Our brains are slowly frying. We’re losing the ability to think critically. We no longer have long attention spans. We can’t engage in conversations that aren’t forced upon us in work settings. We’re also losing the ability to be creative. We’re losing the ability to be human, to be natural, to be authentic. Social Media, especially TikTok, is full of overstimulating content. This overstimulation has resided in us for so long, our brains are now uncomfortable with low-stimulating activities. We sit in silence and find ourselves uncomfortable, we use 2x speed to watch a three minute video, when the conversation is awkward we pick up our phones instead of trying to find a new topic.Connections are being lost, authenticity is being forgotten, and we are devolving solely due to the comfortability of overstimulating media. We need to take a break from it and become human again. How many times in a day do you pick up your phone? Don’t tell me it’s once. Naturally, we pick up our phones, without even realizing, multiple times in a day. You do it, I do it, everyone does it. Our reasons for picking it up may be different, but in general it’s because we’re bored. What else is there to do but scroll on our phone? We need to understand the stagnation that we’re in now. Our overuse of technology is causing us to accommodate ourselves with overstimulation. This overstimulation is one of the primary factors to our minds declining; We’re becoming animals. We’re losing our complexity. Every time this is mentioned in the media, it’s deemed as dramatic. One is being far too woke. Though it sounds dramatic, allow me to illustrate what’s truly happening every time we scroll TikTok, use Instagram, or snap on Snapchat.
Short videos with high amounts of overstimulation cause our brains to be uncomfortable when doing low-stimulating activities. We can no longer read a book for longer than five minutes, we can’t get through a documentary, and we find mingling with others strange, weird. We’ve lost the ability to sit for a long period of time or to focus on one topic for an extended period. I mean, we’re bouncing from one app to the next. TikTok, then Instagram, then Snapchat, then Pinterest, maybe a little bit of Twitter, and the right back to TikTok again. We can’t even stay on one app for a period of time, let alone an activity that holds some form of substance. Conversations can’t be held correctly due to our diminishing attention spans. Attention spans are shorting, especially in the newer generation. Shortened attention spans only lead to a decrease in relationships, decrease in school achievements, decrease in work achievements, an increase in procrastination, and a decrease in creativity.
I’ve come to believe that the need to make life easier has allowed us to create avenues that chop our attention spans. Why would we need to watch a ten-minute video on the Black Death when we can easily search it up and AI can give us a run-down of the main points? The easier life gets, the easier it is to become ignorant, uneducated. Not only are our attention spans decreasing, but we’re also becoming robotic. We’re becoming what we’re creating.
Scrolling takes you out of reality. It takes away the opportunity to experience what’s beyond your screens. The more we encase ourselves in a daydream, the more we find reality to be prosaic, mundane. We stare at pictures of the lives we want instead of living the lives we have. Less experiences leads to fewer conversations, fewer conversations leads to fewer relationships, which then leads us into isolation. I’ve come to realize that social media has the tendency to glamorize egocentric isolation; The idea that being alone all the time is far better than having any form of social-life. This idea is being pushed in a negative way; it’s more than simply being introverted. Social interaction is a fundamental need for both mental and physical well-being. Without it, mental health issues arise, our likelihood for disease increases, our life is susceptible to shortening, and our cognitive functioning diminishes. Social isolation is a health concern, not a flex.
We need to put down our phones and pick up physical media. During our dinners, put the phones down and talk to the person you’re having dinner with. If you’re having dinner alone, bring a book to read, a physical solo game you can play like Suduko or a Crossword Puzzle, or focus completely on your meal. Being able to sit in silence brings a form of peace and self-control not many have. It allows you to be comfortable sitting with yourself. During your free-time, paint, draw, journal, go for a walk or a run, go to the gym, get out of the house and explore new neighborhoods; connect with the physicalities that surround you. When we put our phones down, it’s evident how much there truly is to do.
See, we’ve lost touch with reality because we’re housing ourselves in the digital realm. When committing to reality, you’ll find that your days will automatically feel better. You’ll be more motivated and productive, you’ll feel like you have more time in your day, you’ll be broadening your knowledge and your creativity; you’ll get your life back. When you disconnect, it gives you the opportunity to spend time with yourself, to spend time with others, and to spend time with the world. We have to appreciate the world we live in; the life that we have, for we only have one. As Dr. Jane Goodall said, “We are the most intellectual species to walk the planet, but we’re not intelligent. If you’re intelligent, you don’t destroy your only home”. Though she’s speaking about the destruction of the earth, this quote goes with the appreciation of our lives as well. Intelligent people are ungrateful for the only home they’ll ever have and we destroy our own minds in hopes of obtaining the lifestyles of others.
Technology, social media specifically, is dehumanizing us as the human-race. Animals have more of a communion than we do. We’re losing our creativity by watching others fake creativity on the internet. Authenticity is becoming a facade. We’re uncomfortable in low-stimulating situations due to our mind being comfortable in overstimulation. We’re isolating ourselves because our minds are being conditioned into thinking that being alone is ideal. We can’t focus in school, we’re procrastinating and pushing our lives further back; living our lives in stagnation. We’re losing out on life because of dang that phone.
Ragne's Abyss 
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