Additionally, we are always "feeding". We are getting sick from over-indulging.
My friend group is starting to coordinate board game nights. Also good old fashion gatherings, and just making a point to be present as much as possible.
I find myself using a phone as a digital communication device as much as possible, where I think for a lot of people it's become a digital consumption device.
Personally a big difference was only consuming proper newspapers in the morning instead of tv and news sites during the day. The quality of the information is greater and I don’t experience fomo as much.
You're right to say that we have evolved alongside nature, and it is really only since the industrial revolution that we have fully diverged from the natural world. We live, eat, breath, sleep, and dream completely man-made everything. Things like Google can exist, because of our collective imagination and effort to sustain it.
What that means for us is that we are ignoring our biology and the habitat we have evolved to thrive in. We think we are all geniuses because we've created this artificial landscape, but we still have barely scratched the surface of our own bodies and how they work and why.
Also, In general society has lied to us about what makes humans content. So there's weird thing happening where I'm doing everything the TV/Movies/Inst/FB told me would make me happy and I'm not. It's very confusing and depressing and can make you feel hopeless and empty.
The thing is, I don't think we need some crazy transformation, the world that respects our biology and instincts doesn't look very different. It works mostly the same except that people are generally happier and outside more and talking to eachother face to face. Not because facetime isn't cool too, but facetime isn't the same
Learn the platform, then arrange to engage with it in a way that works for you. The kinds of things you choose to post or respond to influence the kinds of information/followers/etc you attract.
Pick and choose your notifications. Learn to block, mute, unfollow, etc judiciously.
Be mindful that what you post will shape how other people engage you. If you don't like the kinds of interactions you are getting, look to your own behavior first. Experiment with posting different things and then invest more in the kinds of behaviors that get results you like.
But as a secondary aside, there has been an awful lot of talk about mental health on this forum as of late. I hear about it daily in articles. You see increasing rates of suicide. People I talk to are generally miserable. Some more than others, but the trend seems to be a general dissatisfaction with life.
Does anyone else think about this? It has been on my mind for sometime. I have a feeling that there is something about the way our society, culture, technology is changing that does not jive with our biology. Maybe the level of interconnectedness that is causing our competitive nature to make us feel like perpetual failures. Maybe its the technological isolation or lack of social interaction and contact with other people. Maybe its the economy, lack of faith in our future economic wellbeing. What do you guys think?
Personally I feel a constant tension, being constantly pinged by my devices "so and so just got a house"... "so and so is on vacation"... "see what so and so is doing, thats more interesting than what you are doing".... "so and so just got promoted to a more prestigious title than you"... and then you want to say screw that, I'm unplugging, but everyone else is plugged in, and stuck, so when are you ever going to interact with them otherwise?