In the modern day it can be hard to not be bombarded with complete misery directly into your pocket. It can be extremely easy to be drawn in by the misery and have it almost become something you crave without even really realising it. Our minds are not designed to compute the sheer amount of information we are subjected to minute by minute. Personally, it has been a challenge for me to try and train my mind to not be such a prisoner to the social media and news apps that plague our phones.
It would be quite easy for me to sit here and simply tell you to just turn off all your phone notifications, but I understand that for some people it’s not that easy and it almost becomes a chronic thing for them that they compulsively check their phones. I just wanted to write this article to kind of vent about how absolutely anxiety inducing the modern world can be.
It is ridiculously hard to navigate through the day generally. So many people put so many demands on you that sometimes you just want to disappear into the corner of a room and pretend that you have taken a break from the universe and are no where to be found for a few moments at the very least. Although I would not be the person to shirk responsibility or pretend problems are not happening and need to be dealt with. I am simply pointing out the fact that sometimes I just want to be invisible for a little while.
We are still in the infancy stage of these instant gratification apps (be that gratification for good or bad means.) I think in 60 years when the world has progressed to a point where we don’t even have phones on us all the time and when humans essentially become androids akin to the type you would see in Fallout they will look upon us the same way we look at communications in the past. The point is I think in 60 years’ time (if we have not blown ourselves up) all the blatant flaws in our ‘modern’ tech which can only be seen through the benefit of hindsight will be glaringly obvious and they will ask how we were so primitive? I think every subsequent generation throughout the history of humanity has this arrogant grandstanding view of the past that one can only achieve through hindsight.
It is hard for us to avoid the technology of the modern day; it is in our pocket constantly. But it is crucial we understand the pitfalls and challenges that come alongside the joys and laughs we get from memes and Instagram reels.
As humans I think most of us are programmed to look at things optimistically at the outset and give people the benefit of doubt when we can. That is something we should be proud of as humans, but. When it comes to the instant feedback loops, we are all subjected to daily through the medium of our phones, it then becomes one of our biggest detriments.
Scrolling through the depths of hell (X) can be a scary experience. Every second tweet seems to be some form of imminent doom that is going to be inflicted on all of mankind IN THE VERY NEAR FUTURE (I’ve seen these tweets in my feed now for the past 13 years.) we look at those clickbait type social media posts as fact immediately after seeing it because your mind automatically assumes that if you see something published anywhere then it must be true, right? Wrong… X (formally known as Twitter) has always worked this way, although it is different now to when it was originally created the concept is still the same. Any person can post their thoughts on anything, and it will hold the same weight as a news organization that has been in existence since the invention of the printing press. Can we please just spend a minute to think about how bizarre that is.
The social media platform twitter, that originally consisted of raving narcissists telling you what they had for dinner that day has now become a hub where people get their news. And most of the time its from random people and is completely opinionated but spun off as fact. This in my opinion is one of the things that is driving the high levels of anxiety we see in the modern world, never mind the comparisons and other things we painfully self-inflict ourselves too on the likes of Instagram with people you’re not actually really friends with, each day we are increasing our anxiety levels and, ironically creating semi-permanent pathways in our brain to crave that hit of dopamine you get from interacting with the apps. It is a vicious cycle that I fear has been intentionally designed to make you feel that way. If I am right and that is the case than that is nothing short of evil on the part of the creatures of these ‘Social Media Platforms.’
For now, I have turned off notifications on all my news apps and have deleted the social media platform formally known as twitter in an attempt to revert inward. I am going to try and reverse those brain patterns I have undoubtedly formed unintentionally and will try my best to spend more time analysing my thoughts and instead of accepting why I may feel anxious or negative about something I would rather vent in a blog post like this and hope to god that a like minded soul may come across this and we can all try figure out how to help each other. So, to save you all from another one thousand words of waffle ill leave you with this.
Try to figure out the source of your anxiety, it is the most obvious thing you can think of, and unfortunately, it’s most likely in your pocket now. Instead of abandoning the phone altogether maybe you should go on a mini purge of sorts and small step by small step start silencing your phone. Not in the literal sense of course but it is reasonable to stop the instant app notifications invading your mind-space every time your phone vibrates. Set yourself times during the day where you check the apps and then once you are done with it then do not open them again (easier said than done.)
I will try this for a few weeks and check back in with another article about my progress! So, stay strong and feel free to comment or direct message me tips and tricks you have used to navigate this crazy world.
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