Social is not real

It used to be chat rooms. Online chat rooms used to be one’s escape from the right here, the right now. You didn’t have to leave your place to find yourself with other people, and your imagination could then fill in for all that which you could not see, or touch in those virtual rooms.

Virtual reality. Are we really deluding ourselves into thinking that anything virtual, no matter how hi-tech, could compensate for that which is real? Delusion is all there is to it, and we are masters at deluding ourselves. One could argue that life is one big delusion. But it isn’t.

Life is very real, the kind of real that many of us are looking to escape for a gush of euphoria. To be alive is to feel annoyed, to feel angry, to feel sad, to feel doted on and to feel lonely and there is no escaping the good or the bad feelings that come, go or linger. That is until you delude yourself out of them.

Would we be deluding ourselves if we content ourselves with our circumstances, good or bad, and accept other people in our lives for who they are? No, we would be deluding ourselves if we project onto them or help them project personas that are fabricated or larger than life. By doing so we help ourselves forget that we are mere mortals.

The question of our existence is the question of our existence. Existence is interesting to say the least. One is able to feel somebody else’s presence, one can argue, without their physical proximity. But are so many of us then deluding ourselves into feeling lonely when somebody else’s presence is a click away?

The truth is, the right here and the right now has always been the right here and the right now. No matter the tech, you as an existing entity have to come to terms with the fact that a platform will not validate your existence but what it can do is make you feel ok about it. The truth is, to many, feeling ok about it is what matters.