THE WORLD IS BURNING AND I AM WATCHING IT LIVE

So, this is going to be a freeform blog in a James Joycian stream-of-consciousness way where I just let my thoughts and emotions flow freely. It's June 1st, 2020, and the world, on the outside, appears to be ending. Pandemic, riots, unemployment, bipartisanship politics...how did we get here? It's at the point where I'm eternally grateful for a digital means to communicate and educate because I don't see myself leaving the house for any significant amount of time in the near future.

It really just brings to light the importance of the digital age; what it has improved (imagine our stay-at-home pandemic without the worldwide web) and what it hasn't (social unrest). I'm seriously wondering if there's going to be a time here in the next decade or two when leaving the house for any reason is not only unnecessary, but frowned upon? Will I be teaching class virtually, with AR or VR augmented technology? Instead of going to conferences in person will I instead being doing so virtually (actually, I'm already doing that this summer)? Will my students have high-profile, well compensated jobs and never have to leave the house? In the pre-smart phone year of 2007 I won a contest to go to the premiere of the Pixar movie WALL-E where humans were depicted as stationary blobs in an automated, futuristic society. I never thought it possible, yet here we are a mere 13 years later and on the precipice of that same existence.

Yet today, when the world is on fire and people can't go out without masks, I'm glad it's an option.