RE: Virtual community. Reality?

Very good, @minismallholding.

"Why am I only now suddenly realising that Virtual Reality is an oxymoron? 🤦‍♀️"

In the first sentence of your response, you have discerned what I would consider the heart of the challenge, for ours or any conversation surrounding the word community. And why I titled my post with the key words intended to stimulate a bit more critical thinking about it.

Your example from your family, with your daughter, is very sobering to me. Where the struggle comes, at least in part, is through the initial enticement of whatever it is with which we are being tempted. It is always appears attractive, at least at first. Part of that appeal, in my view, is we are only given part of the story. By design? Well, there is another topic which endlessly has been and will be written about.

"I'm an introvert, but I grew up in a world without internet, when mobile phones were only just being invented. Therefore I had to learn to interact with people and deal with unfamiliar situations via communicating directly."

[emphasis added mine]

Yes, we had to learn. Our younger generations are also learning. They are just not the same lessons. Any honest and open examination of how that is going should lead to some challenging questions, at a minimum.

Some of which can be found, as at least implied, if not directly stated, in this post.

In my "All or Nothing!?" post, which preceded this one, by design, it was intentionally focused specifically on how our political conversations have trended over recent years. I do not personally believe that mindset is in any way restricted, however, to just that topic.

It has seemingly bled over into our conversations about almost everything. Can we say there is a refining process involved with true freedom of expression? One in which various points of view are presented, when backed with genuine sincerity and good intentions, that lead to better outcomes?

I believe that to be so. And this post has been written, with that in mind.