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The Virtual Reality

Technology has done wonders for humans, and our generation has unlimited power at our fingertips, make sure to use it wisely. We have access to unlimited information instantly, you can learn anything from an effortless search on your phone or computer. And forget maps, we have GPS for that. As an added bonus, we get to blame the GPS when we missed a turn, “stupid computer”!

We have the instant gratification of watching or listening to whatever we want, whenever we want. No more “rewinding” anything, or going days before you get to hear your favorite song again. In many cases, we don’t even need to wait a week for the next episode of a show anymore, whole seasons are released at once online. I bet the sales for pizza and onesie pajamas skyrocket every time a hit show does that (you binge watchers know what I’m talking about).

We can do most of our shopping online, fresh food and groceries delivered right to our doorsteps. For some people, the only real life human interaction they have is with the postal service. But that’s okay, because you can find friends on social media instantly too!

But should we be investing so much of our interaction with screens? It’s a wonderful technology, making connections instantly to anyone, or even everyone. We don’t need to write letters in nice cursive writing and wait weeks for a reply. We can see each other face to face through our phones to communicate instantly.

Social media though, I think that’s one form of gratification we all abuse far too often. Don’t get me wrong, it has many great aspects and it has probably done more good things for us than bad, but millennials surely invests too much time into a cyber reality. Social media has a large influence on the communication skills of this generation.

For many people, it adds a lot of stress to their lives: worrying what others will think of them, reading “news” headlines that trigger emotions, arguing about politics (nobody actually wins), wondering why you didn’t get many “likes” on your last post, the list goes on.

Also, I truly feel that so many people have forgotten the significant elements of communication that can only be achieved through human interaction. Sarcasm for example, is almost useless in text form. People need see/hear each other to pick up on it usually, in text we just look cynical or ignorant.

The politically correct culture that dominates social media is taking it’s toll on our sense of humor as well. People are afraid to make a comment that could offend somebody, but the problem is that everybody is offended by everything in cyber reality.

In the world of Facebook, humor is a forbidden language found in only in a sub-ground comedy club with a few performers hailed as comedy kings. The brave and daring humor-seekers only “ha-ha” at the jokes that the public eye would approve of.

Twitter on the other hand, they definitely allow humor there. Everyone's a comedian in the Twitter world, even the President! Honestly, Trump does make me laugh, a lot. I know, the POTUS shouldn’t say most of what he says, but that might even make it more humorous.

Truth be told, we are all guilty of saying thing we shouldn’t. But life gets dull when you restrict yourself to to the standards of “the norm”, especially when we lose those key elements of communication, and begin to interact like the computers we live through. Spend more time interacting personally with each other, laugh more, and forget the expectations of social media. Our personalities should not be held to such strict standards. To everybody, be you.

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