The Net of the 21st Century

There is a net being cast upon certain portions of the world. What do I mean by net?
I mean a net that has allowed us to keep ourselves numb and distracted from what actually matters.
This is rooted in the advent of new media and changing traditions.
The rise of New Media
The 21st century came with advent of New Media. we saw the internet turn into an attention based economy instead of an information based one. This has led to an influx of information on the internet.
It has become more of distraction rather than aiding in the advancement of our wisdom.
Social Media websites such as Instagram and Facebook are optimized to keep the user on the platform as long as possible. They do this by pushing you content that fits with your interests on an infinite feed.
When does it stop? How much information are we unconsciously absorbing? As mentioned by a friend (Überlegen Auge ) of mine this has caused an attention deficit disorder with the internet.
With this new media, there are is no reason to show us important information. They only need to show us the information that will keep us on the platform.
This comes in the form of Quizzes, Fake News, Short videos, and pictures.
Lack of direction
Students are going to college not even sure what they want to do. This is in parallel to the rising student debt issue that occurs in the United States. Why is this?
Students are never given the chance to find something that they enjoy doing. There are electives that allow students to experiment.
They might need to be exposed to it rather than just given the choice. When confronted with several options, they will experience decision paralysis. Oftentimes, this leads the person to take a decision that may not be the best.
This is also the result of the short term thinking that comes during student years.
We are often told that everything will be alright when it won’t. This false positivity makes it worse when things don’t go well.
We are never truly taught to accept the pain and effort required to achieve happiness and success.
It also gives us an excuse to never go and find ourselves. We are exposed to the outside world, but we never look at our inside one.
People keep looking back and wishing that they could change the past.
What can we do?
We can practice self-awareness. What do I mean by this? Well, what I mean putting aside an hour a week at most to stop and think.
Stop and think about if you are doing what you want to be doing. Also, think about if what you are doing will help bring future happiness and success to yourself.
Yes, the future is filled with uncertainty that gives us fear.
Yet, it is with planning for the uncertainty that gives us strength in our present actions.
I hoped you liked this editorial piece on 21st society. If you did, please be sure to recommend, share, and follow.
Michael Navazhylau is a Software Engineer in St.Louis who loves building cool and useful software. He is also the co-founder of Hammercircuit. You can check out his website at Mechasparrow.

