Posted on Feb 9, 2015
CPT Transportation Officer
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Sometimes it’s hard to distinguish between what some call “lived reality” (real life) and “the online experience” (digital life). And for many, educating and learning is also done through the online world. What about real life experience and its worth or value. Please refer to the article I wrote on this subject.
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CPT Jack Durish
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One of the most common phrases I heard while serving, principally uttered by younger persons in the enlisted ranks, was, "I can't wait to get back to the 'real world'."

They acted as though their lives were on pause, that they had been removed from the "real world" to serve (do penance?) in an artificial world (the military) that bore no relation to the reality of their lives.

It annoyed me.

On a few occasions, I challenged them.

One Saturday morning after cleaning up some paperwork on my desk at the Special Services office for Tripler Army Medical Center, I passed the barracks while driving back to the BOQ at Fort Shafter, and saw a group of servicemen moping on the front steps. I stopped to talk to them.

"What's up?"

"Nothing."

"Why don't you go down to Waikiki?"

They had many excuses: Too expensive. Nothing to do there. No way to get there.

I decided to eliminate one excuse and went to the motor pool, and tried to sign out a bus and driver. The sergeant on duty eyed me suspiciously. "You don't have that authority, sir," he challenged.

I knew it, too and shrugged. I explained that I wanted to run a shuttle service for the enlisted me to get to and from Waikiki.

He smiled and said, "It's you neck", and gave me the bus and driver.

When I checked back a few hours later, I found the same men sitting on the same steps with the same complaints. Their lives were on hold and they couldn't be bothered to even try and make the best of it.

That being said, I see the same thing in discussions of the Internet.

While some complain that it little more than an escape from reality, I argue that it is just a new part of reality. It can be used to expand reality.

Let me give you an example. Take a look at this website...

http://www.spiegel.de/international/a-360-degree-panorama-of-the-sistine-chapel-a-888471.html

Here you are allowed to linger without interruption and example every nook and crany of the Sistine Chapel, zooming to the loftiest heights to peruse the artwork there. I defy you to visit the Sistine Chapel in Italy and experience it to this degree.

This is just one example. I could point you to tens, hundreds of thousands of others.

Virtual reality is still reality.

Think about it.

Use it.

Experience it.

Just don't allow it to replace physical reality...
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CPT Transportation Officer
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Good story and analogy! Thank you
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