“The short-term, dopamine-driven feedback loops we’ve created are destroying how society works…”
Facebook has been spotlighted for its censorship of Alex Jones and Infowars, but there is another angle to Big Tech tyranny.
Depression and suicide are at record rates in the west. While there are many driving factors behind this trend, one of them appears to be worsening addictions to tech.
Human development has this far driven us toward interaction with others. We needed to connect with and learn from each other. We need to reproduce.
What happens when our technology becomes more “rewarding” than anything else?
In Japan, where cultural norms allow for rapid adoption of new technology, a population crisis is emerging as young people are no longer having relationships. The Independent reports:
“Some men claimed they “find women scary” as a poll found that around 31% of people aged 18 to 34 from the island nation say they are virgins.”
One Japanese woman said, “I think a lot of men just cannot be bothered. They can watch porn on the internet and get sexual satisfaction that way.”
We are literally becoming addicted to our technology and the distraction that it brings. Every time we see the glowing red indicator on our Facebook page, our brain releases a neurotransmitter called dopamine.
Dopamine is a central part of the reward center in the brain. It tells us, “Ok, this act (eating food, sex, achieving a goal) brought pleasure, do it again.”
The Guardian reported on the modern phenomenon of our dopamine systems becoming “hypersensitized”, making normal interactions and natural human activities less engaging:
What’s more, our 21st-century world is so heavily baited with cues and stimuli – from stealthy marketing to junk food, not to mention the nagging lure of online life – that it appears to be rigging our dopamine systems to become “hypersensitised.”
Big Tech has capitalized on this mind-hack.
Chamath Palihapitiya, Facebook’s former vice president for user growth, spoke out in 2017 over his “tremendous guilt” for creating a system that is ripping apart the social fabric. He said:
“I feel tremendous guilt… I think in the back deep, deep recesses of our minds, we kind of knew something bad could happen… It literally is a point now where I think we have created tools that are ripping apart the social fabric of how society works. That is truly where we are. It is a point in time where people need to hard break from some of these tools, and the things that you rely on. The short-term, dopamine-driven feedback loops we’ve created are destroying how society works…”
Alex explains the parallels between the Dodo and those that ignore Big Tech tyranny.
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