Look, we can’t really blame the internet for our problems. By design, it is a bunch of programming designed to provide us with information. Whether a website, search engine, database, or some hellscape like Tik Tok, the internet is trying to connect us to the information we are seeking.
The unintended consequences are many, but the one I’d like to focus on is the way it alters our view of the physical world, and of society. When you get the feedback loop of information that is highly curated for your specific tastes, you start getting the impression that the world is how you think it is. You lose (or ignore) critical thinking. The comments section is right there, which means you don’t shut up, listen, and learn: you drop your precious opinion without much consideration and move on thinking you benefited the world with your wisdom.
Anyone who disagrees is obviously misinformed. Pitiable at best, a total moron otherwise.
Spending too much time on the web can also get us accustomed to everything being curated just for us. That isn’t how the real world works of course. Driving in traffic is a series of people trying to share a space, most of them not knowing any of the nuances, everyone mad at all the other idiots for not seeing how important we are and our need to get where we’re going.
I mean, we can see everyone else’s stupidity and narrow-mindedness, but it appears we are too busy judging them to take some time to self-reflect. But hey, we have the internet for that. We can look at social media and see everyone’s fake lives, carefully curated, put to music, and run through a filter.
It’s all sunsets, beaches, smiles, blemish-free skin, and that just-right angle to make that new push up bra really pop. We see only happy couples — not their constant arguments. We see the new car or vacation and not the crushing debt. We see the motivational quotes from the most toxic people we know. It isn’t real, but worse yet, it isn’t even close to real.
We created a system that gives us access to all the information humanity has ever amassed, compressed it into a device that fits in our pocket, then we use it to watch epic fail videos and to swipe left or right on people we think are hot or not. So no, the internet, cell phones, social media, advertising… none of it gets deserves the blame.
All of those things are inventions, used by people, and the result is the result we created. Whether intentional or not is irrelevant. Whether the government should be regulating it or making companies regulate themselves is irrelevant. The inability of us to look up and around and see each other as fellow human beings, struggling through the same stuff (some more, some less, but all struggling with something) is what is relevant.
We continue to blame anything and everything around us. We are experts at finding fault in others. The lower, base emotions of humankind are being cultivated by the society we are creating as a collective people. It is crippling because when you blame external things you remove the thing in this world you have the most control over: yourself.
Now is probably the part of the story where you expect my 4-point plan for successfully changing the world©. That would also be you looking for answers externally, much the same way we look to externalize blame. The truth is, there is no magic solution other than individuals looking up, looking around, deciding to change, and changing.
You can pray for a messiah or take a meditation retreat or buy a gram of blow and a pint of whiskey, but the fix starts where we are right now and works outward, one interaction at a time. Finding a few real, human connections that are in their own conversation for self-awareness can one day turn into a community. Strength in numbers, but good luck outnumbering the zombie horde of screen-slaves.
Changing you is always going to be better than changing the world, because the world as you see it is actually just your internal response to the external stimuli that comes your way. That means changing you does change the world, because you will see the world differently when you change your own outlook and understanding.
So, maybe start by giving yourself a break? A break from social media, a break from the news outlets you follow…unplug from pop culture, but also a break from your self-critical views that make you seek external validation in the first place? It’s not about lightswitch changes. It’s more about freeing up enough time to go, “what do I do now?” Don’t ask the question rhetorically — there is something else to be done with that bit of free time.
Don’t expect the skies to part and angels to play trumpets just because you decided to read a book or take a walk for 20min instead of compare your thighs to your favorite Instagram influencer’s. The real world doesn’t force-feed you what you want in a few milliseconds; the world is actually pretty disinterested in you. And me. And everything.
It’s a cold reality at first, but I promise it’s better to accept the uncomfortable truths than to warm yourself with a blanket of lies and imagination. If it were the other way around, we could cure cancer by simply pretending it isn’t real. So, while giving yourself a break from whatever screen fixation is draining your soul, maybe also give yourself a break for the things you feel don’t measure up the way they should.
Much like tuning a radio, you can tune into the frequency of negativity. You can say the world is all negative, and you’d be right for you, but just because we tune to one frequency doesn’t mean the other frequencies aren’t still broadcasting. Fear and distress is still broadcasting, as is is love and understanding. Fine tuning our thoughts is the key, and the internet has — as I see it — become a tool to retune humans into something they are not, and were never meant to be.
Johnny Killmore 