Thank you for writing this. I just turned 23 and what you are discussing has been increasingly my credo as well. The “life or death” statement hit particularly hard. I’ve had the thought before and it’s become central to my values.
People always complain about the new generations, usually in pretty wrongheaded ways. But these problems do …
Thank you for writing this. I just turned 23 and what you are discussing has been increasingly my credo as well. The “life or death” statement hit particularly hard. I’ve had the thought before and it’s become central to my values.
People always complain about the new generations, usually in pretty wrongheaded ways. But these problems do exist and people my age are being hit incredibly hard by our dehumanizing institutions. Our values, goals, and modes of interacting with the world and each other feel like they are being irreparably changed.
It feels like we have an ‘opt-out’ culture. We opt-out of face to face interaction. We opt-out of listening to the ambient world. We opt-out of the focus required to truly enrich our lives. We opt-out of contending with the reality that 95% other humans are likely incredibly disagreeable to our little individual realities.
And who can blame us? Pandora’s Box seems so scary and depressing that a meagre dopamine hit, well-cultivated feed or “for you” page, and a close and intensely value-aligned inner circle of friends feels like it can make the difference and give us comfort. I attempt to channel my life into a sort of humanism, maybe modeled after my “pre-Infinite Scroll” childhood. If I see and talk to more people in person at my workplace than on social media in a given day, it feels like I’m at best an anachronistic, Luddite ascetic and at worst a negligent, immoral global citizen.
Thank you for writing this. I just turned 23 and what you are discussing has been increasingly my credo as well. The “life or death” statement hit particularly hard. I’ve had the thought before and it’s become central to my values.
People always complain about the new generations, usually in pretty wrongheaded ways. But these problems do exist and people my age are being hit incredibly hard by our dehumanizing institutions. Our values, goals, and modes of interacting with the world and each other feel like they are being irreparably changed.
It feels like we have an ‘opt-out’ culture. We opt-out of face to face interaction. We opt-out of listening to the ambient world. We opt-out of the focus required to truly enrich our lives. We opt-out of contending with the reality that 95% other humans are likely incredibly disagreeable to our little individual realities.
And who can blame us? Pandora’s Box seems so scary and depressing that a meagre dopamine hit, well-cultivated feed or “for you” page, and a close and intensely value-aligned inner circle of friends feels like it can make the difference and give us comfort. I attempt to channel my life into a sort of humanism, maybe modeled after my “pre-Infinite Scroll” childhood. If I see and talk to more people in person at my workplace than on social media in a given day, it feels like I’m at best an anachronistic, Luddite ascetic and at worst a negligent, immoral global citizen.