Remember people telling you how social media or music or video games have the same effect on your brain as cocaine? If you do, you likely also remember laughing it off.
A browse through YouTube has led me to an epiphany: Why is there so much garbage content on YouTube? “12h black screen”, “livestream of seoul city streets”, “old tool restauration”, “let´s play this and that”, “3600000h relaxed music” and all that trash?
It´s because a lot of people don´t care about whether their YouTube consumption has a reason, a purpose, a goal. It is only important that some media is running that somehow manages to engage you for a while. This is usually associated with wasting a lot of time aka. living suboptimally aka. it´s causing problems. Now, if someone has problems because of a dumb behavioral pattern, yet they keep doing it, isn´t that just like an addiction, say, to drugs?
This isn´t just a problem for certain generations, whether old or young. We know that the youngest generations grow up with their hands glued to electronic devices and that this is problematic. But are older people any better off? I have to think back to my dad, who always has the TV running, yet always complains about how “nothing good ever runs on TV”. Well, then why are you watching it? Addiction to entertainment, that stuff is real and we´re all hooked like crackheads.
Add this to the list of ways that technology, the government and some corporations have fucked us. Millions of people have conspired for decades, if not longer, on how to maximally fuck us for profit.
However, I refuse to be a crack whore and am hereby stating my opinion on “entertainment rehab”.
I. Make it a habit to ask yourself before every bit of media that you consume: Is this gonna help me? Is this better than working on my goals? Is this even better than doing nothing at all? How can I get myself to do something useful? Is there any task that I can do in my current state? Say no most of the time.
II. Find ways to make things easier. Doing dishes can be bearable if you´re listening to something interesting. If that´s the only way you´ll get the dishes clean, then that´s at least a starter. Don´t be a tough guy by thinking: “I´m gonna make it as hard as possible for myself!”
III. Make a list of things that absolutely have to be done. Look at it once in a while. Work on the things. As easy as that. Just the act of making a list might get you to do something. There´s this principle: If you want to go to the gym, just pack your bag, the next step will feel easier.
IV. Instead of having free time whenever, try having a certain time at which your free time begins everyday. This will prevent you from having my fucked up sleep schedule, which results from me wasting time during the day and compensating for it by working until 3 AM, which is the current time. You might want to do something less addictive so that you go to bed on time and can perform the next morning. Fuck chronotypes, if you fall asleep early, you will wake up early.
V. The solution to curing addiction to entertainment is to do only things that don´t entertain you. Get used to boredom, from it the greatest ideas have arisen.
You don´t need self-affirming mantras, posters on your wall or faith in god, just figure out a way to do it without compensating otherwise, e.g. watching YouTube videos instead of scrolling instagram is not valid.
Most of our culture seems to be based on wasting time, being a miserable fuck and goofing around, and that’s still the better part. Is that really the goal?
According to some studies on “social media participants”, which is almost everyone, 51.7% of girls and 45% of boys have an eating disorder. Now, the girls didn’t surprise me particularly, but half of the boys? This is likely a problem fueled by social media.
Source: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/31797420/
On a side note, reading YouTube comments offers a window into some depraved minds.
“I love you so much”, “this cures my depression”, self-depreciating jokes, shitty jokes using the same patterns, bad grammar and lack of basic language skills. I´m pretty sure loving someone you´ve never met is a psychiatric disorder and watching your favorite content creator doesn´t make you happy, it just distracts you for a while. That´s like getting drunk instead of solving your problems, it doesn´t help.
If you call yourself depressed, that´s equal to calling yourself a miserable fuck. If you identify as a miserable fuck, then you are one. I swear to God, if anyone in person ever bitches to me about depression without really looking for help or trying to prove some point, I will beat them to a fucking pulp. I don´t give a shit how offensive and inconsiderate and insensitive that is.
I´d rather kill myself than bitch about my depression without trying out solutions. It´s not cool to be mentally ill, you hipster faggot piece of shit.
Everyone loses sometimes, everyone wins sometimes, being a winner is all about presentation and attitude. Instead of bitching or distracting yourself, there´s one fucking solution: Figure out your problems, solve them and stop breaking yourself down mentally. No therapist or drugs will replace effort on your part.
In the words of Zyzz: “Be a sick cunt, not a sad cunt.”