I am in the middle of reading Ernest Cline’s novel, “Ready Player Two”, the follow-up to one of my favorite novels, Ready Player One. I have talked about the first book in this column before and compared it to a modernday Tom Sawyer. However, in Ready Player One the entire adventure takes place mainly in a virtual world, not the real world. However, relationships in the real world are impacted by relationships in the virtual one.
Cline describes a future where people spend almost every waking moment engaged in a computergenerated world by wearing a “Haptic Suit” that lets them interact in any environment, world or planet they choose.
I have to say that the second book isn’t as good as the first. A lot of the innocence of the first novel is gone. However, as I was mowing on my tractor last week and listening to the book there was a quote so profound that I had to stop my tractor and make a note on my phone to remember it.
The main character in a reflective moment says something that applies to all of us who are addicted to social media. Here is what he said: “Human beings were never meant to participate in a worldwide social network comprised of billions of people. We were designed by evolution to be hunter-gatherers, with the mental capacity to interact and socialize with the other members of our tribe—a tribe made up of a few hundred other people at most. Interacting with thousands or even millions of other people on a daily basis was way too much for our ape-descended melons to handle. That was why social media had been gradually driving the entire population of the world insane since it emerged back around the turn of the century.” – Ernest Cline, Ready Player
Two While I am a creationist and believe in “Intelligent Design”, that is, a loving God created us and the universe and gave us free will, the premise is correct. We are living a worldwide social experiment that no generation in the history of the world has ever gone through. The long-term impact social media will have on the human race is yet to be seen.
There are two trends that have existed long before the advent of social media. However, the “Brave New World” of the Internet, video games, television and social media have, in my opinion, steepened the decline of our society.
The first is the rise of Socialism, and I have to say that wherever Socialism has been tried it has either failed or is destined to fail. That is because it only creates a new class of haves and have-nots that it initially purported to replace. If you have ever read George Orwell’s “Animal Farm”. You know what I’m talking about.
I am concerned that we are losing the core values that have made our country great. In March of 2020 at the very beginning of Covid, Gallup polled American’s opinion of Socialism. A majority of those polled, 57% had a negative opinion of Socialism, while 39% had a positive view of socialism. If that same poll were done now, almost a year and a half later, I wouldn’t be surprised if those percentages were almost even.
The second area is the decline of attendance in our Churches. We are losing a battle for our kids and grand kids. Once they choose to break ties with their faith, our families may never get it back. I have resolved to make recordings to leave to my kids, grand kids and great-grand kids to preserve the values of faith and freedom I hold dear. I feel fortunate that maybe my great-great grandchild will find the archives of the Forney Messenger and read the columns I have written over the last twelve or so years and know, “These are the values my Great Great Grandfather held dear.”
On Sunday Morning the teacher in the adult class in our Church put a graphic on the screen that was so profound I had to take a picture and share it.
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