The Technology Epidemic: The Mind Under Constant Stimulation

Tools are not inherently good or bad; uses of tools can create harmful or beneficial effects. Technology is taught to be important for innovation, growth, and success. But how much of our society is feeding off of the destruction of technology rather than success? Pretty much all of us, and here is why. 

• The global data collection industry is large, and there are stocks of data profiling on each person in the US; everything about people is tracked for marketing. Marketing seems innocent because people assume that they can “escape” it if they just ignore ads or get ad blockers, but the reality is product design is catered towards profit making.

• Because profit-making requires taking time out of your day, this is also a giant industry. Attention engineering: many industries are designed to capture and hold your attention. 

• Power imbalance and inequality are created by centralized data collection and profit-making companies that have attention engineering. In the least pragmatic way, sheep are being created. In other words, people are being shaped to follow passively, without questioning or thinking critically.

It’s truly destructive in nature when you realize all the implications and the control people have when masses are unfocused. And the control is designed for the profit of a few at the expense of many.

The Hidden Mental Toll of Constant Connectivity

The technology epidemic is that it is not being used as beneficially and responsibly, which is creating an ever-growing mental health crisis.

• Social media is designed on the commodification of human attention and makes people get treated as a means to profit, takes away someone's time in their life, and ultimately ruins their mental health. That is harm that gets brushed off but is directly caused by many of these profiting industries. Many studies have linked social media to mental health issues like depression, anxiety, and psychological distress. 

• Globalization has allowed people to speak to each other better but made it harder to listen and harder for people to truly understand and connect with one another. Resulting in our epidemic of loneliness and isolation. Across many measures, Americans appear to be becoming less socially connected over time.

• Why is this important? Because technology has a great lack of humanizing elements that is completely overlooked. Society is experiencing a “human deficit,” a widening gap between prioritizing innovation and neglecting what it means to be human. This inadvertently causes negative mental health outcomes.

Texting is not the same as talking to a real person; online communication is not the same as real communication, just like artificial intelligence is not the same as real intelligence. Although technology was supposed to make communication easier, unregulated technology use designed for profit and creating addiction has led to a chronic lack of real communication between people and communities, which has opposite effects towards social connection and ultimately destroys mental health. It’s time to recognize how technology usage is meant to be meaningful but has become destructive.