Blurry Lines

One of the aspects of today’s society is we live in a time where technology blurs the line between fiction and reality.  That statement will make little sense to anyone over 50 years of age.  But it is true.  Consider this report from The Guardian. “Recent research by the Japanese government showed that about 30% of single women and 15% of single men aged between 20 and 29 admitted to having fallen in love with a meme or character in a game – higher than the 24% of those women and 11% of men who admitted to falling in love with a pop star or actor.”  There is even a slang term used to describe such a person, they are called a “moe”.  It that doesn’t clearly indicate a blur between fiction and reality, I can’t decide what else could. 

Another aspect is that the 20-somethings have a language barrier with the 60 somethings.  None of the phrases that each use are completely understandable in their importance and intention.  Again, this is largely a part of the role of technology in the lives of each.  Technology is heavily used by the 20 somethings and moderately at best used by the 60 somethings.  A friend of mine who is a pilot for United said that this is such a problem between older and younger pilots in the cockpit that they have mandatory classes that discuss it so each can recognize the differences.  “It is important to have good communication when you’re traveling 400 miles/hour” he said.

To further blur the line, Virtual Reality (VR) enters into our society.  VR headsets and capability have enormous applications.  VR can be made so real that a professor or surgeon can provide an in-depth lesson or surgery demonstration to anyone who will put on the headset and watch.  It is as if you are sitting in a small classroom or in the operating room watching the work very closely.  My youngest son showed me how my phone will take a picture of a room and make it VR compatible.  After taking the picture, I can put on the headset and then look around the room as if I was standing in it.  This has enormous benefits for engineering field work.  I’m an engineer, I like technology.  I see many uses for VR that are powerful.  With the right camera on an astronaut in space, an engineer on earth could see what he sees as it really is and instruct him how to repair whatever is broken.  That’s powerful use of technology.  But like all technology there is also the other side.  There is an article by economist Patrick Wilson where he was at a convention for new technology and the most realistic VR experience was the adult entertainment industry.  He commented that the VR can be so intense as reality that it confuses fiction and the actual reality. 

That said regarding new technology, there are a lot of people living in un-reality from watching TV.  Every day, there are many people that sit and listen to some news media source that spews their opinion of reality.  This means there are a lot of people walking around with false realities based on a news company’s opinion.  These media outputs are very intentional about blurring the line of what is really the news and what they want you to believe is the news.

As Christians we must always be aware of what confusion represents in our society and to the Word of God.  There always exist an effort to confuse the Word of God as not reality.  This always exists.  I see it every day.  The blurred lines created by technology between fiction and reality will only add to the blurred society line of whether the Word is true or not.  We should expect to hear the phrase, “That is your reality” spoken a lot. 

Where society tries to claim it’s impartial to the beliefs of everyone, the reality is it rejects Christian beliefs and makes room for anything else.  I do not believe that this intention is a blurred line at all in America today.  Christians are tolerated because the habit has been here from the beginning of the nation.  Society will continue to blur the reality of a salvation only found in Jesus with a salvation found in "your reality" until it is obscure.  We, as Christians, must be careful and intentional to keep the reality clearly in focus and know that there is only one true living God and His Son is Jesus the Christ.