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Virtual Reality, December 2, 2009

            Virtually everyone I know has a cell phone.  Change that, everyone I know has a cell phone. Again let me make the record clear, I hate having a cell phone. We live in a society in a widespread fixation with phones and the sparkly little applications that come with them.  

Don’t get me wrong I appreciate the convenience of carry around the thing everywhere I go and knowing I can order a pizza at the drop of a hat, in my world that is a handy power to have. I just can’t go to a bar, a library, or a grocery store without seeing someone crunching away on their phone writing a text. It is all too easy to forget that this altered state of reality has taken away the truth that is life. We spend hours upon hours staring at those little screens all day, and we forget to look up and just enjoy the view.

The most common human fear is interacting with others. These cell phones are yet a prop in the masquerade of our virtual reality. We use it to hide ourselves, and our true feelings. Here let me tell you how much I love you in a text. Or here even better, let me tell you what is on my mind through the Facebook app that I have on my phone.  

The want for continued ambiguity is still strong in this generation. We need to be alone and yet never want to be alone. “Oh don’t worry, just text me later.” Put the phone down folks, if only for a few days, it is a relieve not knowing what is happening elsewhere, only that the most important thing is right in front of you at that very moment. Let us not forget that the world is more than just a plastic screen. The real world is the flowers you just passed, the book (real books none of this Kindle crap) you are reading. The reality is the stuff you pass by as you text. Human contact is life, to know not only what someone has to say, but what they look like when they say it. That is more connection then you will ever gain thru a cell phone.

I sit here and try to remind myself that life is more than just plastic. That life is beyond that screen, and all around me. If you don’t believe me, then just give me a call.



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