Make sure you’re living in the real world
We live in an era of many opportunities to escape the real world. Different people will do this in different ways. Some will be physically walking through the world but absorbing none of it due to the music playing in their headphones and the mobile phone up against their face. Others will go into social media, watching short entertaining videos that pass the time. Others will play many hours of video games, being someone important in an imaginary world. And still others will spend a long time in fiction, reading about characters in imaginary places, or watching television or movies that transport us to a new reality. In the worst case, people might look to alcohol or drugs to avoid the problems in their lives.
I know what that’s like. I have done many of these things. I find fictional worlds a helpful escape at times from the real world. It is enjoyable to think about the different experiences and be challenged to see different perspectives on life.
Yet there is a danger in all this, right? We still need to live in the real world. We have real responsibilities and people to love and things to do. We have problems to deal with and opportunities to take up. We need to engage with what is real and not give all of our time and energy to what is imaginary.
This can be seen in extremes, of course. I’ve read accounts of people who have horribly neglected their children and family and friends through an obsession with online gaming or perhaps alcohol and drugs. That is terrible and all of us would agree that these people have made terrible choices.
Yet a great many of us increasingly engage less with real life. The problem of past generations was television, and it still is for many. But now it is YouTube, social media, and gaming that dominate the lives of so many.
God calls us to do a range of things in the real world. We are to love God and one another in practical ways. We are to encourage one another, serve one another in the local church, and grow in our faith and understanding. We all have responsibilities towards our family and friends and our workplaces and the poor. We need to be in the real world a lot.
Some will object that online life is real life. There is real interaction with other people. And yes, that can be true. But is it always true? Much of our online activity is just content absorption with little lasting value.
The question that shakes me up is this: if we have to answer to God one day for how we have spent our time, will we be happy to explain the countless hours of reality-escaping time most of us spend? “I clocked that really difficult video game.” “I watched all the seasons of that show.” “I am an expert on all the current TikTok dance trends.” These are not really achievements. If a whole life is based on these kinds of things, is it a life you would be proud of?
I am not advocating for a life with no imaginary content; we need it. We need an escape. But we do need to be aware of when the imaginary world starts to dominate, and it means that we are not engaging as we should in the real world. Let’s be honest about the level of escapism we really have.
Do something radical about it today. Go for a walk and notice what you see, leaving your phone at home. Meet a friend and talk and encourage in real life rather than a short text. We have such a good world full of opportunities and challenges in it; let’s not spend all of time doing something else instead of engaging with it.