Virtual Reality
Journaling prompt:
What I miss most about my childhood is....
But the best thing about today is.....
When I thought about this question the thought that came to mind is the irony of it. Irony? How so you ask? Well, I'll tell you.
What I miss most about my childhood is the time of innocence. I grew up playing outside most of the day. When summer hit, I was with my friends swimming in the pool, going to the beach, or running around outside. I lived on a dead end street with three other girls. I was the oldest at 4, Julie 3, Elisa 2, and Jenny 1. We all grew up together. We'd go play imaginary games outside. We'd be Charlie's Angels or some other group. We would play until those streetlights came on. Then we knew we had to get home. We played Tag, went out on our bikes, we played barbies (yes people, I played Barbie) and we spent the days and summers using our imaginations. That today is a lost art. There is little to no use of imagination now. It's all technology. It's video games, tik tok, youtube sensations, 100's 0f television channels, and lots of technological stimulus. It's who has the best phone, the best system, the best computer. Childhood is virtual reality. I miss the days of playing in nature, using our imagination, and just being kids.
On the flip side the best thing about today is technology. We can communicate with our loved ones on the other side of the world. We can reach wider audiences for our purposes (selling things, promoting ideas, educating others, and oh...blogging!). If we are in trouble we have cell phones with which we can reach out and call 911 on a stranded road. We have way more resources at our fingertips on the world wide web. People who once thought they are the "only ones" learn they aren't. There are others who have the same affliction (medically speaking for this context) no matter how rare. They don't have to be alone anymore and they can talk at any time to anybody in the world when they need someone who gets it. It's remarkable what can be accomplished now with the technology we have. People are living longer, medicine has been greatly improved, and there's modes of treatment that exist that even 20 years ago, weren't an option.
I could go on and on about both of these things, but it's a short group, only an hour long and I have a basketball game to score tonight. I guess I'll wrap it up by saying that childhood may be a virtual reality now, but without that virtual reality we wouldn't have the technology that helps the world go around and survive. As long as we always have nature.....technology will never replace nature and that's a very good thing.