Weekend-Engagement #291: Do you feel society is distracted by social media and that distraction blinds people to what's important and if so why do people feel so willing to be distracted from the more important aspect of their own lives?
To respond to this, I like to look at how people live their daily lives today… when I was younger, social media was an innocent tool: it was used as a way to stay in touch with former classmates or colleagues and exchange a few messages, at most a few minutes a day. But now social media takes away pieces of life without you really noticing.
And it starts already in the morning, I say this from stories I've heard, they wake up, know there are a thousand things to do, and yet the first thing they do is grab their phone and open Instagram or TikTok.
They scroll through a video or a reel, then another video, and then check notifications, likes, stories… and all this while they haven't even gotten out of bed! Those are tens of minutes stolen from your real life.
Social media now is designed to capture attention and keep you hooked as much as possible.
Every notification, every Like, etc., works like a small reward that pushes you to stay connected a little longer. Every suggested content studied on what you looked before is made with the purpose to attract your attention and keep you more on the screen. It's a calculated release of dopamine, everything is planned by companies exploiting psychological weaknesses. It's the same dynamic that leads us to seek immediate gratification instead of facing the difficult things in reality. It's easier to make a stupid video and get 100 likes than to commit to real life and maybe get 3-4 people to say “well done!”
People get distracted so often because social media offers fast and easy rewards, while the things that matter, like building real relationships, working on personal goals, whether material or mental, facing problems, require energy, concentration, and effort.
It's much easier to scroll and feel valued by a few likes; after all, modern society encourages laziness, just look at the use of AI.
I always see kids with their phones in hand, sitting around doing nothing, wasting afternoons like that, but social media is a widespread plague among young people, passed on by adults. Adults and workers check messages during work, interrupt important tasks for a notification. It's a modern form of distraction that has infiltrated every moment of the day, during breaks to check notifications, in moments of boredom to take photos to post, etc.
It's like a drug, or rather an addiction: there’s the addiction to scratch-and-win tickets, to tobacco, to drugs, to gambling, and social media is another one... But since it doesn’t cost money and only causes mental dependency, it's not seen as a danger or a problem, so it's fine... I don’t know if people will ever realize it in the future and return to using them correctly, I hope so but I don’t believe it.
Post in response to @galenkp Weekend-Engagement topics: WEEK291
You don't see this reversing, or people making better choices about where they put their time and energy. Do you think people should and why?
Life is one, should be enjoyed doing something productive, that gives you value and leaves you something after, even if it's something you don't like, it will still teach or leave something... I always wanted to leave this world leaving something behind me, I don't know if I will, but I will try, and you can't do that sitting on a social
Otherwise if you have to spend it all just scrolling a screen, fake a life that isn't yours only for online strangers approvals with likes, it's not even worth to be lived in my opinion
I can't see it change as now if you ask kids what they want to become as adult they will reply "the influencer" or "partecipant of a reality show" and parents do nothing... If I said this when I was a kid I'd get a slap
I wonder what those people we're talking about expect to leave behind them, also what example are the setting for those around them; no wonder these behaviours continue because the children of those adults see it and think it's the way to proceed themselves.
I don't think it'll change either mate, sad, but the odds are stacked against due to the nature of human beings who seem intent on continuing the same behaviours over and over.
We went to the restaurant last week, my son is used to since he was 2 years old, we bring 1-2 toys and interact like normality should be, then i seen a family with a 3 years old kid... They entered the restaurant and the kid had a smartphone with a video on it, they sat and he kept watching, they ate and the kid eating while watching the cartoon, not even looking at the piece on the fork, silent, like a zombie...parents makings pictures of the dishes I guess to post them somewhere... How is this kid gonna grow up? Like a fucking zombie thanks to dunbass parents... No hope, just worsening
There's little hope isn't there. I see this sort of thing all the time too, it's all over the world. Parents and people generally are often quite lazy and irresponsible.