Living Virtually

Are people moving more and more away from reality and  the serious while living more and more in a new reality they create to please themselves? I think it is so, and the reasons is our communication technology. As one who doesn't use that technology much at all, I am able to better notice the alternate universe  that more and more people create about the world and people in it. Black is white, day is night and the sky is green to more and more of us. Don't you dare tell them any of that is not true. Sadly, I think that those of us who have run and hide in their phones and other devices find a growing comfort zone there.

Why see things as they are if the upset, they reason. The prism where this can be seen most easily is in our political policies. The demonization of President Trump amazes me, with charges made against Trump that are so far from real that one must conclude there is a deluded anti Trump group that believes what they hear, copy and retell.  There is plenty of real matters to criticize Trump, but many find solace in bizarre assertions about him instead. No matter that fact is absent in the critique, the idea is that comfort is found in creating and living in an alternative world to soothe the pain of the dislike (Trump). The right did somewhat the same to Barrack Obama, creating an image unsupported by reality but one which allow them to feel "relief" with the reality of his Presidency, even when, as with Trump there were many real reasons that could have been but were not used in criticims of him.

Besides politics our social relations are another way we can see humans are running from reality. Many people today do not want to relate to other humans on a face to face basis. The Tweet, chat, cell message and virtual world seem less threatening than personal relationships. So they wallow in those dark recesses instad. Maybe that's why so many employers report that their workers seem socially inept in even the simplest of human relations. But then, one who lives less in the real world and more in a world they instead create and control will lose social skills like communicating directly with others.

Hmmmm Are we becoming more robotlike and less thinking and feeling humans? Is communication technology taking over our minds and crushing our emotional range? Maybe  we are moving toward replacing reality with virtual reality. If so, we lose more than we should want to give away.