Internet is making me ADHD

[MusterX]

Yes, the future doesn't look too bright. I do everything I can to stay away from the internet, but Sherdog and my business won't allow me. Fortunately, I'm in a position to take a week away every month. My son and I go somewhere in nature, no smartphones, laptops or anything. Keeps me relatively sane. Kid loves it, too, but his generation is gonna get really messed up (he's 9 now).

I can't tell you how many times I've been somewhere like a restaurant and seen entire families staring at cell phones. It almost seems Twilight Zone'ish at times. I have a friend who can't even stand up and go to the restroom without taking his phone with him. He can't go jogging without his phone with him. There is never a time when that phone is separated from his body. I asked him if he even realized that his phone was an addiction to him as strong as heroin and his eyes just glazed over like he had no idea what it was that was happening.

 

[tonysmasseuse]

I read on another thread about visiting other countries that 'Scandinavians don't smile'.
Well, we used to.

I pity any visitors to my country now as it's near impossible to make eye contact, let alone have any kind of conversation or friendly exchange here as people are unwilling to take precious time away from the important business of staring into their phones with bored frowns on their faces.

Technology isn't just changing our brains and habits, but our social landscapes and culture.
Really diminishes our ability to read and feel each other (facial expressions, body language and so on) and that's going to have an enormous impact on our level of empathy in the long run...and empathy is basically what makes us decent human beings, so that aspect is particularly worrying.

My own country is now unrecognisable. Used to be friendly, now it's a barren hellhole of smartphone zombies constantly updating their social media with tidbits from their non-existent lives.

 

[bad mojo]

I can't tell you how many times I've been somewhere like a restaurant and seen entire families staring at cell phones. It almost seems Twilight Zone'ish at times. I have a friend who can't even stand up and go to the restroom without taking his phone with him. He can't go jogging without his phone with him. There is never a time when that phone is separated from his body. I asked him if he even realized that his phone was an addiction to him as strong as heroin and his eyes just glazed over like he had no idea what it was that was happening.

Yes, it really sounds corny, but it often looks like zombie apocalypse when you're somewhere in public. And it will get worse. Like you've said, some people are hypnotized by their phones.

 

[MacDuffle]

Yea, but here's the thing. If you can't even read something short, like say 500 words, I doubt you will get through a 2 hour movie without struggling. I stay away from things like Twitter and Facebook because I think social media is a cancerous tumor on society. I don't demand everyone read but I do it for myself on a daily basis as a method of exercising my mind. Your brain is like the muscles in your body. If you don't exercise it, it gets weak over time, it atrophies, so I read something lengthy almost every day as a form of mental exercise.

youtube is the biggest attention span killer for me

 

[Darth_Inv1ctu5]

Lately I find it REALLY hard to sit down and pay attention to a movie or TV show, no matter how good it is. Its such a commitment to have to stare and focus on the same content for so long. When I have 3 or so hours to kill, I think to myself hmm I should catch up on WestWorld.......but what I end up doing is constantly refreshing sherdog, reddit, and youtube videos.

I'm becoming addicting to fast, low focus need stimuli. Its hard to wait for things to pick up in a show or movie when I could keep refreshing youtube and watch 2-5 minute videos of immediate satisfaction. I used to love WestWorld and would watch episodes right as they were up but now it almost feels like more of a chore than a pleasure. This applies to most shows/movies.

Even movies I've been looking forward to really badly, I find I cant HELP but pick up my phone and pay more attention to it than the movie. So I'm constantly rewinding to catch things I missed or just pausing for 10minutes over and over..

Dude I'm in deep shit because of it, can't focus on actual work! And this fetid sarlac pit isn't helping one bit

 

[MusterX]

View attachment 395613

I read on another thread about visiting other countries that 'Scandinavians don't smile'.
Well, we used to.

I pity any visitors to my country now as it's near impossible to make eye contact, let alone have any kind of conversation or friendly exchange here as people are unwilling to take precious time away from the important business of staring into their phones with bored frowns on their faces.

Technology isn't just changing our brains and habits, but our social landscapes and culture.
Really diminishes our ability to read and feel each other (facial expressions, body language and so on) and that's going to have an enormous impact on our level of empathy in the long run...and empathy is basically what makes us decent human beings, so that aspect is particularly worrying.

My own country is now unrecognisable. Used to be friendly, now it's a barren hellhole of smartphone zombies constantly updating their social media with tidbits from their non-existent lives.

That guy in the background could literally be tap dancing and nobody would probably look over at him for longer than a second. Whats even worse is that if they did look at him they might think he was a weirdo because he was actually standing there with no phone. That's why I posted in the post before yours that it seems almost Twilight Zone'ish at times. I go out and I see this sort of thing constantly and I think, omg, what have we done?

People can't even walk without staring at their phone and I've actually had them walk out in the street in front of my car while doing it.

This is me fucking with my friends trying to get them to put the phones down for just 5 minutes.

 

[MusterX]

youtube is the biggest attention span killer for me

YouTube is an endless source of user generated content that ranges from a few seconds to 10 or 20 minutes. Most people make videos in the 5-10 minute range. That means you can watch short clips about anything you like in rapid fire one after the other. I have a weakness for it too. If YouTube announced it was closing down it would probably cause the shit to hit the fan.

 

[MusterX]

Yes, it really sounds corny, but it often looks like zombie apocalypse when you're somewhere in public. And it will get worse. Like you've said, some people are hypnotized by their phones.

Some people? More like most people, which is why its so concerning. Look at this.

We’re addicted to our phones: 84% worldwide say they couldn’t go a single day without their mobile device in their hand

It's official - we can't function without our phones.


84 percent of people surveyed in a new TIME Mobility Poll said they couldn't go a single day without their mobile device in hand.


And significant percentages of us have serious addiction problems.


One in four people check their phones every thirty minutes, while one in five check every ten.

http://www.nydailynews.com/life-sty...ngle-day-mobile-device-hand-article-1.1137811

If you can't go 1 day without a phone, that is equivalent to crystal meth.

 

[tonysmasseuse]

This is me fucking with my friends trying to get them to put the phones down for just 5 minutes.

Haha, good one.

It's not hard to see the allure of the smartphone, though. Not to go all war room here, but simultaneously with massive increase of smartphone use/social media addiction, we have also had massive immigration into our country in a very short time span. this introduction of very foreign (and also violent and criminal) elements into our up til then extremely peaceful, safe and homogenous societies (Scandinavia) has also created a lot of public and social anxiety, so people escaping this tension by avoiding eye contact and staring into their phones in public.

Immigration aside, it makes me think that in the future it becomes far too easy for the powers that be to control and shape society if the people seek passive escape in their smartphones rather than get the pitchforks out.

In my own life, i've really only started using the internet in the last 10 years, rarely use my mobile phone and i'm not on any kind of social media. Still, i can see that as my own internet use has increased, there is a certain restlessness that comes with it. My need for activities that balance that restlessness also increases, consequently i meditate more, train more, go for more walks, travel more to the country side and remote places, go on retreats and so on. In my experience it takes about a day to 'detox' from the internet-induced restlessness. Meditation helps a lot, to clear the brain and get out of the more opinionated and judgmental habits that also come with the internet-obligation of constantly liking/unliking, and being ever ready to produce a soundbite-sized opinion on this that and the other.

 

[VulcanNervPinch]

https://www.cbs.com/shows/star_trek...2ZjGe/star-trek-the-next-generation-the-game/

It came true (in only 2 decades)

 

[MusterX]

Haha, good one.

It's not hard to see the allure of the smartphone, though. Not to go all war room here, but simultaneously with massive increase of smartphone use/social media addiction, we have also had massive immigration into our country in a very short time span. this introduction of very foreign (and also violent and criminal) elements into our up til then extremely peaceful, safe and homogenous societies (Scandinavia) has also created a lot of public and social anxiety, so people escaping this tension by avoiding eye contact and staring into their phones in public.

Immigration aside, it makes me think that in the future it becomes far too easy for the powers that be to control and shape society if the people seek passive escape in their smartphones rather than get the pitchforks out.

In my own life, i've really only started using the internet in the last 10 years, rarely use my mobile phone and i'm not on any kind of social media. Still, i can see that as my own internet use has increased, there is a certain restlessness that comes with it. My need for activities that balance that restlessness also increases, consequently i meditate more, train more, go for more walks, travel more to the country side and remote places, go on retreats and so on. In my experience it takes about a day to 'detox' from the internet-induced restlessness. Meditation helps a lot, to clear the brain and get out of the more opinionated and judgmental habits that also come with the internet-obligation of constantly liking/unliking, and being ever ready to produce a soundbite-sized opinion on this that and the other.

Concerning the highlighted above, that now puts you in the minority. People used to exercise more, go for walks more, do outdoor activities, travel, go camping, etc. and they were the majority. Now people like that are the minority. Society is becoming increasingly more isolated, suicide rates are skyrocketing in some countries, obesity is an epidemic in some countries, and I believe its all in some way connected to high speed internet.

And yes, the dependence on internet and smart phones is a politician or media moguls wet dream because they can get their message out to millions at a moments notice. They can port directly into everyone's mind at will. When I was growing up there wasn't even cable T.V. yet. You know what we had in terms of programming? People watched the nightly news maybe 1 hour every night and that was all the media they got for that day. Now we get 24/7 information overload. There is surely unintended consequences we don't understand yet.

 

[MusterX]

https://www.cbs.com/shows/star_trek...2ZjGe/star-trek-the-next-generation-the-game/

It came true (in only 2 decades)

Care to elaborate a little so I don't have to log in and watch episodes? What is it, an addicton to something electronic?

 

[VulcanNervPinch]

Care to elaborate a little so I don't have to log in and watch episodes? What is it, an addicton to something electronic?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Game_(Star_Trek:_The_Next_Generation)

 

[MusterX]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Game_(Star_Trek:_The_Next_Generation)

Yea, Star Trek is cool in that way. There have been so many things it has predicted over the years or had social commentary on that its amazing. Its a warning embedded in a television show.

Wesley reports to Captain Jean-Luc Picard his suspicions that the game is dangerous. However, Picard is shown (to the audience) afterwards to already be addicted. Eventually, Wesley and his new girlfriend, Ensign Robin Lefler (played by Ashley Judd), are the only people on the ship who have yet to become addicted to the game. Wesley and Robin discover that Data's injuries were in fact sabotage, and begin working on a plan to stop the spread of the game. Wesley meets Robin in engineering, where he learns that she has come under the influence of the game. It is assumed that Riker and Worf captured her and forced her to play.

It reminds when South Park did its World of Warcraft episode and they were all addicted to WoW.

 

[AgentSmecker]

I'm clinically diagnosed ADD and the advent of the intranetz was the worst thing that could have ever hapened to me. I went from having the attention span of a goldfish to a gnat on crack.

 

[Clippy]

Hi! As I stumble across this thread I have Wikipedia open in another tab, I was going to look something up but FORGOT what it was

And I do this often!! I can't focus on nothing

 

[tonysmasseuse]

Lately I find it REALLY hard to sit down and pay attention to a movie or TV show, no matter how good it is. Its such a commitment to have to stare and focus on the same content for so long. When I have 3 or so hours to kill, I think to myself hmm I should catch up on WestWorld.......but what I end up doing is constantly refreshing sherdog, reddit, and youtube videos.

I'm becoming addicting to fast, low focus need stimuli. Its hard to wait for things to pick up in a show or movie when I could keep refreshing youtube and watch 2-5 minute videos of immediate satisfaction. I used to love WestWorld and would watch episodes right as they were up but now it almost feels like more of a chore than a pleasure. This applies to most shows/movies.

Even movies I've been looking forward to really badly, I find I cant HELP but pick up my phone and pay more attention to it than the movie. So I'm constantly rewinding to catch things I missed or just pausing for 10minutes over and over..

TS, your recent "return to nature" makes more sense now.

Your dick is trying to save you from internet malaise.

 

[Clear Winner]

You think they are being forward and honest about how addictive phones are, and what they are designed to do to our brains?

Facebook, and sherdog know they are selling crack with those likes.

Disclosure would make all the difference in informed consent.

Yeah, the like button really changed Sherdog. Helluva drug for some