We can probably all agree that most of the time we try to “Escape Reality” as we say, usually blocking it out with music or playing video games or cooking. We all expect things to happen, but they never end up happening, so what do we normally do? Expand “our” reality with imagination.

We constantly use our imagination to be creative, whether for a project or a solution to a problem. We also often fantasize about certain events we wish or are going to happen. In the thought of this, though, do we expect too much in our lives? Do we focus too much on what isn’t there? I believe we all do in some way. I feel we are always trying to “turn off” the world from ourselves, and we do this by comforting our emotions through imaginary beings, things, or fantasies.

Now I’m not saying we should abolish fantasy completely. We can’t always fix reality; we will always deal with conflicts that effect us directly: fighting, relationships, social media, and tragedies. Also, ones that deal with us as a whole: elections, wars, society issues, etc. Reality will probably be focused on less, as more people are focusing on the fictional self, as they write books, play video games, watch videos, etc.

There is a solution to this, though. We, as in the upcoming generations, such as Gen-Z and Gen Alpha, will be changing how we face things. Someday, Gen-Z will be “ruling the world,” advancing technology, and changing how politics work. Yet we still continue to live within social media, with less than 50% of it being true. I’m not trying to make this a huge controversial topic, because I understand where Gen-Z and Gen-Alpha are coming from, as being a Gen-Z, I have explored how we “work.” I’m just like everyone else, scrolling through YouTube or TikTok, snapping people back and forth, those sorts of things.

Another thing that makes this seem controversial is I personally use my imagination a lot. I plan on being an author, podcaster, influencer, and video game designer. I’m just as bad as the rest, but get me straight, that’s something we can’t change. Habits grow on us too much to be able to stop. All I’m getting at is, we need to benefit society. For all those people out there who feel like they’re living it up in high school or college, they sometimes don’t think about the future like they should. I’m not saying everyone does, but most do. They don’t understand how the upcoming generations like Gen-Beta and Gen-Gamma are going to grow up, our society is changing drastically, accelerating too fast for us to be able to even react. We are the influence for the future, we are going to be the ones to shape how they grow up, and what we are doing, sadly sticking too much to our fantasies. Yes, there will be risks and mistakes along the way, but in the end, there’s only really one direction it can take us: home. Now what’s the deeper message behind it? That would be that no matter what happens in your life, you are always, somehow, brought back into the comfort of your home.

Now also thinking about this, maybe we have too much reality and not enough imagination, as per the author, Robert Greene: “What people lack in life is not more reality but illusion, fantasy, play.” I know now I’m switching opinions. I mean, there’s not a right or wrong answer to any question if you think about it. If you think about it, in order for us to realize reality, we need to have a part of our imagination, maybe we need to have more imagination than reality, and focus more on ourselves than others. That doesn’t seem right, though, if we were to only think about ourselves, chaos would occur, nothing would get done, but then if you think about it, if we focus too much on everyone else, we’d drown ourselves to much, drown out the reality inside of things.

How can we fix this? Balance everything. You need to know how to balance your personal life with your work life. If you can’t do that, then you’ll feel guilt and it causes pressure to yourself, causing you to miss out on more. We also can’t just stick to our basic schedule, we need to go out and explore things, try new things, and meet new people. Work hard for these goals; you don’t get hurt when you try, you get hurt when you stick to things that are bad for you. Grow out of the reality you’re stuck in, add to it for others to find, grow fantasy within reality, let people explore your ideas and they can build off them as well. Bond your life with your other self, phase your imagination with the reality you believe you live in.