Posted on 07/09/2012 2:57:31 PM PDT by Sir Napsalot
Tweets, texts, emails, posts. New research says the Internet can make us lonely and depressed—and may even create more extreme forms of mental illness, Tony Dokoupil reports.
(snip) Questions about the Internet’s deleterious effects on the mind are at least as old as hyperlinks. But even among Web skeptics, the idea that a new technology might influence how we think and feel—let alone contribute to a great American crack-up—was considered silly and naive, like waving a cane at electric light or blaming the television for kids these days. Instead, the Internet was seen as just another medium, a delivery system, not a diabolical machine. It made people happier and more productive. And where was the proof otherwise?
Now, however, the proof is starting to pile up. The first good, peer-reviewed research is emerging, and the picture is much gloomier than the trumpet blasts of Web utopians have allowed. The current incarnation of the Internet—portable, social, accelerated, and all-pervasive—may be making us not just dumber or lonelier but more depressed and anxious, prone to obsessive-compulsive and attention-deficit disorders, even outright psychotic. Our digitized minds can scan like those of drug addicts, and normal people are breaking down in sad and seemingly new ways.
(Excerpt) Read more at thedailybeast.com ...
Oh, I don’t completely disagree with the general premise: the stunning development of technology in the last 20 years has most definitely created a culture shock that will probably take a couple generations to really adjust to.
Not to be flippant or lewd but just the fact that the internet is pushing against thousands of years of human behavior and forcing right-handed males to learn how to masturbate with their left is actually pretty remarkable at just that base level. To deny that technology is having a negative impact on human interactions and culture at large, would simply be denial.
The point I was making was that there are no behaviors or beliefs born from our current adjustment to technology that are more insane or nonsensical than some of the Mad Blarney that Newsweek’s published over the years.
In Newsweek, and wondering what makes you insane? Okely dokely.
Plese, I urge you to cease and desist.
Newsweak says life was simpler when no one questioned the talking points of the 3 alphabet networks or Time-Lies-Newsweak.
We're still here...
Not all electronic devices are “internet”.
Kindles and cellphones are a nuisance enough.
I don’t own a cellphone. And everyone looks at me like I’M the one who’s crazy.
“All the world is mad except for me and thee...and I’m not too sure about thee.”
—anonymous
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