Technology, Depression, and Mass Shootings: Are Our Devices Catalyzing the Worst Parts of our Humanity?
This article is an early leak of research I’ve been working on for my book, Automating Humanity, but in light of recent events I thought I should share it as it may provide helpful insights for those looking for an answer.
The United States is said to have four estates of government: The Executive branch, the Legislative branch, the Judiciary branch, and the news media, an invisible fourth actor in our political world. Although I do not debate these facts, I do believe we now have a fifth, invisible actor playing a role in our society: Big Tech and the Internet.
While our devices have been proven to increase postural deformities and sleep deprivation across societies (which are both linked to severe decreases in mental and physical wellness), one of the most invisible and silent effects we are seeing from our devices lies within the layers of our applications. It comes from the social-validation feedback loops that have been intentionally designed to create addictive applications. What we’re seeing across the world nowadays, especially within the younger generations, are significant increases in loneliness and depression complemented by a steep decrease in mental health. Combine these with other social factors and we can begin to see how disruptive Big Tech really may be.
As we begin to define ourselves by our internet relationships and the way we’re represented online, the amount of likes, comments, and shares that we get chemically effect us the same way as social interactions in real life. A like sends the same dopamine rush we get when our friends compliment our new shoes. A comment sparks a chemical reaction similar to the feeling we get with a personal conversation. And a share feels like our friends are holding us high above the crowd, promoting us to the world. However, the same holds true in the opposite direction. In the absence of likes, comments or shares our bodies release the same chemical patterns as when we get bullied or neglected. The difference between chemical rewards on social media and those in real life is the frequency and intensity of the interactions.
Today people are getting these interactions from across the world, at the speed of light. What used to take years can now happen in months, hours, sometimes seconds, depending on the person and the day. And unlike the old days, there’s no escaping the constant notifications (or absence of notifications) unless we turn off our phone — something many of us are incapable of doing. And the compounding effect of all these interactions over time can create some nasty chemical reactions. No one attached to their social media is capable of avoiding these effects.
We can see the impact of these compounding effects in the skyrocketing rates of loneliness and depression across society. In 2016 it was proven that consistent interaction with social media — whether that be liking things, sharing links, posting status updates, or all three — is proven to reduce physical and mental health, as well as overall life satisfaction. But of course this growth in loneliness and depression is even more extreme among kids and young adults. Between 2010 and 2015, depressive symptoms have risen 33 percent and rates of suicide attempts have risen 31 percent. These numbers were even greater among young women where depressive symptoms rose 58 percent and suicidal outcomes rose 65 percent.
As you can see, until 2007 things were actually getting better. But at the marking of 2007, the beginning of the mobile computing era, these statistics began to skyrocket beyond previous peaks in history.
These statistics are shocking. But the fact that this situation has only gotten worse since the beginning of the mobile computing era is even worse.
This got me thinking, what else might be associated with these statistics? What are we seeing in society that might be spurred by dramatic increases in loneliness, depression, physical pain, lack of proper sleep, and decreases of stability, in general?
According to the American Public Health Association, more than 60 percent of the police reports from mass shooting incidents in the United States have stated that the act was perpetrated by a mentally ill individual. Based on this information, if there were any relationship between the effects of our devices and mass shootings we would assume that the number of mass shootings would increase with higher rates of loneliness and depression across society. And in analyzing the FBI’s statistics on active shooter situations compared to the data surrounding the effects of our devices, we can see obvious similarities.
In fact, when comparing the statistics between the years of 2000 to 2006 to the years of 2007 to 2013 (beginning of the mobile computing era), the FBI reported a 256 percent increase in active shooter situations and a 305 percent increase in deaths per shooting. That means not only are there more shootings happening each year, but more people are being harmed in each incident. The shooter’s reasoning? According to the FBI, “the gunmen had been attracted to the attention that [previous] mass killers received.” And we can thank the Internet for giving them that attention because that’s how the general population gets their news nowadays.
Does this mean that our addiction to our devices and Internet use, in general, is causing mass shootings? No. Absolutely not. Statistically speaking this does not prove a cause and effect relationship. And that’s not what I’m trying to do. More than likely there are many other factors that need to be taken into account — things like large scale job loss, the skyrocketing price of healthcare and housing, and many other things that create a lack of stability in people’s lives, in general — on top of poor gun regulation.
But what I am hoping to point out is a more complex relationship that may be underlying one of the biggest threats to the our populations in the history of the world. As the APHA concludes in their analysis, “perhaps psychiatric expertise might be put to better use by enhancing US discourse about the complex anxieties, social and economic formations, and blind assumptions that make people fear each other in the first place,” which is exactly what I’m trying to do by pointing out the associations with technology and the vicious circle of complex issues tech is impacting us with.
While we cannot assume our technologies are causing these events, it’s important to realize that technology is playing a role in every part of our lives today. These systems are the root of our addictions. They are eliminating fair economic opportunity as machines take millions of jobs worldwide — which also means people are going without health benefits and other securities. It is also to blame for the spread of disinformation, which is causing violent backlash dividing societies worldwide.
These factors put people in a position where they have nothing left to lose. And when you add mental illness to the mix, the instability in people’s lives only gets worse. For these reasons and more, I believe it would be irresponsible not to point out the correlating effects of the issues we’re seeing across society. The combination of these effects is creating a perfect storm for what the people in Silicon Valley would call disruption. But this time the disruption isn’t focused on creating a new business model or technology. Instead, it’s concentrated on disrupting human evolution and society, at large.
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