This reading helped me remember that some people were not so dramatic for reacting the virus in extreme ways. Naturally I always felt bad there were people dying, & there were people around me who may be highly susceptible, but when there were so many people in my age group taking it as a joke & seeing each other only to play pretend sad afterwards got so annoying I stopped taking it seriously in a sense. I also feel specifically bad for little kids, because at much as it sucked for me to miss opportunities in high school, at least I can comprehend why, I feel like little kids will face huge developmental setbacks because of zoom education & face masks. I understand why it was necessary, of course, but I worry for them, & I hope its not as bad as they suspect. I couldn’t imagine being a parent & trying to explain to my little kids why they can’t go see their friends or family anymore, for who knew how long? That must’ve been terrible for a lot of people.

I also get the anxiety that came with it even when not sick. I’m a bit of a germaphobe, so whenever I’d get notice that anyone around me had it I’d go into a panic about whoever else I had been around who I had gotten sick (I was never sick) & face immense guilt for being “part of the problem”.

The idea that our adaptation being scary was one I never considered. Maybe because when I did online school kids understood it all better than teachers & could use that to their advantage, but its sad to me now that kids will probably never have a real snow day ever again. I don’t think people can entirely go to screen-based living, but the idea reminds me of my boyfriend, who really likes virtual reality. He says things along those lines sometimes, like wishing he could sleep in VR with a sky prettier & perhaps more realistic than the light-polluted one above our town, or when he said he could only understand a professor I was telling him about who never will take an airplane again after 9/11 & thus has no care about travelling, that if VR was a lot better & more immersive he wouldn’t need to either. But to me, who has used other peoples VRs occasionally, I don’t think it’ll ever be the same. Granted, he uses it infinitely times more than me, so maybe his idea for it’s future is better, but I can never see it being better than being able to actually experience things, & I think there are substantial amounts of people that think similarly to both of our idealologies, so long as there are portions against each other, it will never reach full immersion. I’m not sure! But it was very interesting regardless….1984esque too.. I can’t wait to hear everyone’s thoughts!