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Serious questions and musings

BarryZola said:
It's their responsibility to pick it up. However, if I'm near a window and see them returning home I'll pop out and hand it to them. Also, if I've got to go out somewhere and I know they're in I might pop it round if I'm in the mood.
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Strange situation yesterday.

Next door had two of mine. I had two of his.

I folded.
 
What is going on with life the universe and everything (reality)?

The world is so weird now.

I sometimes slip down the rabbit holes of conspiracy theories and stuff and it’s interesting how many people just feel the world is “off”. You get lots of (entertaining) discussions about alternative timelines, CERN opening portholes, creatures from different dimensions, Mandela effects, time speeding up etc but the main point is a lot of people (especially over a certain age) just have this feeling that the world isn’t real anymore.

I certainly feel this strongly. I believe this is solely down to the internet and social media.
I struggle with the modern world. It often doesn’t feel real, it certainly doesn’t feel good. It feels like a trial or purgatory or something. I constantly find myself asking “where are all the real people?” This is something I see others my age asking.

To me the whole of reality seems to be about marketing. Nothing is what it actually is, it’s what it’s marketed as. This includes people. And nobody seems to question the disconnect.
I think it’s really done something weird to our brains.

It’s everything, people market themselves (often as something they’re not) on social media. Governments and organisations, same thing, all marketing but it doesn’t fit what they actually do. Shops, institutions, businesses

I see it at work, the way services and hospitals market themselves. Lovely wholesome videos put out on Facebook bragging about how this team or that team excel and exceed. Along with video of smily happy staff looking all fresh and radiant. Statements put out about the values and ethics of the company and how happy everyone is.

I definitely see it with acquaintances. None of it is anywhere near the truth. And we just clap and soak it up.

It’s like everyone’s just sleep walking.

Internet and social media has changed the way people behave so much. It’s like people arnt living, they just do stuff so they can put it on the internet (more marketing). Look at me, look at how good my life is, look at how good I look…
Nobody seems to be living in the now.
When did bragging become the norm?

It’s so bad for us. Especially for us who grew up in a completely different world.

I really hate this world so much. Time for me to take a break from social media again.

Does anyone else relate?

I blatantly need to go out for a walk, touch some grass, breathe and have a chat with a squirrel or something.
 
Now some of us even shudder when they just pick up a mobile phone.

Don't take a break from social media, just stop, and stick to nice safe friendly thoosie sites.

Just been raking up the leaves and picking weeds out of bare soil in the sun.

Bliss.
 
Itgoeshowhigh said:
What is going on with life the universe and everything (reality)?

The world is so weird now.

I sometimes slip down the rabbit holes of conspiracy theories and stuff and it’s interesting how many people just feel the world is “off”. You get lots of (entertaining) discussions about alternative timelines, CERN opening portholes, creatures from different dimensions, Mandela effects, time speeding up etc but the main point is a lot of people (especially over a certain age) just have this feeling that the world isn’t real anymore.

I certainly feel this strongly. I believe this is solely down to the internet and social media.
I struggle with the modern world. It often doesn’t feel real, it certainly doesn’t feel good. It feels like a trial or purgatory or something. I constantly find myself asking “where are all the real people?” This is something I see others my age asking.

To me the whole of reality seems to be about marketing. Nothing is what it actually is, it’s what it’s marketed as. This includes people. And nobody seems to question the disconnect.
I think it’s really done something weird to our brains.

It’s everything, people market themselves (often as something they’re not) on social media. Governments and organisations, same thing, all marketing but it doesn’t fit what they actually do. Shops, institutions, businesses

I see it at work, the way services and hospitals market themselves. Lovely wholesome videos put out on Facebook bragging about how this team or that team excel and exceed. Along with video of smily happy staff looking all fresh and radiant. Statements put out about the values and ethics of the company and how happy everyone is.

I definitely see it with acquaintances. None of it is anywhere near the truth. And we just clap and soak it up.

It’s like everyone’s just sleep walking.

Internet and social media has changed the way people behave so much. It’s like people arnt living, they just do stuff so they can put it on the internet (more marketing). Look at me, look at how good my life is, look at how good I look…
Nobody seems to be living in the now.
When did bragging become the norm?

It’s so bad for us. Especially for us who grew up in a completely different world.

I really hate this world so much. Time for me to take a break from social media again.

Does anyone else relate?

I blatantly need to go out for a walk, touch some grass, breathe and have a chat with a squirrel or something.
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You are certainly not alone in feeling this, though I would argue that we don't need to look for answers in the Large Hadron Collider or shifting timelines. The explanation is far more mundane, yet perhaps more insidious.

What you are describing sounds remarkably like the concept of Hyperreality. The idea that our consciousness is now unable to distinguish reality from a simulation of reality. The map has become the territory.

We don't live in the moment. We live in the capture of the moment. We don't eat the meal. We photograph the meal to prove to an audience, which largely doesn't care, that we are the kind of person who eats that meal. Everything has become performative. We have all become PR managers for our own lives, curating a brand rather than an existence.

The internet used to be a place we went to (remember dial up?), a utility we used. Now, thanks to the smartphone, it is a layer which sits on top of everything we do. It filters our perception of the world through algorithms designed not for truth, or connection, but for engagement. Friction, outrage and envy are the currencies of this economy. It feels off because it is designed to keep you in a state of low level anxiety so you keep scrolling.

The disconnect you see in workplaces, the wholesome videos vs the reality of the grind, is just corporate gaslighting at scale. It feels like a trial because you are constantly being asked to participate in a shared delusion that everything is fine and exciting, when your own eyes tell you otherwise.

It isn't that the world isn't real anymore. It's that we are spending too much time staring at a distorted reflection of it.

Your prescription to yourself is spot on. Touching grass isn't just a meme; it is a necessity. Go and talk to @NuttySquirrel. Watch the wind in the trees. Observe a duck (or a goose) on a pond. Nature doesn't have an algorithm. It doesn't care about your engagement metrics. It just is.

Disconnect. Leave the phone at home. Rejoin the physical world for a bit. It’s much nicer out here. We have mince pies, tinsel and Baileys.

🪿
 
I’ve been out. Went for a walk around the country park.

Glorious morning. Kicked some leaves, squelched through some mud, said hello to lots of doggies. Even said hello to a squirrel. Feel so much better. Nature and fresh air really is so good for the soul.

(I usually walk every day but with the dark evenings it’s dropped off for a few weeks. Roll on lighter evenings).

No more Facebook and Twitter for me.
 
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