6
The Real and The Virtual
"The real people I know are like some on TV"

The distinction between the real and the virtual runs throughout this investigation. Is there a distinction? It is a question that automatically comes up in every issue dealing with representation. To deliberate on the real we usually think about the tangible, the immediately accessible, the physical. There are qualifications for something to be classified as real, as genuine, authentic. Usually these are claims of truth, to order, rules or values and depending on logic, rationality and reason. Truth requires a distinct object and subject, an ability to distinguish between what is actually present or absent.

To consider the 'proof' of reality is to investigate the origins of the 'real' or, rather, how the real is constructed. Reality is constructed through human action which includes thought and imagination. Invention and technology are results of human thinking and experimentation. "Reality expresses at any historical moment the purposes and objectives, intentions and desires of humans." Reality is expressive ".....because it is a product of human action in and upon the world" (Carey 73). Reality is constantly produced. Our technology is a part of ourselves, a part of our human reality. Each thought is a reality in its own right. It may amount to something more or it may dissipate. Whatever its duration, upon its conception a thought or a perception, conviction, opinion is real because it produces an effect. "As soon as a thing affects one, it is real.....(an) illusion, in so far as it has an effect, is real.....any feeling, no matter how unknown or how remote, if it has an effect on a self, is real.....as soon as we state a thing it becomes real, because in stating a thing we are being affected by it" (Siegel 161-162).

Television is commonly classified as a technological mode of signification, a representor of the real. Television characters are actors representing actual, historical or common types of people. Unless they are persons in a documentary, the characters on television obviously are not the actual people. Even then, they are electronic representations. They cannot be proven to exist. They are not real. But are they not tangible and accessible; attributes of 'the real'?
An approach to reality which dismisses preconceived notions or prejudices is possible through a phenomenology of perception. This manner of operation allows an acceptance of the virtual as valid in the course of everyday affairs.

LJ: Somethin' is real if it is around, you know? If it's there, it's real. Like people and things, also stuff that you got do, work and responsibilities, those are real.
Keisha: Feelings are real, too. And what you're thinkin', well, that's not always real. It kinda depends on whether what you're thinkin' comes true - or like if you are planning in your head to do somethin' or say somethin', then if you do it, it's real.
Renalda: I think everything is real unless it's a pretend or like a wish or somethin'
Elva: Yeah, most things around are real. TV is real, too, 'cause it's there and 'cause if you pay attention with it then you are doin' somethin' with it.
LJ: The stuff on TV is real 'cause it's about what's out here. The real people I know are like some of the people on TV and the stuff that goes on TV is real 'cause it's the same as what happens for real to me.
Sister G: This is like a philosophy question, right? What is real? And supposedly, nobody can really never answer it. But I say that somethin' is real if it is there and you are dealin' with it. Thinkin' is real because it is somethin' that you can do, like we're talkin' now and I got to think what am I goin' to say. Even if I'm thinkin' alone, that's real because I'm like thinkin' to myself and that means somethin'.
LJ: Usually you don't have to think about if somethin' is real or not - maybe though, like with a rumor you hear it and you don't know if it's true, so until you find it out, then it's not real yet.

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