Lock Your Internet!

Had I received a penny every time I had to avoid bumping into people with their head buried in their smartphone, I'd be a rich man. And if they didn't bury their heads in smart-sand so much of the time, they would be better of themselves.

_{source: Wikimedia Commons}

Addiction to social media and the dopamine rush granted by the likes and up-votes, is gradually revealing itself to be the cause of many problems. Studies have linked the use of social media to depression, anxiety, poorer sleep quality, lower self-esteem, inattention, and hyperactivity - often in teens and adolescents. In How Social Media Increases Depression and Loneliness we see that we can add loneliness to that list. How often do you see friends or family members gathered in little groups, all intensely staring at their own smart-screen and not saying a word to each other? That's loneliness right there.

It's really not rocket science; our brains produce a small amount of reward drugs (dopamine) whenever we receive some form of validation from our peer group. The formation of such a peer group, like-minded spirits that agree on the bulk of life's questions, is fast and easy with the help of the semi automated algorithms found in social media. Where building real life relationships cost time and effort, they're but a couple of clicks, likes and dislikes away on the internet. It costs a lot less personal or spiritual effort also, because online we share only our positive traits; we don't have to deal with the darker side of our online "friends", which apparently makes bonding a lot easier...

But breaking those bonds is a lot easier too. And because not only we, but also everybody else is only sharing the highlights of their lifes, "look at us in the sun on the beach with a great drink celebrating the best things in life" or "look at this gorgeous meal we just prepared", we're constantly confronted with depictions of lifes much better than our own. We're unintentionally creating for each other our curated lifes through our online avatars:

"What happens many times when they log on is that you kind of activate a lot of social comparison," said Oscar Ybarra, PhD, a professor of psychology at the University of Michigan. "People don’t necessarily have to be super aware that this is occurring, but it does. You log on, you're generally dealing with very curated content on the other side." [...] These constant "upward social comparisons" can happen hundreds of times each day, depending on how frequently you check your social media feeds.
_{source: HealthLine - December 9, 2018}

_{source: Max Pixel}

There's something utterly narcissistic about the whole phenomenon; constantly buried in your own private social universe, exclusively tailored around your own private needs and convictions, taking dozens of "selfies" and choosing only the very best of them, to share with the world your perfect self. It also is in my strong opinion a catalyst for the postmodern nihilism people like Jordan Peterson like to complain about. Constantly beinng affirmed in your own truth can lead to two things; the belief that your truth is THE truth, or that there is no real truth, just opinions.

And it's not only dangerous on a mental level, it's physically dangerous too. Did you know that there are two cities in Germany that installed trafic lights on the ground, just for people who are constantly looking down on their smartphone?

Two German cities were concerned enough to install traffic lights that face up at pedestrians ... on the sidewalk.

The southern city of Augsburg recently installed the system at two crowded train stations after a manager saw something similar in Cologne.
_{source: CNN - April 27, 2016}

I'm really grateful that you're here and reading my blog, dear reader, but I secretly hope you aren't doing it on a smartphone. Don't carry your internet with you if you're not able to stay away from the social media. I use the internet when I'm home and on my PC only; when I leave the room, I leave the internet, and I'm glad to say that most of my time is spent outside that room. No Partiko for me. Maybe my age has something to do with it too... In my time, when I wanted a photo of myself taken, I had to communicate with a real life person and politely ask them if they would be so kind to take my camera and take that photo for me, and would be willing to trust that stranger not to run away with said camera... Aahhhh how times have changed. Take it from an old man then: lock your internet in a room (and leave that room regularly).

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