The modern man no longer perceives the world through nature but through the screen. The screen is a bit-based ultra-low resolution lens prone to all sorts of noises and distortions. Natural world is quantum-based and has ultra-high resolution. The screen probes the senses at all time but penetrates the heart much less often. When I think about the most memorable and defining events of my life thus far, I realize they all have ultra-high resolution. Their physical existence takes up just a tiny percentage of my entire life’s sensual experience in time and space, yet they linger on in my heart across space and time. Their meanings transform as time continues on.

They say the internet allows us to reach any corner of the world. True. But our presence in those corners have ultra-low resolution; they exist as noises to the people who are physically there. When we interact more through screens, we all obtain more low-res life experiences. These experiences lack in depth and form meanings poorly. So we associate these low-res experiences with other high-res ones in reserve to force the former to become high-res. As a result, these makeshift high-res experiences are distorted representations of the high-res realities they are associated with.

What are meanings? They are interpretations of experiences. Without interpretations, meanings do not exist. We exchange our individual interpretations to build collective meanings. But when interpretations are based upon low-res experiences, our sense of reality become distorted. The resulting collective meanings no longer penetrate the heart.

A downward spiral is formed: low-res experiences obtained, they are combined into distorted high-res interpretations, collective meanings become thinner, brittle, and filled with holes.

Why is this happening? Perhaps we over estimated our ability to experience reality via the internet. We advocate to eliminate the sufferings we do not understand. We chase goals that lack our hearts’ resolve. We act upon a world we do not fully see.

I’ve no solutions to offer at the moment. But if you suffer in the same way, know that you are not alone. Know that you got at least one person to reach out to. Once we find each other, we can walk away from this nihilistic melancholy together.