Lightning Proof: A 10-Year Audit on Love and Tech

They say hindsight is 20/20, but looking back ten years at my own writing feels more like looking at a different version of the world entirely. In 2015, we were still treating social media like a new, slightly annoying houseguest—something that distracted us from our lives but hadn’t quite moved in for good.

Back then, I read an article about why marriages were failing and blamed the “noise” of technology. I saw it as an accelerant to problems that already existed. But revisiting that post in 2026, I realize I missed the most dangerous part of the digital age: It hasn’t just made life louder; it’s made us lightning proof.

We used to talk about finding “lightning in a bottle”—that rare, raw, and slightly dangerous spark of true connection. But lightning requires you to be out in the storm, heart unprotected and ego exposed. Today, we’ve used our technology to build perfectly insulated lives. We have “breadcrumbs” of validation at our fingertips and endless exit ramps for when things get uncomfortable. We’ve traded the storm for a steady, artificial glow.

From the Archives: April 2015

To see how much the perspective has shifted, here is the original response I posted over a decade ago:

Rob Reads: 5 Reasons Marriages Just Don’t Work Anymore

The 2026 Audit

Looking at those words now, I see a guy who was right about the symptoms but hadn’t yet diagnosed the disease. In 2015, I thought tech was a distraction. In 2026, I see it as insulation. We use our screens as a grounding wire, safely diverting the emotional energy that should be going into the person sitting across from us. It’s hard for a spark to catch when you’ve spent your whole life building a cage to keep the weather out.

The ultimate irony is that we use this “lightning proof” insulation to protect ourselves from being hurt, but in doing so, we also protect ourselves from being seen. We stay dry, but we stay cold.

Choosing the Storm (Option C)

In 2026, my perspective has shifted toward Option C. For a long time, I thought the only options were to stay in the “lightning-proof” cage of a comfortable, disconnected life or to keep chasing breadcrumbs of validation from a screen.

But Option C is choosing myself. It’s the realization that I am strong enough to handle the storm. Choosing myself means choosing to dismantle the ego-armor, to stop using technology as a grounding wire, and to be willing to stand out in the rain—unprotected and open to whatever comes next.

Because if you want to catch lightning in a bottle, you have to be willing to get a little wet.

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AI art created with Google Gemini

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