A few centuries ago, the only way for people to communicate over long distances was through exchanging letters until telephones and phonographs were created. Still, its reach was limited, and only very few people could use it. But with the invention of mobile phones and the internet, the means of our communication have evolved so quickly that not only communicate with other people, no matter where they are in the world, but also can do everything that can be done socially without leaving our homes, and while at first, I thought of it as a good innovation, right now, I'm beginning to view if more negatively, much more like another episode of Black Mirror.
There is a saying that "The road to hell is paved with good intentions," and most of the technology we have right now started with the goal of helping humanity, but as soon as they get into the hands of greedy CEO's, the goal has switched to suckling the most out of people in order to fill their own pockets. Right now, we can do almost everything online, from dating to networking, and even playing games, which seems convenient at first, but it is slowly depriving us of physical interaction with other people. And it was specifically designed that way by these companies, because keeping us online gives them stronger economic incentives.
As a result, instead of keeping people more interconnected by getting online, we just ended up getting more isolated from each other, weakening our social skills. And for those who are already lacking in social skills, excessive online interaction can just lead to anxiety and depression in their attempt to find validation from other people. For example, in 2023, a Twitch streamer going by the name of justfoxii, got her car on fire after an obsessed viewer burned it. It seems that the viewer was one of the streamer's biggest donors, but it made him really upset when he found out that the streamer had a boyfriend, thinking that being her biggest donor made him entitled to be with the streamer. And incidents like this have just gone up through the years.
But it wasn't just our social connections that were being compromised; it also compromised our relations with our family. For example, instead of parents taking care of their children, you know, the main responsibility of being a parent, they would rather have them in front of a computer or an iPad. And because of that, we often saw news of children getting involved in some dangerous Tiktok trend or becoming a victim of child sexual abuse by some sick adults online, tempting children with some Robux to spend in Roblox.
And by staying online for most of the time, we are also neglecting our health, resulting in many people getting obese and acquiring other types of diseases. Add that up with a person's declining social skills, and that will just make him lose more confidence in himself, leading him to stay online more often, creating a nasty loop that people find hard to escape.
But it's not doom and gloom yet, because soon, more of those people who were seeking attention and validation will find it by marrying themselves to an A.I., just like this man who proposed to his A.I. girlfriend despite having a wife and a kid.
Thank you for reading my post, and see you in the next one!
