threespires
Well-Known Member
- Joined
- 7 Aug 2019
- Messages
- 6,394
- Team supported
- City
The internet and social media is sending people insane.
I think people underestimate what a massive and fundamental issue this is and it needs to be taken way more seriously than it presently is. Neurologically there's all sorts of shit going on and it's like the wild west in terms of ethics and regulation. We have loads of 'weaknesses' in the way our brains operate and the unintended (or arguably intended) consequences are just being left to play out with no oversight.
The idea that it's just amplifying the fact that we've always been twats is not right. At a macro level it's changing society because at a micro level it's changing the way we behave and even think.
Just one example: around the age of 11 the receptors in the ventral striatum multiply which means that the oxytocin and dopamine hit from things like social rewards kicks in big time and are massively amplified but at the same time a preteens prefrontal cortex isn't yet sufficiently developed to provide the emotional regulation to manage both negative and positive attention. So they become highly susceptible to social rewards without the coping mechanisms to manage those emotions. Yet this is the time we stick a smartphone with social media into their hands.
It's absolutely. fucking. mental.
Last edited: