MY WORLD IS SHATTERED

PERSPECTIVES ON HUMAN NATURE

God dag fellas. I hope you are good? As my usual boring self, allow me to bore you with what I have found interesting between last week and now. Thank you reading.

HOW SOCIAL MEDIA IS MESSING UP WITH YOUR EMOTIONAL AND MENTAL HEALTH

If you use social media a lot, here is why you may be experiencing serious mental health troubles.

There are many explanations why you may be experiencing depression, anxiety, and self-image problems. Different settings have their different explanations. I explain the origins of mental health problems from the perspective of human nature and social media.

There is no human design (whether creation or evolution) that makes you capable of intimacy with a large number of people. But social media promises such capability. The promise of social networks is that you can peer into, and be a part of the lives of people who don't know you exist. It sounds good. But only to the shallow, superficial thinkers because that promise comes with a side effect. A huge side effect. You can not keep up. It will destroy you.

It takes a lot of emotional and mental strength to keep up with the events of people's lives, and with the events around the world. Without the necessary restraints, you will be crushed and messy, left in such shambles that you won't be able to put your life together because you are a scattered puzzle of other totally foreign pieces. You will be formless.

Using social networks comes with a lot of unconscious expectations. These platforms work by tapping into your fundamental need for attention and companionship. Unconsciously, we open ourselves up to be attended to by algorithms and strangers. By transferring the expectations of human connection onto a virtual frame and to complete strangers, you are left like a panting dog with its tongue out, waiting for any form of validation. In simple terms, you will be desperate for anything to meet your needs. It leaves you pathetic. Now we live in an inverted world.

WHY HUMAN BEINGS ARE DANGEROUS

My biggest shock of the year has been the realisation that human beings are not rational animals. Yes, we have the high ability to rationalise. We can think, reason, and place things in a consistent framework. Yet, this does not make us rational beings by default. It only means that rationality is merely a tool more than it is a state of being.

It has dawned on me now that we are goodly irrational. We go through life more snoozed than awake. Most of our actions are random, unplanned, and even unthought-of. We are mostly asleep with occasional wakes and awareness. The reason for this is simple; in Nassim Taleb's words, "there is no solace to be found in reasoning." I guess this further explains why rationalization, reasoning, and logic lose all their potency in a space set for grief and mourning.

Human beings just want to love, survive, and have a great time. We don't have much time for the rigors of truth and reasoning. This is shocking but true. We care about truth only when a lie threatens our survival. Truth has no intrinsic value to most people. This is sad. But then, this is reality.

“Man is not a rational animal. He is a rationalising animal”

-Robert Heinlein

I have rambled on and on about something you may neither understand nor care about. I guess it is OK. I have merely clarified my thoughts and perspectives on human nature. I am urging you once again to find your topic of interest and pursue it with all your might. Welcome to November. Have a pleasant eleven.