Preferring the Less Real

It’s an odd phenomenon. The less real something is, the more we tend to trust its version of reality.

Many believers spend far more time with social media than with God...or even in person with friends and family. When questioned, they shrug—it’s just the way the world works. The distraction and dopamine hits keep us staring into our screens. We justify it for a million reasons. Many even perceive today’s social media landscape as a modern, high-tech equivalent of the old town square. But that’s an illusion.

A town square is an actual, physical place where one interacts with real people. A town square is a place we work or shop at…and then return home. It’s a place, not an addiction.

But social media is radically different. We don’t visit it as much as make ourselves available to it 24/7. Along the way, we stare into our screens and give them the power to validate or invalidate us in ways the town square never could. We seek followers, friends, validation, and likes and pretend it’s real. It’s a lot of things, but photoshopped images, screens, and the artificial aren’t the same as reality.

And as we spend less time in the real, we get more addicted to the artificial.

Want More?
Order your copy of Risk the Real