Let’s be honest. This pandemic has been the greatest thing to happen to our society. We have the opportunity to find more ways to be extremely grateful for our miraculous life, we can see our magnificent world through more open eyes, we can learn vigorously through a new way of schooling and blah blah blah…enough with the positivity. Okay but seriously, there has been something of importance that came out of it: we aren’t having to go out and socialize. Spending days constantly on your guard with people in your little bubble can begin to wear on you. And I mean literally. People walk around dripping with the said and unsaid words of others.
In fact, I think we’re doing just fine without having to come in contact with other human beings. You can sleep in, wear pajamas all day and create your own schedule by doing things on your own time. You don’t have to worry about what your teacher will say about your eccentric outfit or who will make a comment on your new social media post that was supposed to be kept private. Now you can ignore those annoying pokes to your ego, instead becoming a recluse inside your home in order to not overexert yourself. You won’t have to put yourself out there. You won’t have to initiate. You won’t have to respond. You can simply choose when to to turn on and off your social light switch.
So why not make everything virtual? It would certainly make our lives easier. Convenience is all that we humans really want. We won’t need to step out of our comfort zones if we’re stuck inside to begin with. And we’re already programmed to get what we want when we want it. So why not take that a step further? You’d have everything at your fingertips with technology alone; everything you ever wanted with the press of a button.
Back in the pre-pandemic days, older generations used to think teens didn’t get enough social interaction. Adults would say that children no longer knew how to talk to each other face to face. But now, what can they say, when we are connected almost solely through phones, computers, tablets and other forms of technology? If anything, we’re the experts now, with children themselves becoming the ones parenting. These days, we younger folks are having to teach our parents how to navigate the endless waters of current technology.
But what about friends, you may ask? What about real social connection? My answer is this: you don’t need real friends–virtual companions are way better. They require much less effort than being in-person. We don’t need to talk to people if there’s texting anyway, and there isn’t much difference when that is pretty much the only way we interacted before. So what’s stopping us from going all virtual? Think about it. Our lives certainly couldn’t be any worse.
Article by Olivia McMurray. Artwork from Unsplash by Dzana Serdarevic.
