Several years ago I was leading a trail ride with a young teenager and his accompanying grandmother. As we descended on the trail down to the river, we had a magnificent overlook view across the Klamath river valley and through the Klamath National Forest. The teenager excitedly turned around on his horse and exclaimed: Look Grandma! This is almost a good as virtual reality!
All of the adults in the company, myself included, immediately corrected him in his view and pointed out that this IS reality, and reality IS more beautiful than any artificial recreation of if.
I have carried this experience with me for quite a while though, and it has tempered my sentiment on my fortunate circumstance of living in an incomparably beautiful “reality”. This also touches onto the topic of “digital overload”. Many of the teenagers carry their smart phones, i-pads, and other devices into the lodge and connect with friends through the WiFi offerings at the lodge. We sometimes see these youth decline the next activity in order to stay in contact with their urban locked-up peers. We never have provided television in the guest cottages, and now we are in the discussion as to how to best mitigate youthful abuse of the internet in deference to engaging and bonding ranch activities. Shall we password protect the WiFi through the accompanying guardians? Shall we eliminate the WiFi entirely (I think not)? Shall we just apply subtle adult pressure to techo-addicted youth? Who knows what the best answer shall be, but there is a movement at our California guest ranch to further enable our visiting youth to maximize their immersion into “real” reality. Gosh! is that redundant? or shall I say “Non-virtual Reality”? Perhaps I should google this and find out the correct terminology, or e-mail an expert on a grammar forum after I finish writing this internet blog. hmmmm
A really Real reality on the Klamath River
Doug