Escapism: Social Media, Virtual Reality & Fantasy
Humans are expert escape artists
Hey friends,
Happy Easter!
Just a short, introductory post to the next series of newsletters: Escapism: Social Media, Virtual Reality & Fantasy.
It’s at this point in the year that I’m so grateful for those 23.5 degrees that allow a transition from winter to spring. Bring on the warm weather and sunshine!
Speaking of transitions, I’m back to work on a phased return soon and feeling more hopeful for defeating this fatigue once and for all. Hopefully, this is a new season of better health, more energy to write and a clearer head for figuring stuff out.
Introduction: Escapism
There are two key factors in an escape: what you’re escaping from and what you’re escaping to. I think we tend to focus more on the former—what a person is escaping from—than the latter. Escape is naturally associated with some form of imprisonment: being trapped, held hostage, or controlled against our will. The Cambridge Dictionary defines the verb escape as ‘to get free from something, or to avoid something’. Sometimes, the thing we’re getting free from might be a physical prison, other times it’s something circumstantial: a toxic work environment, a traumatic home life, an unhealthy relationship, a warzone. The idea though is that we’re trying to leave something behind us and that is the key motivating factor for our escape.
But I think a little more attention should be given to what we might be escaping to as well. As a general rule, the thing you’re escaping to is something better than the thing you’re escaping from. Otherwise, what would be the point in escaping in the first place? No one is going to try escaping something if there’s nothing to be gained from it. There must be a better prospect that we’re aiming for to also motivate our escape attempt. No one is going to flee from a comfortable and humane prison to one where food and water are scarce, there are no amenities, inmate mortality is high and torture is a daily occurrence… unless they’re some sort of masochist, of course. No. We make escape attempts because we believe there’s something better to gain by doing so.
So, this bring me on to escapism, something which is still these days framed in the negative. Most of the time when I hear the term ‘escapism’ being used, it’s either describing behaviour that is considered unhealthy, or a pastime one should feel embarrassed about for its childishness or fantastical quality.
The Cambridge Dictionary defines escapism as: ‘a way of avoiding an unpleasant or boring life, especially by thinking, reading etc. about more exciting but impossible activities’.
For some reason, even this definition reads as a criticism to me. Perhaps it’s the use of the terms ‘avoid’ and ‘impossible’. It makes it sound like escapism is in the same as a child hiding in their treehouse because snapping their fingers Mary-Poppins-style didn’t magically tidy their room for them and now they want to get out of the task altogether. I feel judged.
To be fair, other dictionaries word their definition differently, I just went with this one because it was the first I came across. My point though is that when talking about escapism, there seems to be an emphasis on the thing we’re escaping from rather than the thing we’re escaping to. Running away from household chores? Shame on you! Want to forget, for a moment, all the boring adulting society has burdened you with in the name of success and sophistication? How dare you!
But what I want to figure out, is whether escaping unpleasant or boring reality in favour of something more exciting, is really such a bad thing or not.
Undoubtedly there’s a form of escapism that is unhealthy. Almost everything is unhealthy in excess. Moderation is key and all that. And intent is also an issue too… escapism that is just an attempt to avoid facing our responsibilities entirely, forever, can’t be good either. But surely there’s a form of escapism that is also perfectly healthy, normal and perhaps even necessary too? After all, humans are expert escape artists for a reason: we’ve built industries worth billions on escapism and that can’t all just be down to commercialism exploiting the weaknesses of the mass population… can it? Surely, there must be a genuine, innate need for escape in the human psyche that precedes the supply?
My instinct as a fiction writer is, of course, to defend escapism tooth and nail, since it’s essentially my mode of existence, my trade, and my only talent. But I don’t want to do so without acknowledging that firstly, escapism can certainly be a problem; and secondly, that if there’s a healthy way to escape, it likely falls within certain boundaries.
Anyway, that will be the focus of the next few posts. Since escapism can take many forms, I’m just going to focus on three: social media, virtual reality and fantasy fiction. The first two are forms of escapism that have only emerged recently due to modern technology, and the third has been around for a while longer but, I would say, has grown in reach and scope in recent decades due to advances in digital media.
How do these forms of escapism work? What are the problems? What are the benefits? Is escapism easier to perform now because of the growth of these mediums? Is it more dangerous because of them? If we’re all spending so much money and time escaping, is escapism itself the problem, or is there actually something in the real world that needs addressing? And I guess there’s room to consider, if we’re feeling brave, what has escapism got to do with faith?
Hope you can join me on this little escapade… wink. wink.
Next post, will be Part One: Social Media and Hyperreality (time to brush up on Jean Baudrillard’s Simulacra and Simulation).
Until then, feel free to comment your initial thoughts or let me know the ways you like to escape (if you’re a compulsive escapee like me). And if you are enjoying Life at 23.5 Degrees, please do share, like or subscribe.
Take care,
PJ