcomes the digital world into our net of neurons and finishes writing the script of the endless number of possible finales.
[Online Poker with no limitations] Ian wins.
“I log in to Facebook and in my news feed I read it. Ivan and Julia are no longer listed as 'in a relationship'. [icon of broken heart] I woke up and it took me a while to realize it wasn’t real.” - Julia
“I was dreaming that my family was about to be murdered. I don’t know how or why, but I just knew it. I was in my room and I logged into MSN Messenger to contact my boyfriend to tell him to save them.” -Daniela
These are just a few examples of how the Internet is involved in people’s dreams. It is untangled from the webs of abstractness and brought down to reality to be applied in practical scenarios and situations of interest or concern. Most people agreed that in a near future having dreams related to the Internet and social networking will be more common because they will be more indispensable in our lives.
For detailed explanations of people’s dreams and opinions in their own voice, listen to the Podcast “The Internet and social networks influence in daily life”, Episode 1: The Internet in people’s dreams.
