Book — Ready Player One
Author — Ernest Cline
Ready Player one is a science fiction set in a dystopian world in 2044. with crime rates through the roof and a global energy crises the populations only escape is the OASIS which was created by James Halliday. this device is a virtual reality MMO which is connected to everyone. Halliday has died and hidden an Easter egg in the game which grants the finder his entire empire. Wade Watts is the main protagonist who works with many friends against the IOI and their head of operations Sorrento.
A huge theme in this book is addiction. not the type of addiction for drugs but addiction technology and unreal realities. with the world so heavily broken and dying its whole population is in this Virtual world. even the schools are hosted there.
I can relate to this theme of addiction as i am an avid cellphone user. if i wear to get off my devices for good i could achieve so much more would would have more time to do book reports in English, more time to hang out with friends. this theme of addiction speaks loud and clear about the state we live now. people would rather be on their phones and tv’s watching brainless shows while producers milk us for money then going for a walk and actually seeing the sun once in a while.
if people of 2044 would realize that this great escape is actually causing more harm then they would be able to do something about the world around them and fix the thing they hate so much.
another film with a similar theme is a series called the black mirror with each episode going over another piece of advanced technology. for example one episode i saw was about a virtual reality which was so realistic that the person inside didnt know what was real or fake. this caused him to loose his mind and ended dying. it is similar as this person was so involved in this false reality that they forgot what was real and what was not.