We live in an INVERTED reality now. Digital reality has switched places with physical reality — and we are the worse for it.
The question now is, “Can we live OUTSIDE the ONLINE?”
Because we are losing touch with, losing our grip on, reality.
We no longer surf the web. We no long “go” online.
We are always online. Always in the waves.
Digital reality is our new reality. It is where our real identities are, where the real information is, where the real people are.
And digital reality is where all the fake news and the fake people are—and it is really important that we EXPOSE it all.
Even the fake news is more real to us than our neighborhoods, our grocery stores, our schools, our churches.
Who are the Real People?
Those people, the people we run into in real life, aren’t real. They’re just there. They aren’t real unless they are part of our digital world — unless they are confined to and conformed to the digital reality given to us by Fox News or CNN, or Facebook and Twitter, Snapchat or TikTok.
Physical reality is just where we go to get some food (or have it delivered). Physical reality is just required for the mandatory things, the spaces in-between looking at our phones.
Physical reality is just the context for the latest Twitter pile one or Facebook call out. Physical reality is just the context for the latest YouTube video, Twitch stream, or Snap. Physical reality is just the forgotten operating system that all our digital apps run on, our digital identities live on, and our digital enemies fight on.
Digital spaces now define who and whose we are. Facebook, Parler, MeWe, Twitter, Snapchat, TikTok suck us in and leave us dry—and then we come back for more.
Forward and Back
2020 has both accelerated and revealed the cracks in the inverted reality.
Food, healthcare, school, fitness, and church have accelerated the trend online.
But because of the lockdowns people have also started going on walks, vacationing closer to home, discovering the local beauty of shared spaces.
Where is 2021 and beyond going to take us?
Will we rediscover the wonder of reality out our front doors, and the real people in it? Or will we continue to drift in the fantasies of an inverted reality?
Maybe just put your phone down and go for a walk.
One reply on “Can We Live Outside the Online?”
I do not see the trend towards digital relationships declining in any significant way ever. There will be periodic backlashes, and some people who will check out of the digital world for a time, but those will be similar to the “back to nature movements” of the 60s.
The reality is that the digital world has yielded far too many positives to be abandoned in any significant fashion. For example, the digital world has enabled people to connect much more consistently across thousands of miles. My interactions with my own family around the world are much more frequent than the telephone calls and rare letters that I experienced when I was younger.
Nevertheless, the digital world will never completely replace the importance of physical, face-to-face connection with people. This is especially true for intimate relationships. (A digital kiss will never replace a real one! 🙂