Life Offline vs. Online

     Ash and Martha are a young couple living during a time of high technological advancement. Ash constantly uses his cellphone while Martha does not. Ash dies in a vehicle accident, leaving Martha heartbroken. Sarah, Martha's friend tells her of a new technological feature that creates a virtual version of the deceased, based on their online history. Martha refuses to engage in this feature, but after much self-damage, feelings of emptiness, and the news of her pregnancy, Martha communicates with the virtual Ash. Communications with the new Ash start with emails, then phone conversations, which then leads to a synthetic copy of Ash's body moving into the home with Martha. Martha finds happiness through this feature, but as Ash becomes more physically real, Martha becomes increasingly uncomfortable.


     Martha's discomfort with the synthetic body of Ash directly correlates with the Uncanny Valley. The emails and phone conversations directly fulfill Martha's feelings of emptiness by giving her a platform to communicate her pregnancy with her deceased husband. However, when the new Ash upgrades to a physical synthetic copy of the deceased Ash, there is a noticeable dip in Martha's level of comfort using this technological feature. Martha received direct fulfillment from the emails and phone calls with the new Ash, but as she begins to engage with the synthetic copy of Ash, she becomes increasingly demanding of him, that he be more like the original Ash. Despite impressive adaptation in mirroring the personality of the old Ash, the new Ash fails to fully represent the old Ash, as it contains only the online life of Ash rather than his human to human social interaction offline. The new Ash tries to become a perfect version of the old Ash using his online history, but in reality, the old Ash was never actually a perfect version of himself and had multiple imperfections. These imperfections are what the new Ash fails to provide to Martha as the old Ash rarely posted his imperfections online and as a result, the new Ash has no access to them.


     This episode exemplifies the notion that our online profiles, despite the similarities, do not actually showcase the genuine personalities that we all have offline. Social media provides a platform for everyone to show off their best photos, statements, etc., but do not give an accurate representation of who we are behind the screen. Even with texting, snapchatting, and emailing, people have plenty of time to develop a witty or intelligent statement or response rather than having to think on the spot quickly during a human to human conversation. We have separate lives both online and offline and there are many people who are invested in their online profiles rather than their offline ones. A good assertion of someone cannot be made based on their online profiles as these profiles are well refined and lack the imperfections that make us who we are.