We used to hear these words describing a day dreamer, someone who, in spite of whatever was going on around him, was so comfortable in his own thoughts, he didn’t seem to notice anyone else.
It seems to me that it’s even easier now to be in a world of our own. Our own blogs, specialty TV channels, music listening devices, and of course, Internet favorites, can create such a self-centered, self-absorbing bubble, that we hate leaving it. In fact, with smart phones and tablets streaming content through WiFi and data packages, we don’t have to. Our “world” travels with us, and even comes to define us, if not own us.
The jury is still out as to what happens to a culture like ours, in which most of what used to be public and shared is now quite private. But I imagine that all of it won’t be good. We hear periodic warnings, of course, not to be addicted to our phones or tablets, but in a world of our own, what used to be addiction has become our everyday experience, our normal.
I wonder if one day we will realize that there is no such thing as virtual reality, just reality, no time but real time, and that it is our values, opinions, morality, and compassion which have become virtual.
“For the body does not consist of one member
but of many.”
1 Corinthians 12:14