It’s so easy in today’s day and age to fall into the trap of false reality. We can slip into a world of virtual reality where we are afforded the opportunity to be an alternate version of ourselves that embodies the epitome of what we would like to be. This is fine, as a temporary escape. It’s nice to be someone else for a while and stepping outside yourself can make you think in a different way and help you grow.

The danger lies when you get immersed in the virtual world. It’s a world constructed to give you just enough of a reward to keep you hooked and coming back and paying for more. There is a bizarre satisfaction in working on the virtual character. There is a skinner box-like reward system that rewards you incrementally for keeping going that can’t be mirrored in real life.

At the end of the day though, none of this is tangible. If the virtual would that you invested in disappeared tomorrow then you would have nothing to show for it. The character that you “leveled up” would be gone and you would be no better off in the real world than when you started. You could even be feasibly worse.

There is no virtual accomplishment worth your health. There is nothing worth sacrificing to achieve. Far better to spend the time you would invest on an avatar on the only thing you will always be invested in, yourself. Better to spend your time reading and learning in reality. Better to learn and master skills in real life than mastering abilities in a virtual realm. The skills you learn in real life will always be with you. False reality is a button click away from being deleted forever.