TECHNOLOGY
I Never Signed Up For This
The Era of The Internet Hype
Ever Since I was made aware of the Internet in the early 90s, I have had a continual feeling that I need to race after somebody or something. This feeling is very much alive and kicking today after so many years and I am sure that All of you have it, whichever generation you belong to.
This story is about the Era of the Internet Hype, and how the same has affected our personal lives.
How it started (asl/pls)
I have been blessed or cursed, depending on how you look at it, to have experienced life before and after the internet and have seen with my own eyes the transformation of our society, our minds, and our understandings of self-awareness and respect due to the internet.
My generation has been raised without computers or mobile phones. The only phone we had was the one in the hallway, which was a fixed-line. So you would need to wait for your turn to call someone (which was always a scheduled call), or if someone calls you, you need to sit close to the phone and talk while anyone can hear you.
Then the 90s came, and we were introduced to the first computers and the internet concept. I think my first experience with such an application was Netscape Navigator.
But we never knew what it was all about. There was nothing really that can be done in general. The whole connection thing was slow and there wasn’t really something to look at on the Internet.
Fast forward to 1996/97 and mIRC came along. It was something really out of this world. The whole concept that you can chat with someone remotely on the internet, was mind-blowing for us.
I think that was the first step in the hype buildup that came along afterward.
Is this really My Space?
The whole idea behind Social networks from the very beginning was that you would have a piece of this internet thing that will represent you as a person and you can interact with everyone else based on this belonging. This (at least as an idea) is how My Space came by in 2003 and Social networks were born.
So everyone started creating their “Own” space with a unique identification related to songs or artists or movies or whatever personal interests they have.
Then 2007 came along and Facebook was also born. You are more or less aware of how the story goes afterward.
The problem with these networks is that they are all companies that need to make profits in order to exist and to show revenue and growth on their annual reports.
One would wonder what is the product of these companies. Well, you guessed it; it is the users, of course.
And how do these companies generate more profits? By creating Hype around their products and features and engaging in mental manipulations of their user’s attention and “their” space, so they can engage more and more with the product they have.
And this is how the internet Hype race was born.
What went wrong? 👎
Until the middle of the 20th century, human relationships in societies were formed through face-to-face interactions. Over the course of their lives, folks have developed social affinities with a restricted number of individuals, conveying their cheerfulness and gloom with them.
The emergence of the transistor in the middle of the 20th century opened the door for cutting-edge technological advancements and brought about a tremendous transformation of communication amongst societies via technological communication tools that fit into our pockets.
The virtual chat culture, which commenced with the integration of the Internet into residences, has now extended to media sharing with the widespread adoption of mobile devices. Every individual in the public has the opportunity to become renowned and celebrated, and a lot of them have started to strive for it.
However, statistical and medical research has made in recent years that this attractive media is addictive.
Multiple studies have been done to analyze fluctuations in the chemical and physiological activities of people's brains and nervous systems, with a particular focus on the dopamine effect that these virtual social networks have on individuals.
All of these research articles point to the same conclusion, which is that dopamine addiction is an unending cycle that only becomes more virulent as time passes by.
This dopamine fixation is so widespread that everyone (including me) is experiencing some kind of ADHD (Attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder) indications.
ADHD is a neurodevelopmental disorder characterized by excessive amounts of inattention, hyperactivity, and impulsivity that are pervasive, impairing in multiple contexts, and otherwise age-inappropriate.
ADHD symptoms arise from executive dysfunction, and emotional dysregulation is often considered a core symptom. In children, problems paying attention may result in poor school performance. ADHD is associated with other neurodevelopmental and mental disorders as well as some non-psychiatric disorders, which can cause additional impairment, especially in modern society.
Can We Fix It? No, it’s F***ed
Now when we talk about the options that we have going forward and how we can fight against this problem, it seems that we are almost out of any weapon.
This phenomenon has progressed to such an extent that it is understood as an established culture, especially for the younger generation that has grown up in this environment.
So you will see youngsters and aunts craving for more likes, comments, and whatever endorsements their virtual social network can offer, that they go to sleep and wake up to it as the most important thing in their worlds.
Our options are more or less nonexistent, apart from the fact that we can maybe limit access to those networks to preschool kids, but that will work for some time until they discover their own ways that lead to them.
Thanks for reading this article 💚
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