Over the years, I have noticed a mental shift in society. A move from critical mature thinking, to an almost childlike desire and acceptance for anything that brings pleasure, or a quick adrenaline rush.
There seems to be a certain group of socially popular mindsets/activities that, working together, have influenced a radical change of common perception. This subconscious change can, unwittingly, cause a person to adopt unconscious harmful behaviors.
Identifying The Mindsets
I am sure there are many more, but the ones stated below (for now) appear to be of the most important that I have observed:
- Allowing Yourself to Act as If Media You Know is Fake, Is Actually Real
- Consciously and/or Subconsciously Comparing Yourself, and Your Life, to What You See in Social Media, Movies, Cartoons, Video Games, Music, etc
- An Acceptance of A Lack of Privacy
- Subconsciously Adopting Ideas Without Knowing Where They Originate
- Participation in Stan Culture Activities
Allowing Yourself To Act As If Media You Know Is Fake, Is Actually Real
Giving attention to any type of media you know is fake, but is presented as real is dangerous. Reacting to it in a real way, with real emotion previously reserved for only real human events, can send a person down a slippery slope.
These types of activities can subconsciously blur the lines of reality, and diminish the skill of discernment in a person’s mind. They train the subconscious to seek out and create unrealistic expectations in actual day-to-day life. Many of these types of media use shock, drama, and violence to keep a person addicted through adrenaline and endorphin releases. The mind then becomes trained to copy what is seen, to feel the feelings again. It becomes an endless loop. It also trains a person to latch onto anything that makes them feel extreme emotions (good or bad).
(Media examples: reality tv, celebrity drama, political theater, etc.)
Consciously and/or Subconsciously Comparing Yourself and Life to What You See in Social Media, Movies, Cartoons, Video Games, and Music
With the practice of mindset #1, a person then becomes susceptible to thinking something is wrong or boring with normal everyday life. The next step is to seek out solutions to make their life more exciting and fulfilling.
It’s normal to look to what it is that makes you feel good. However, through the above type of activities, the mind has been trained to seek what is generally outside of the bounds of reality. The person has been set up to seek realistically unobtainable expectations.
This can send a person on a search for an unrealistic something to fill the perceived void. What starts to catch their eye, are things, or events that produce the same type of extreme feelings.
An Acceptance of A Lack of Privacy
With mindset #2, technology can feel like a type of savior out on the horizon. Anything seems possible in a digital world. Tech culture has promoted itself as a “genie in a bottle”. Anything you can wish for can come true on the internet.
This sets a person up for purposeful(?) confusion on exactly just what tech companies’ goals might be. The belief must be that tech is inherently good, and is on their side. It has to be, because it is the ticket to the ‘dream’ life they’ve been trained to want.
And with it being the savior, undeserved trust is given.
People become “unaware” that tech is a business. And just like all businesses, it is driven by profit. It is not good business to be altruistic. It’s good business to do everything they can to keep the money rolling in.
And the biggest market in tech is data.
Gathering your data, and selling your data. Whatever they can do to get a person to willingly provide as much information about themselves, the more product they have to sell.
Another important effect of this is not being able to perceive the danger. The person begins to view not only the digital world as wide open, but real life as well. They begin to lose the ability to protect themselves properly, making themselves a mark. They welcome in anything, without doing the due diligence of checking things out first.
A right to privacy is one of the fundamental human rights. And it is so for good reason.
Subconsciously Adopting Ideas Without Knowing Where They Originate
This ties into mindsets #1 and #3. With minds wide open for the world to see, a person begins to also be wide open to receiving suggestion. Now with their defenses nonexistent, and the inability to discern fact from fiction, they are now like a baby being set loose in a candy store.
With the firehosing of new ideas, new concepts, scandalous news at a rapid-fire pace, a person doesn’t even think to research what they are seeing. “If it makes me feel good, then it must be good!”
And if by chance they do google it, search results are so clogged with articles gaming the algorithm to be on the first page that most people are not willing to take the time to sift through it all.
It just seems easier to trust your group of internet ‘friends’, along with your trusted media idols, and go with that.
Participation in Stan Culture Activities
We can see Mindset #4 builds up a false sense of trust. It also places you in camaraderie with people who all seem to be striving for the same thing you are. Whether it be clothes, music, fame, movies, celebs, fortune, justice, or politics; if you spend enough time on the internet, it is quickly learned to get in ‘group formation’.
There’s hope that the person might even rise to the top, and become a “star” within the group. This ties into mindset #2, and reaching for the unobtainable. Soon a person is in the throes of a peer pressure type situation. “If you do it, Imma do it!” With the promise of fulfilling the dreams promised in #1 and #2, a person is now willing to do things that they would not have previously. And to adopt principles not their own. They begin to identify with people outside of their station in life. This can make a person do things that go against their own best interests.
In the next post, a possible way to remove them.
