Vanity kills people. Especially when social media pushes us onto fanatically measuring our engagement rates and overthinking about our public image. Now platforms restrict body shameful posts and VR filters that transform our faces beyond recognition. But what about psychological disorders that occur.
But when will we start thinking about our mental obesity?
The feed will never feed you
We’ve come over the ’90-’00s i.e. “the fast-food decade” by battling our capitalist obesity with sustainable policies and eco-friendly solutions. Now we are onto the next big battle of our generation. Yes, we have dived into the depths of the ’00-’20s i.e. “the fast news decade”.
You’ve probably heard the cliché “You are what you eat”, but what does that mean for us? Did information overload succeed to make us feel mentally obese and glamorously fake? I very much would say, yes.
The algorithm puts each herd in its place
We’re all scrolling so intensely that we have lost the ability to think critically.
If we only had the opportunity to get out of the trap of our superficial thinking, we might notice that we are tied to our feeders. Our appetite is doomed to be always unsatisfied. And while someone is planning a detox and ordering another magical diet, few are considering social media fasting.
We’re living in a User-Friendly world
If you have a basic online culture, you will know that rule #1 in the webspace is – subject all your decisions to a user-friendly interface.
Marketers will now shake their heads in agreement because they know that choice leads to no results. So will politicians, moneylenders, and casino owners.
But why doubt the UX rule when we blindly believe that companies take care of our needs the best. When everything is just a click away, why bother with pages on unnecessary information, tutorials, books? Why learn, when someone can do it for you.
We are just too confident that there will be tomorrow, so we waste today on satisfying our primary dependence on social approval.
So let’s “Save for later” and keep scrolling.
Are we rich on time?
Virtual space makes us feel in charge of the information flow. Naturally, this makes us feel safe. It’s as if we have all the time in the world to reach our dreams, to learn new and create. As if we’re rich on time.
Who pays the bill?
It’s widely known that those who have more, afford large costs. That is why the exchange coin in the internet space remains time (and data!). And as in any economic model, the buyer is actually the one who determines the price.
On the other hand, we sell our time on a daily basis, without knowing at what price. We do it without any virtual culture and knowledge of how much we cost. Time, data – we are indifferent to all.
The moral of the story is as follows: The statement “time is not enough” is not completely true. We managed to prove to ourselves that even when time stops, even during a world pandemic, we will still not manage to find the right moment for our waiting list of duties. The feed will never stop, nor our procrastination.
Perhaps it is about time we proclaim our brain as part of the stunted organ groups. At the tip of our hands is placed the power of all inventions known to the world, and yet, we still prefer scrolling than reading, laughing than learning, watching than creating, following than speaking out.
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