Why Do Young People Feel the World Is Not Real?

Anna Lembke says young people feel the world is not real because they spend so much time in virtual space, which is essentially brains turned inside out, the equivalent of living inside their own heads. They describe depersonalization, the sense that they are not real, and derealization, the sense that the world is not real. They endorse the idea that we are living in a simulation.

She calls it a pandemic. Her first recommendation is living in reality: get off digital devices and the internet, leave the house, go outside, and interact with real people. Mess ups are welcome, as a kind of graded exposure therapy, so a young person can embrace uncertainty. Try a hobby never done before, one they will probably not be good at, instead of being the constant optimizer. Many have opted out of career maxing and relationship maxing and landed on scroll maxing. Get them into a school where they can have an embodied experience, use their hands, use tools, and build real things. Digital space should be reconceptualized as an addictive drug that disconnects them from themselves, other people, and the world.

Scientists speculate we might really be living in a simulation. A simulation is not an effective model for a good life and does not help. People need to feel tethered, which means getting off devices and spending time with other people, nature, and things in the world, even while terrified of the uncertainty.