How the Internet Amps Up Our Dissatisfaction*

Berkay Güngör
Sep 9, 2018 · 3 min read

How often do you feel unproductive or just get the feeling that your life is not like how it’s supposed to be? Why does this diet you’ve read about a hundred times not work for you; how the heck can these people be so thin and get to eat all the cool stuff while you have to stick with that “healthy” quinoa bowl that tastes like dirt and also why does it taste like dirt while the guy who posted the recipe seemed to enjoy it so much?

“selective focus photo of black pug” by Charles Deluvio 🇵🇭🇨🇦 on Unsplash

The good news is, you share these problems with a lot more people than you think. 3.58 billion, to be exact.

While internet does connect us, enable us to access info from all around the Globe that may be otherwise difficult to obtain and bring countless other amenities (including pornography and memes); too much of this information can easily overflow our brains: with internet -by its nature- giving us an overwhelming amount of results just for a simple subject, we often end up getting much more of an in depth analysis that’s partly filled with contrasting opinions -rather than a clear solution- which drives us to further research and mentally exhaust ourselves.

It’s quite possible for one to discover he’s had a panic attack, blood clotting and -heck it- even a brain tumor problem because he googled the causes of his headache.

While you may be aware that those are only rare diseases coincidentally associated with your problem, your subconsciousness is not.

“person pouring liquid on drinking glass” by Tyler Nix on Unsplash

just imagine accidentally using a medicine that can kill you in rare cases. no matter how small a chance it is, you’ll likely be horrified.

Maybe you’re one of those people that doesn’t do a lot of searching. Still you are not all safe.

Using social media on a daily basis may play its own part in reducing our life quality by exposing us to perfectly captured moments of others’ lives. Indeed, looking at a fitness page on Instagram while snacking a whole bowl of potato chips increases the guilt quite a lot.

And it’s not just me: A study conducted in Australia and New Zealand shows that frequent usage of social media platforms contributes to eating disorders, muscularity dissatisfaction and thoughts about anabolic steroids in men. Out of which, image-centered social media platforms (eg. Instagram, Snapchat) have the most impact.

“grayscale photo of person sitting beside wall using smartphone” by rawpixel on Unsplash

The verdict is, with its many positive qualities, the internet is taking an ever increasing role in our day to day lives and because of this, it gets significantly easier to overexpose ourselves to it. Owing to the fact that it is a not at all an old technology and is ever developing, we tend to act less careful about its side effects and may be missing the key point that’s causing discomfort to us in our lives.

*All the information in this article, while supported by academic data, is based on subjective observations of the writer and should not be used to diagnose any disorder.

Berkay Güngör

Written by

Young coffee addict who’s keen on linguistics, culture, books and people.

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