daedalus_was_right t1_j0d9k2v wrote on December 15, 2022 at 8:23 PM

But if I'm not constantly scrolling TikTok I'll have to sit alone with my thoughts, and that's unbearable. /s

There is a serious mental health crisis in the human population, and I'm not just referring to homeless people screaming nonsense/violent criminals/conspiracy theorists. The overwhelming majority of people have literally 0 ability to just exist with themselves in silence for even a couple of minutes at a time. They're like toddlers, requiring constant, all-consuming stimulation or they will literally mentally break down. It's so fucking frightening how incapable people are of just being. Of concentrating on a task at hand, or reflecting on their thoughts, or considering solutions to a problem, rather than being fed video stimulus.

I work with teenagers, and there is a huge swath of kids in my classroom that will literally throw a kicking and screaming temper tantrum if they can't have their phone in front of their face. These are people that are very nearly legal adults. We see the same reactions from adults who get told "no" for even the most insane, entitled demands of retail workers, restaurant staff, and government employees trying to literally help them acquire social services.

I'm genuinely frightened going out into public now; humans, by and large, seem completely incapable of behaving like adults.

Nexis4Jersey t1_j0e60f1 wrote on December 16, 2022 at 12:01 AM

Reading some of the posts r/teachers it's scary at the level of societal decay happening among the younger generations enabled largely by Gen X. Even College/University is no longer safe from tech addiction.

GrizzlybearNo1 t1_j0glo75 wrote on December 16, 2022 at 2:25 PM

Thank you for posting what I’ve been thinking about for a few years now. At first I blamed it on the pandemic lock down but I now feel it is social media driving the insanity. I wish I had THE answer.

Maybe if we could start with the next generation and teach “human” interaction vs “technology” interaction. Social Groups vs Social Media. Limit children’s phone to making voice calls only. Require adult supervision of computer time.

I remember saying to my parents “I’m bored”. The response was always “go see what is boring your friends today”. Some how being bored together was emotionally satisfying. AND G-D help us if we got ourselves into trouble, and the definition of trouble was our parents. We knew the police in town and more importantly they knew us. We were always greeted with “hello boys staying out of trouble, do your parents know what you’re up to?”