Seventy-seven percent of middle-age Americans (35-54 years old) say they want to return to a time before society was “plugged in,” meaning a time before there was widespread internet and cell phone usage. As told by a new Harris Poll (via Fast Company), 63% of younger folks (18-34 years old) were also keen on returning to a pre-plugged-in world, despite that being a world they largely never had a chance to occupy.
They might say that, but they don’t really mean “the internet” - they mean social media. Which I can understand, I was bullied “offline” when I was at school, but at least when I got home - I had respite. I can’t imagine how stressful it is these days for kids, being bullied online, getting home and still being bullied.
Yes, I feel “social media” (or whatever this engagement driven, algorithmically fed hellscape can be called) is driving up the responses. We know, by now, how adversely social media affect the mental well-being of children, being bombarded all the time by the fantastic lives of plastic “influencers”. Add to that cyber-bullying 24/7 which is now common, peer pressure for “green and blue bubbles” and a ton of other nonsense you can probably understand how people in a age bracket that there’s chance of being parents might feel negatively about today’s technological status quo.
It’s funny, people have all sorts of worries about how the world might end if AI chooses it to. But if AI was smart - it would create a new social network, and really ramp up the engagement factor. The reality is we do get physically addicted - we do need that dopamine hit. If AI created “the perfect” social network, we would all be far too busy screaming at each other online, to notice the world dying around us.
…or did AI already do that? cue X-Files music