No Strings Attached
The earth has seen many generations, many different forms of lives, but none like the present generation. Why? The current generation literally lives in two worlds. No, I don’t refer to any scientific theory nor extra-terrestrial life. What I mean here is our own physical world and our dearest virtual world. Virtual world has become our second home these days, sometimes even our first home! With about 59.61% of the world’s population using the internet with a growth rate of 1187% over the past two decades, this is only bound to grow until each baby is conceived with a smartphone in the womb!
Have you ever wondered why we all love the virtual world so much? What makes this new semi-existent world so much more exciting and consuming, that even a small child gets addicted to it? Didn’t the television and radio connect thoughts around the world as well? Weren’t they the first steps towards globalization?
The television did connect thoughts around the world, but it was one-sided. We could not actually interact with a television or radio! And we humans always love to express and socialize. We basically love to be heard more than to listen. This is what exactly the internet gave us all — a voice. A forum where you can absolutely be anyone that you want, you can say anything you want to literally anybody. This really meant a two-sided communication. Wow, what a freedom!
But are we all here only because we love the freedom? Actually, no. Ask the deepest part of your mind and you will know that there is much more here that actually attracts you. To understand what that ‘much more’ that the physical world could not give us, we have to look in that very place.
We humans tend to have multiple faces. We tend to be nice and soft and kind to strangers, as a sub-conscious effort to impress them and win their attention and friendship. Once we become more familiar with them, that is when all the honey glaze goes away and we start seeing the actual person that they are. All those flaws that dint seem to exist earlier come to our view now. And naturally, we want them to change, which does not always happen. This creates some friction in the relationship. The flaws loom larger than the good things we saw in them. On the flip side, this happens to us too. When people want us to change, most of us don’t really consider it because comfort zone is such a captivating barren land. Eventually, one lesson learnt: we only want the good side (what we like) in everyone, not the bad side. Simply, a no strings attached relationship is what we all perceive as comfortable. But is it ever possible in the physical life? Everybody has their own good and bad sides and without accepting the other side, the relationship can’t really thrive, because love is all about accepting each others’ flaws and loving them too.
Thus enters the virtual world, with the perfect elements to give you what you want — the good side alone. You don’t have to know someone on a personal level to socialize with them, you can just choose to see the good side. Eventually, the people there become virtual too! The perfect ‘No strings attached’ environment where you are free to be an impostor, influencer, the very cheesy nice human being or simply anything you want! It’s just the environment that we all seek today — no commitments, no bad side of people (unless you choose to see that), no one to ask you to change, people appreciating you all around. It’s so perfect isn’t it?
But what happens eventually when you fall in love with this virtual world? The real world seems more distant, more ridiculous and people who actually care for you become monsters who are not ready to accept you the way you are (good or bad). This triggers a self-isolation from the real-world relationships, with a deeper fall in the virtual world, seeking solace in the people who hardly know you. Imagine, when you really fall ill or face a difficult situation or even die, will the virtual world even care? No one’s really gonna miss you because there is always someone else to replace you there. Adversaries teach us more valuable lessons that any teacher. A friend in need is a friend indeed. Reality sinks in and that’s when we truly understand the meaning of this statement.
Someone who has not really seen your bad side and accepted it cannot really love you completely. They only love a little part of you. The day they see your bad side, all hell comes down and the problem begins. You have to know someone’s bad side to understand their good side. That’s how relationships work, and that is why the virtual world will always stay a myth. The virtual world will always be heaven, the heaven that will never be reality. It is always important to have the right balance between both worlds and have reality checks at times to ensure that we really don’t fall into the virtual world completely, eventually becoming all alone in life — the main cause of depression. Let’s embrace the good and bad in people, let’s be brave enough to see and accept the flaws in us, let us love humanity for all of its imperfections to create a happy world, not a perfect one.
