Reality is Broken

Reading this exceprt from Reality is Broken, by Jane McGonigal made me think about the world and people around me.  The author talks about how video games are increasing in popularity and people are finding what they need in video games in stead of the world around them. she says,

“The truth is this: in today’s society, computer and video games are fulfilling
genuine human needs that the real world is currently unable to satisfy. Games
are providing rewards that reality is not. They are teaching and inspiring and
engaging us in ways that reality is not. They are bringing us together in ways
that reality is not.”

This statement upsets me because as much as i dont want to believe it, as every day passes, this becomes more and more true. I have never been into video games for a couple reasons, one of which being that i just am not good at video games. A better reason though, is that  i have spent pretty much my entire life outdoors. Between spending weekends at Lake Berryessa, going camping, and playing sports like soccer and rowing. I love being outside in the sun, enjoying the fresh air. I learned a valuable lesson when i was younger and an uncle of mine passed away way too young, and that is that life is too short to be wasting your time inside sitting on the couch watching tv and playing video games. As you can see in the quote above, the author talks about how people are fulfilling their needs with video games in fake realities. I think people like this are just scared to face real reality, being outside interacting with the people around them. I have a lot of friends that play videos games but none of them use it to escape the reality around them. There are 2 types of gamers in my opinion, the ones that let it take over their life and uses it as an escape, and the ones that play every once in a while to take a break from the fast paced world we live in. Video games are fun, but in no way do i think people should be saying it’s fulfilling their needs because there is an entire world out there and they could get whatever they needed if they just walked outside and tried.