They\u2019re bringing the dark side of NYC life to\u00a0light.\u00a0<\/p>\n
To brighten up her windowless bedroom, Sophia, a crafty Brooklynite, purchased and mounted a\u00a0$114 \u201cfake window\u201d<\/a>\u00a0to her wall, creating the illusion of natural sunlight \u2014 and igniting a firestorm of shade from haters who deem the setup a \u201cdystopian\u201d nightmare.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cThis is a fake window in my New York City apartment,\u201d said Sophia, demonstrating how the faux glow works to her more than 1.4 million video viewers<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n Sophia is one of the New Yorkers living in a windowless bedroom who\u2019s purchased a light box to create the illusion of daylight. Tiktok\/fiaaapiaaa222<\/p>\n \u201cThere is a building that was built on the other side of this window so it\u2019s just a plank of wood,\u201d she explained. \u201cI bought a light box and I just set it in\u2026and this literally saved my life.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cIt looks really real!\u201d the bubbly brunette chuckled.\u00a0<\/p>\n But to critics living outside of the concrete jungle, Sophia\u2019s makeshift sunshine in her confined quarters looks like \u201cprison.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cI would never live in NY. This is a nightmare,\u201d decried a digital detractor.\u00a0<\/p>\n Virtual critics of the faux light say they\u2019d never want to live in New York City, where people live like \u201cprisoners.\u201d Tiktok\/regina__vargas<\/p>\n \u201cThis is so dystopian, everyone deserves to have natural light in their space,\u201d another groaned.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cDepressing but necessary,\u201d noted an equally unimpressed outsider.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cPeople in New York City live like prisoners in a prison,\u201d spat another.\u00a0<\/p>\n And although the boroughs might boast a\u00a0building or two with its entrances guarded by steel bars, impenetrable gates and security officers, locals, by and large, certainly don\u2019t liken themselves to inmates.\u00a0<\/p>\n Despite its many shortcomings, including rooms without windows, NYC was just titled the most romantic city in the country. Jo Panuwat D \u2013 stock.adobe.com<\/p>\n To most, the privilege of calling the concrete jungle \u201chome\u201d comes with a bevy of built-in bonuses, such as the sights, skyscrapers and celebs walking the streets. Even with\u00a0sky-high rent demands<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0low quality of life ratings<\/a>, it\u2019s still the pride of the East Coast.\u00a0<\/p>\n Heck, Gotham was just crowned \u201cthe most romantic\u201d city<\/a>\u00a0nationwide, besting metropolises where windows and sunbeams surely abound like Nashville, Tennessee, and Austin, Texas.\u00a0<\/p>\n And folks like Sophia, who\u2019d rather make-do than move, are simply remedying the city\u2019s dim shortcomings with illuminating technology.\u00a0<\/p>\n Reina Vargas, an artist based in Brooklyn, recently showcased her phony window online, crediting it with\u00a0keeping her \u201csane\u201d<\/a>\u00a0during her six-hour painting sessions.\u00a0<\/p>\n Shreya, an Australia transplant now residing in the Big Apple, too,\u00a0flaunted her light box\u00a0<\/a>on the internet, bragging, \u201cWhy have a real window when you can have a fake one?\u201d<\/p>\n Sophia hails her trendy find as the tool that\u2019s helped her \u201csurvive\u201d life in a window-free bedroom, and says investing in the light box was a small price to pay in exchange for \u201ccheap rent.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cUh huh,\u201d she\u00a0gloated in a separate vid<\/a>. \u201cIt\u2019s lit!\u201d<\/p>\n \t\t\t\t\t\t