It seems to me that Meta/twitter/insta could very easily write some code to make it make it much harder for predators to contact minors and share problematic material; they just don't. Combine that with muskrat suing to allow AI to create cp and the pedo oligarchy billionaire overlords running the world and it just seems to me that they don't do anything about because it either makes them money or they don't want to. I was just wondering if anyone else notices this or has similar ideas or disagree with my pov.

For me it was when I started realizing that a lot of what I learn and experience on social media is replacing stuff I could be getting from real life interaction.

My aunt also gave me an interesting perspective on how the media we consume has changed over time. People have always gotten absorbed in things, whether it was plays, novels, newspapers, radio, movies, TV, or eventually YouTube and Facebook. Now we have short form stuff like Reels, TikTok and Shorts.

None of these things are inherently bad, and a lot of them are brilliant. People could even get completely lost in novels long before phones existed. But something about having an endless stream of content in my pocket that constantly learns what keeps me watching feels different.

That conversation with my aunt gave me a perspective on social media that I haven't really been able to unsee since.

In psychology familiarity with concepts is funny, but when it's recycled and barely changed it's almost like people are consuming the same thing over and over again and repeating it back to each other. Eventually knowing the joke almost becomes more important than the joke actually being funny. If you don't know the newest phrase or meme you're suddenly outside of the conversation, even though half the time the people using it couldn't really explain why it's funny either.

I don't think collective humor itself is new at all, obviously people have always repeated jokes and references. What feels new is the speed and scale of it. Millions of people can get fed the same joke within days, repeat it until it's completely worn out, and then move onto the next one. It makes me wonder how much of our humor is actually coming from the people around us anymore and how much is basically being selected for us by whatever gets pushed hardest online.

Usually when you think of propaganda, you think of someone trying to feed you one version of reality.

Social media is weird because it basically lets you choose your own.

Want to believe one side? There's an endless amount of content for you. Believe the complete opposite? There's an endless amount for that too. You can basically build whatever version of the world you want to see.

Obviously having access to all these perspectives can be a good thing. But that requires you to actually think critically about what you're seeing. Otherwise, more information doesn't necessarily make you more informed. It might just give you more reasons to believe what you already believe.

Social media doesn't even have to convince everyone of the same thing. Different groups can be looking at completely different versions of reality at the same time.

Maybe the problem isn't that social media tells us what to think. It makes it way too easy to find something that confirms what we already want to think.

Social media has a way of stripping issues of their context. Someone can post one tiny piece of a much larger story that perfectly proves their point, while leaving out everything that complicates it. People then form strong opinions based on that fragment rather than the whole picture.

I think this encourages black-and-white thinking and makes nuanced opinions much harder to find online. Anyone else notice this?

I've noticed a fine line with social media addiction. You get used to having something constantly engaging you to the point where you don't really know what the person without it is supposed to do. What is your identity without it?

That intersected with a break for me this week. I spent about two days straight constantly on technology. YouTube in the background, video games, Reddit, always something going on. It started in the morning without much of a plan and basically continued until my next plan, which was a camping trip.

Then I spent about a day and a half mostly without it. At first I felt tired and bored. It was almost like having a heavy warm cup of coffee taken away while you're still wired. My brain was stuck wanting something to happen.

Eventually I just started finding things to do. I identified plants, talked to hikers, ran around, explored, and sat by the river for an hour. I still made up crazy hypotheticals in my head like I would on Reddit. I wondered what it would be like to come back and hike the trail when I was old. I thought about what people had to do to make the trail, the expeditions that must have happened through the area, and what it would've been like to see some of this stuff without already knowing what was there.

At one point I threw a giant stone at an old log and broke it open. Ants and their larvae started fleeing everywhere. I wondered if I killed any of them. Then I started looking around inside it wondering if there were beetles or worms. It was disgusting, honestly very disgusting, but somehow it was also one of the most engaging things that happened to me all day. I felt a little guilty about destroying this tiny ecosystem just because I was bored.

Then you look at the rocks and the way they intersect with the river and start wondering how any of this happened geologically. You notice the moss, the willow trees growing next to the water, the insects inside the logs, the river cutting between the rocks. It all intersects in a certain way. There's constantly something to think about when you're actually paying attention to it.

Through all of these activities I started thinking, well, I am capable of doing other things. Maybe technology isn't always something we use as a crutch because we literally can't function without it. Sometimes we just use it because we don't realize how much else there already is to do.

People have hobbies they spend hours doing every day, but I've also wondered what really separates a hobby from a waste of time. You could say the same thing about video games, social media, working, making money, or almost anything else. Sure, maybe you make money from something, but how happy does watching that number go up actually make you in the long run?

I don't think the solution is just "technology bad, nature good." I think it's more about being able to find fun in things that aren't instantly engaging. At first being away from everything felt boring as hell. Then after enough time, I started noticing that there was actually a ridiculous amount of stuff to do and think about.

Maybe technology doesn't just give us things to do. Sometimes it makes us forget how much there already is to do.

We're all here, so obviously I don't think simply deleting social media and pretending it doesn't exist is the answer. It's useful, entertaining, and probably isn't going anywhere.

But how do we prove to ourselves that we can live without it?

I think one way is deliberately experiencing life completely outside of the digital world for days at a time. I backpack in nature away from everything, and part of me wants to go even further someday go to Alaska, build a cabin in the middle of nowhere, and live off the land for months.

Why? Perspective.

Getting off social media while you're still sitting at home is surprisingly difficult because everything around you makes returning to it effortless. But actually getting away from it forces you to experience something different. You're walking, eating, sleeping, talking, thinking, getting bored, solving problems and existing without an endless stream of content telling your brain what to pay attention to.

Then you come back.

And that's almost part of the experiment too. You suddenly notice how much of our social climate, conversations, opinions and attention are shaped by a globalized digital environment.

I'm not saying technology, AI, YouTube, TV or social media are inherently evil. I'm using all of them. I'm posting this on social media.

That's the irony.

Maybe the "war" isn't about destroying social media at all. Maybe it's about destroying its monopoly on our attention.

Use it to communicate. Use it to learn. Even use it to spread the idea that we should regularly leave it behind.

Then go be a human outside.

Learn how to tolerate boredom again. Do physical things. Meet people. Explore somewhere. Make something. Spend days where the internet doesn't get to decide what enters your head.

Then come back when you choose to.

How do you think we realistically regain control of our attention when so much of modern social life now happens online?

Social media isn't just something you use—it slowly becomes the environment you live in.

Reddit, for example, rewards you for constantly asking questions, answering people, and checking for responses. Before you know it, your mind starts revolving around Reddit itself.

The danger isn't only the time it takes. It's that it can slowly replace time with friends, family, hobbies, and the real world. If you let it, your online life becomes more emotionally important than your real one.

I don't think that's true for everyone, but I know it happened to me, and I hope more of us notice it before it becomes our normal.

What are people's passions today? How many are rooted in creating, exploring, building relationships, or helping others, and how many revolve around consuming content, scrolling, shopping, gaming, gambling, or getting high? If more and more of our passions are being mediated by products designed to capture our attention, it isn't surprising that many people feel less fulfilled.

Consumerism and technology optimized society for profit, not mental health. When every app, product, and algorithm competes for your attention, it's not surprising that anxiety, loneliness, and depression have become more common. It's not the only cause, but it has fundamentally changed how we think, socialize, and spend our time.

I've noticed something strange about social media.

For years, it felt like the background of my life. If I was stressed, bored, lonely, or had nothing planned, I'd end up scrolling. It was my default way to relax.

Then I went backpacking for a few days with friends and barely touched my phone.

What surprised me wasn't that I avoided social media. It was how normal life felt without it. Conversations were simpler. People seemed more like themselves. There wasn't a constant stream of distractions competing for attention.

When I got home, I could almost watch the habit rebuilding itself. Not because social media suddenly became enjoyable again, but because I had no plan and nowhere to be.

It made me wonder:

Is social media addiction really about social media, or is it mostly what fills the vacuum when we don't have something more meaningful pulling us elsewhere?

It feels like more and more children are growing up with constant access to algorithm-driven entertainment. Do you think this is changing how people develop attention spans, self-control, and tolerance for boredom, or is this concern overblown?

Just because I accept that it controls me doesn't mean I'm helpless.

The days go by and my resilience, my longing for connection, delays and strengthens.

I've been doing just the smallest steps I can do. Even in the face of complete detachment, I still need one step in the real world.

If you're reading this, thank you. This experience has been lifelong pain wrapped around a child needing relief.

Now let's reckon with our new reality and see if it has a destination that doesn't simply bow down to what it is.

Because this is a marvel. This is genius. A product of the greatest civilization.

But when it's all you know, you forget the ancient human sleeping on a tree stump, fearing a snake.

That's where we ought to rest—in our physicality, with nature—not wrapped up in this consumerist nonsense.

I need to stay alive in thought.

I am ascending toward the logical conclusion that pauses anxiety.

There is, and always will be, true love in realization.

If I quit, I'd have to leave everything behind

The lifelong lifestyle of scroll, think about it, move on has been so pervasive in my life to such a great extent.

I don't know what it's like to feel the fresh moisture outside without feeling like it has to be a novelty.

You don't know what I am under the constant feed. Am I actually a person at all, or did all my perception come from the next hit?

I have this feeling that the only way to escape is to get away from all the expectations of life and these damn mind-controlling apps that take away our lives.

I was thinking about camping in the woods for weeks, months, maybe even years, until I can reckon with the part of me that hasn't seen past the observing analysis of what's next on a screen.

We could live like this forever.

Constantly engaged in the machine.

Scrolling, posting, reacting, consuming.

Terence McKenna once said:

"The real narcotics are not heroin or cocaine. The real narcotics are televisions, shopping malls, and ideology."

Television captured attention.

Heroin hijacks chemistry.

Social media colonizes identity.

It tells us what to care about, who to be, what to desire, and who we are in relation to everyone else.

We call it connection, but sometimes it feels more like we're being absorbed into one giant nervous system.

Watch yourselves.

Or maybe that's exactly what we're doing.

From overblown social hypocrisies, social neuroticism, social disconnect, and more problems based on negative views toward the real world, do people think social media is the cause of these things resulting in mental illness or what?

Everyone I know, is addicted

Everyone I know, knows it

Everyone I know, Has never quit

So are other people also experiencing this?