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Is our innovation working against us?
In the age of the modern internet, nothing seems to matter. We see everything, and so we become desensitized, spoiled, and insecure. We lose our ability to hold focus on things that should matter to us. We teach ourselves that there is no nuance, only the black-and-white, minimally researched opinions that have been regurgiated and circulated through online spaces, about celebrities we don't know, about news we haven't read a full article about. Something has to change. The internet is not an extension of us. It is not a mirror to remind us, to no avail, that we are real, and breathing, and have staked a claim in the chaos of the earth. It is supposed to be a tool of nourishment, which affirms the multitudes of ourselves as indivudals and deepens our understanding of eachother, instead of reinforcing lack of patience and distance from community through excessive echo chambers and isolation. The internet can be a beautiful, informative, and community-building space, and in many instances it is. But corporate greed does not have its interests in learning and community. Our innovation is not working against us: Capitalism is.
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Society and instant gratification
As Frank Herbert wrote: "Fear is the mind killer." Today's society is dealing with a chronic fear of patience. Algoithims are designed against the vulnerable. We are supposed to lose patience so that we can make more money for corporations. We are supposed to view eachother increasingly as concepts rather than real people with complex thoughts and feelings. We are supposed to look at memes instead of looking at the destruction happening all around us. We are meant to question only enough, but not never too much. Instant gratification can become an addiction, and like any addiction, it only leads to despair and depression. iPad kids will grow up to be kids who do not want to read or learn, and society will become both increasingly dumb and increasingly helpless because knowledge is power. We live in a time where knowledge is abundant and the discipline to take advantage of it is increasingly scarce.
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These systems reinforce the oppressive heirarchies of the real world, from white supremacist mass shooters indoctrinated by right-wing internet spaces to increasingly violent free porn sites and the sex trade that supports it. Many people feel helpless about living in an isolating society but they do not know why. They feel increadingly lonely and powerless, so they may seek power in the form of instant gratification that affirms ideas of superiority. Today's violent porn culture and resulting rape culture is just the combination of traditional gender roles and the catalyst of technological capitalism's instant gratification scheme. The internet, when used primarily for a profit incentive, becomes the most distorted mirror humanity can ever hold up to itself. How do we save ourselves? How do we re-regulate our nervous systems so that we can save humanity from increasing violence, lonliness, and impending dumbassery?
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Making change on an individual level
Ask yourself: Is the internet taking more from me than what it is giving? Is the internet bringing me closer to isolation rather than closer to community? If the answer is yes, readjust the way you are using the internet. Join an online class or webinar. Read a book. Cook a recipe. Try some phone conversations instead of just sending memes. The brain is full of neural pathways that can be manipulated in ways that can benefit or harm us. If the neural pathways learn to only derive pleasure from quick hits of dopamine, they are operating with a pattern that does not find the same enjoyment in going for a walk. We have to, as a society, re-train our neural pathways to enjoy a plethora of activities and ways of recivieing information. Many people want to eat healthy but do not realize that their brain consumes just as their body does. This is a great place to start, but ultimately we have to look at the conditions that brought us to widespread technology addiction. Making change on an individual level will never be enough, because our material conditions are a result of opressive systems that we must dismantle together.
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The way Forward: Technology under Socialism
(This section is currently in progress)
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Tips for mindful phone usage
- Instagram has enabled a feature called chronological mode. It shows you your feed posts in chronological order, as opposed to algoirthmic order. This way, you will see posts from everyone that you follow, and not just the select posts that the algorithim tries to show you. There are many accounts out there that post useful and insightful content, but the algorithm may not show you their posts after you follow them.
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- Use the black and white mode on your phone. I have an android, and in the accessibility settings I enable an icon towards the bottom of the screen that allows me to toggle between black and white view and standard color grading. If you are constantly looking at colors on your phone that are brighter and more saturated than the real world, they will seem more appealing.
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- Use a minimalist launcher app. The minimalist phone launcher app for android makes your homescreen into a simple interface that monitors your screen time and allows you to set limitations on screen time.