We live in a new age of pleasure addiction like never before. Video gaming, instant gratification, social statuses, and technological dopamine rushes. How do we navigate a world designed to reward us for valueless internet consumption?
https://odysee.com/resisting-internet-addiction-in-2022?r=H32vHuhbGGqxpQkgAYiLsKxbEh8FyJco
We have an epidemic sweeping across the world. No, not the Great Virus Scare. We have an epidemic of pleasure seeking through digital stimulation. Wake up in the morning, log on, consume. From sun up to sun down, moving between emotions of stressed, to boredom, to getting our next digital fix.
Throughout history, there have always existed games, drugs, and many other distractions to mislead people into forfeiting the greater callings of their life. So it's nothing new for people to lose there way in life and end up with many regrets.
What is new in the internet age of pleasure addiction is it's not only been made easier, but it's also no longer simply an accident or by chance of misfortune. The empty life of digital addiction is by design. Artificial intelligence algorithms learning how to best manipulate and trigger our primal emotions, combined with a system that drives more and more consumerism. May the best emotional manipulators win.
It's easy to search and read about the many ways social media uses gambling and random reward tactics to stimulate people's emotional responses. But whether it's social media, video gaming, memes, or virtual reality, it can all be a form of Escapism that displaces us from excellence in life.
As a comparison, if we spent hours each day eating candy and deserts, then we would reasonably expect it to have an extremely detrimental affect on our body. Deserts and sweets stimulate our taste pleasures, while being low in the nutritional value we need to generate health. We would reasonably expect ourselves to result in having worse health, become more bloated, and lethargic.
On the other hand, constantly feeding our mind with social media, games, and visual stimulation has negative affects on us more mentally. Giving us digital dopamine rushes like a drug, while lacking in value of generating knowledge or applicable skills for our lives. Leading us to be more ignorant and worse prepared for any challenges we may face in life.
Internet addiction is just a sub-category of consumerism, and like most consumerism, it is without moral compass. It's only goal is more profit and more consumption, even if that comes at the expense of any detrimental long term effects to people.
Though, we might like to think we are too smart to fall prey to such systems addiction, none of us are immune. The more they suck our time, money, and resources away, the more they win, and the more we lose.
Digital information has brought us more opportunities for knowledge and growth than any previous generation, while simultaneously bringing us more opportunities to squander our existence like never before.
If we find ourselves succumbing to the lure of digital addictions, then how do we plan a path of getting out of it? We must remember that to remove one thing from our regular activities, is to replace it with something else, and we don't want to try to remove one negative thing from our lives, only to inadvertently replace it with something possibly worse.
We may identify more positive activities we can replace them with in advance. Some suggestions are: physical exercises, studying, learning, skill building, or working on real life relationships. You decide.
Changing to more positive habits is not always easy, but it's only through some degree of discipline that we can achieve any pride or greatness in life. That being said, there are ways to make any habit transition easier.
The best way to make things easier is to make them convenient, and make the bad habits more difficult.
One example could be, if I have a habit of coming home and playing video games, then I may start by removing the video game shortcuts on my device, and place a book that I want to read in the area I normally sit down. That way, when I come home, I'll have the book right there. Even if I don't immediately read it, I've started creating the steps towards positive habits.
A second example might be to simply turn off the sound for notifications of certain apps on the telephone. If I have some app that is making me constantly check my phone, then I can just go into settings disable the notification sounds for that application. This will cause me to think about my phone less, and more on the things going on in the moment of my life.
Taking little steps like this can have a big impact. Make little adjustments which allow us to more easily win. Remove obstacles and/or people which may prevent us from succeeding, and replace them with positive things that will guide us properly. Having friends who know how to digitally disconnect is helpful. Seek out new relationships with people who are in alignment with creating better habits, or perhaps we already know a friend or family member like that, and we can just work on expanding our relationship with that person further.
In the pursuit creating better habits for ourselves, an important word of advice is that we should never be angry at ourselves on days we may fail to meet our goals. Getting angry at ourself, and constantly beating ourself up only drains our motivation and discourages us to continue.
Instead, just say, "I'll do better tomorrow" and keep an idea of the individual we're working toward becoming in our mind. Telling ourselves that we'll do better tomorrow is a reminder that life is a continuous journey, and staying on good course is a constant process. Keeping an image of our ideal self in mind helps us stay focused on where we're going, and the better place we'll be when we get there.
To conclude, many people across the world are becoming mentally dependent on the various types of digital and internet technologies available to us, and the more addictive these corporations can make their product, the more it profits their bottom line, regardless of whether or not the value of our life is squandered. The more we run in the cycle of wasting our lives, the wealthier they become.
It is up to us to stay vigilant in pursuing our path in life. One guarantee in life is change, and are we changing toward the better, or toward the worse? Our default inclination is often toward the primal pleasure mind, and those that would take advantage of it. We must recognize our own mind and state of being. Let us seek to be self aware, and avoid activities which would lead us away from greater excellence and life value. The best way to break any addiction is to never create it to begin with.
Lastly, remember our ideal self. We should aspire to be a role model for those around us, and for the future. Everything we do is for our generations of tomorrow. Pray for Purpose, discipline, and excellence. Our better life habits won't be achieved overnight, but with time and gradual progression, we can all come into close alignment with our more ideal self.
Now's the time, if you haven't seen our previous recording, titled, "100 Years Beyond Covid (A Sick Future To Come)", Where we go on a journey to see the distopian future that awaits an addicted technological society.
https://steemit.com/liberty/@vidarreturns/video-100-years-beyond-covid-a-sick-future-to-come
https://odysee.com/100_years_beyond_covid-19?r=H32vHuhbGGqxpQkgAYiLsKxbEh8FyJco
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