The Nutrients Provided by a "Well-Made" Escape
Hiding in someone else’s universe to anesthetize oneself at night is not always a sin. Let us be honest: we do grow, bit by bit, even while watching Netflix or playing video games every night. Watching a well-made drama allows us to witness the tragedies of an era and the lives of others we might never have experienced otherwise. Within the sophisticated lore of a video game, we learn strategies of victory and defeat. Watching live streams helps us read the raw psychology and trends of the people living in our contemporary world.
This is undoubtedly a precious indirect experience and an accumulation of nutrients. No matter how magnificent the "child of the night" within us may be, no universe can be created out of a total vacuum. The time spent admiring the brilliant fortresses others have built and absorbing their grammar is a "silent zone of growth"—a time for gathering the sturdy bricks of a fortress we will one day build ourselves. It is also a period of recovery, soothing a soul wounded by day through irritation-free rest.
To Be Swallowed, or to Digest
The problem is that the moment a sanctuary turns into a growth-stunting poison has nothing to do with the escape itself. It happens when we refuse to allow ourselves even a single minute of "time to digest" the nutrients we have swallowed.
True growth begins in the quiet blank space that arrives after the video ends or the console is turned off. When trivial questions like "Why did that person make that choice?" or "What would I have done if I were in that world?" mingle with our internal thoughts, someone else’s time finally transforms into our own growth.
However, the platforms’ shrewd algorithms refuse to grant us that blank space. Five seconds before a video ends, the timer for the next episode is already counting down. They inject another dose of dopamine before our thought circuits can even turn on, locking us in a state of "suspended thinking." The moment we lose our questions and relentlessly cram someone else’s thoughts and narratives into our brains without a pause, our sanctuary ceases to be a nutrient and becomes a massive landfill eating away at our soul.
A Single Brick for My Own Fortress
In the end, whether an escape becomes a hindrance or growth depends entirely on "the one minute after turning off the content." Feel free to explore and enjoy someone else’s universe to your heart’s content, but when you return, you must make sure to bring your own souvenirs—questions and musings—back to your room.
No matter how grand an innovator is, they do not sit in a small room imagining things all year round. They, too, were individuals who diligently spectated, imitated, and escaped into the worlds of others to gather their materials. The only difference is that they did not remain spectators; they used those materials to build their own house.
So, let us not reproach ourselves too harshly for hiding inside our smartphone screens tonight. We might just be collecting the bricks to make our own universe larger and more solid. Only, in that brief darkness that arrives after the screen goes dark, let us quietly strike up a conversation with the child within: "With that wonderful world we saw today, what shall we build now?" If you can fling that single question, every instance of your escapism will become the most perfect stepping stone for growth.
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