The world around him was breaking apart. As for his friends, his loved ones, they were all separated in their own information bubbles, in a world of alternative facts and narratives to his own. The streets were mostly desolate and empty, people stayed in the darkness of their homes with a virtual reality headset stuck almost permanently to their faces. Sex technology and pornography was rampant, marriages non-existent. Billions played a single online game - “second life”. The people around him not wearing a headset shuffled past him without emotion. The buildings around him crumbled from lack of maintenance. Yet he walked through the city with a smile on his face. His brain, not damaged by the constant-hyper stimulation of technology, was able to find pleasure in the mundane reality around him. He breathed the real, fresh air into his lungs, felt the sunlight hit his face and used his eyes to look at the reality around him. Despite the chaos of the world that surrounded him, he felt content. He wasn't sad, nor was he ecstatically happy, but his mind was calm. He had made his choice a long time ago – to live in alignment with his own nature as best as he possibly could. And he knew deep in his gut, he had made the right choice. PS. I wrote a whole book on this subject, let me know if you're interested