Did the Internet Eat Reality?

Reality used to mean something you could touch, see, and feel. Now it’s filtered, edited, and uploaded before it ever really happens. Somewhere between selfies, algorithms, and AI headlines, the internet didn’t just change reality — it consumed it.

The Moment It Happened

It wasn’t a single day or a viral post. Reality didn’t collapse in one click — it bled out slowly. We traded photo albums for Instagram grids, local hangouts for Discord servers, and conversation for comments. Now we scroll through the world instead of living in it.

Gen X might be the last generation to remember what life before the upload felt like — when a moment stayed a memory instead of content.

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The New Religion of Algorithms

We used to ask teachers, mentors, and parents for wisdom. Now, we ask Google, YouTube, and TikTok. The algorithm doesn’t care about truth — it only cares about what keeps you scrolling. It feeds the dopamine loop, not your brain.

We’ve reached the point where the algorithm isn’t showing us reality — it’s writing it.

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The AI Era: Simulation Becomes Default

Artificial intelligence writes the news, draws the art, sings the songs, and finishes our sentences. The lines between creator and code are gone. Deepfakes can make anyone say anything.

If you can’t tell what’s real anymore… maybe that’s the new definition of real.

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The Gen X Perspective

Gen X was raised analog and forced to adapt digital. We built the bridge — now we’re watching it burn. We remember when eye contact meant truth and “offline” wasn’t an insult. That’s why CommonX exists — to bring real back to the table.

Because while the world argues over what’s real, Gen X knows one thing for sure: reality doesn’t need a Wi-Fi signal.

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Final Thought

Maybe the internet didn’t just eat reality — maybe it ate our attention, our patience, and our sense of time. But as long as there’s one person still asking why, the story’s not over.