AstelContributor
Internet and Social Media addiction
Hi, I wanted to talk about something I've personally fallen victim to, felt very frustrated by and which I feel is an injustice in society. As the title says, I feel very concerned about how huge of an impact the internet has had on our minds. It's probably been said by many others countless times before, the capacity for the internet to create echo chambers of thought or reinforce patterns of thinking with the goal of keeping people addicted to it for ad revenue on social media platforms, is such a cynicism, and frankly despair inducing reality that I want to voice my passionate aversion to.
I am of the younger generation, and I was a teenager when pocket computers and personalised, individualistic and isolationist content, was just coming into the mainstream of society.
I shudder thinking of the amount of my life I've spent in my own cyborg world staring at mindless content which I realised served so often almost purely to distract myself from myself, leading me down rabbit holes of questions about my mental health that were just adding layers of unnecessary complexity and wasted time to the issue. No doubt it made me more self-centred and selfish in my patterns of thinking, not with intention from myself, but by lacking insight into how it was shaping me as I was so young and impressionable when I was introduced to it.
It gave me many unrealistic expectations about life and filled my head with unhelpful fantasies. I do not have a diagnosis of ADHD, but I certainly have symptoms which I attribute largely to the onslaught of information which is always just a hand movement away.
Obviously, if used ideally, the internet serves as a great means of gaining knowledge and seeing new perspectives, forums like these being an example, but in its current form, how its weaponised and monetised, it is not delivering clear knowledge and resources to young people, it is creating a mental storm that causes confusion and a lack of clarity for so many people who may not have good influences in their life.
I wanted to write this because I admit I am one of those people who has lost a lot of life to the web due to lacking the connections I sorely needed in real life, and it was a crux, and I know now as an adult with insight it is my responsibility to determine my relationship with the internet as a tool, but it just feels like a failure of government that I as a young person, and the many other young people today can be duped by these devices and form unhealthy parasocial relationships with 'influencers' online instead of the relationships that actually give you something, and are good for your well-being.
The internet is a technology that I feel people are still trying come to grips with and I wanted to hear the opinions of the older generations who grew up without the internet and if anyone else relates to what I'm feeling.
I would like to hear your thoughts.
