Reality and escaping

What is reality? Why do we tend to escape from it? For me reality is sometimes too much to take and that’s why we want to escape from it. How do we do this? Well, that easy, we read books, we watch TV, films, play games pr just sleep for a while. No wonder why entertainment is so important in our world, it’s the perfect escape for us.

So, what is reality? Reality is what we experience every day, the feelings we have, the things we see, the people we talk to, the problems we have, frustrations… It is everything that makes us be what we are. If reality makes us what we are, then, why do we want to escape from it? Well, its simple really, sometimes we just need something to distract us, that’s why we are sometimes more interested in the life of others, it offers something to talk about or to think “I could be worse, I could be like him” and, in a way, feel better for yourself. This is also why we enjoy the misery of other people (yeah, I know what your thinking, “how can you say that? But is true and you now it). Every time we someone else suffering or with a physical deformity we, somehow, feel better and realise that indeed we could had a worse time. That’s why gossiping is so popular, don’t you think?

But escaping from reality is not all too bad; we also learn from those escapes, it helps us loose ourselves for a couple of hours, but it can help us to solve our problems. Take a book/film for example; one that changed you view of the world or that made you think differently, would you be the same person if you hadn’t seen/read that film/book? Probably not. This escapes makes you identify with various circumstances, problems and also makes you understand (in a way) things you haven’t gone through before. How many times have you thought: I wouldn’t what to be in his shoes? Entertainment gives us a wider view of the world, makes us “experience” things we haven’t before, and it can help us understand what other people are going through.

In conclusion, escaping form reality is not all too bad. The combination of this two makes us what we are and gives us another line of thinking. Sometimes it is necessary to escape in order to think things through or forget what we are going through at the moment. Whatever the reason is, one thing is true, without it life wouldn’t be the same.