Covid has brought us many things we never thought we would experience, good and bad. I was watching television this morning and learned that all cheering and jeering during the Super Bowl was ALL canned! It wasn’t real. WHAT?!?! Then, while watching tennis later in the day, I learned that all of the cheering and clapping was all canned too! SUCH a turn-off for me to watch ANY sportscast on television.

If we are satisfied with canned cheering and jeering for any ‘live’ sports event, then why would we ever be satisfied with live anything anymore. CGI has become oh so visually close to physical reality then I wonder how long it will be before Virtual anything is preferred over Actual reality. Scary, in my opinion. Perhaps I’ve seen too many movies where human beings are completely satisfied with living their life as a biological ‘battery’ for the virtual ‘world’ but where and when do we draw the line between the reality of humanism to the unreal fantasyland that virtualism provides?

I love watching tennis. Irene and I have attended many professional tennis tournaments. But now, I honestly don’t even want to watch tennis on television because after each point I find myself cringing with the added sound of applause. It’s not real. I don’t need canned applause to enjoy a match. I don’t want to listen to applause that is not real. Ok, so canned audience reaction during the days of I Love Lucy was used. The show may have been filmed in front of a live audience but the laughter and applause were always augmented with additional sound effects. I get it, sort of. I guess at that time of television, it was deemed necessary for the viewer audience to remain engaged. But do we really need that now? After a generation of reality, as in reality, we think were going to be satisfied with anything less than reality, virtual reality?

Not me. Maybe I am ‘old school’. Ok, I am fine with that then. I prefer the real world over a virtual world. Guilty.