2024 06 14

Bare trees prior to the additional of leaves for added visual pleasure. Starved Rock State Park, Illinois. April, 2024. © Clayton Hauck

While browsing Hulu’s user interface to put on some background news television, it hit me that today’s news channels are essentially reality filters. Users are given a choice which filter they want to use in order to view the world in their ideal vision. This is something I already knew, but hadn’t previously thought of it like Instagram filters. Increasingly, we are using technology to warp the reality around us.

I’m someone who enjoys all four seasons, but I also understand why so many people move south to avoid them. Seasons come with drawbacks. It’s cold. It’s hot. It’s muggy. It’s buggy. It’s snowy. It’s wet. Why put up with all the inconvenience when you can simply relocate to San Diego and enjoy three-hundred-plus days of 70-degrees and sunny? They’ve even shipped in a bunch of palm trees from elsewhere to add visual appeal.

It doesn’t seem like this trend of re-shaping our personal world to better suit our desires is going to slow down anytime soon, whatever the unknown costs may be.

-Clayton