Has anyone else felt a little... desensitized?
With everything that's going on, and with all of the screen time that I've been experiencing, I feel like all of my emotions have seriously been watered down. Aside from when I get anxious (because that's always a huge feeling for me), I realize that I don't tend to experience the emotions that I'm having too much. Perfect example: Chadwick Boseman recently died. And although he was a major inspiration to a lot of us, I remember sitting with my friend for a couple of minutes in sadness before continuing what we were doing previously. And that's TERRIBLE! Granted, I know Chadwick wasn't a close friend or family member of mine, but humans have the ability to empathize with people or situations that they don't even know. I can remember plenty of times when I have grieved over celebrities' deaths; Christina Grimmie, Prince, Cameron Boyce. But with all of the tragedies going on, and considering the fact that I compulsively check Twitter every 10-15 minutes, I feel like my mind has minimized death and tragedy to something that is no longer as impactful as it used to be.
As bad as that is, though, I know that this isn't just a problem with extremes like death, either. Have you noticed that getting reactions out of your friends/family is a lot more difficult? To me, it feels like when I was younger, getting people to react or laugh was a lot easier... or maybe I was just funnier when I was little. But whenever I crack a joke, say something sarcastic, or just try to get a rouse out of my friends/family, I get a blank stare in response, and I'm forced to do somewhat of a verbal "talk of shame" by continuing my conversation like nothing happened. Now, this thought isn't something crazy that I just came up with; there have been countless articles about people investigating the effect that screen time has on our emotional intelligence. But because social media has also been investigated for being addicting, how exactly do we reverse this decrease in emotional IQ? Is it too late? I already mentioned my debilitating Twitter habit. Is there a way to remedy that before I'm constantly refreshing LinkedIn at 45 years old, or am I destined to a future of profile scrolling?
The Netflix series Black Mirror does a spin on this idea. Albeit a lot more extreme than what I'm describing, the creators of the series play on the idea of technology being taken too far in a variety of seemingly outlandish scenarios, from a prisoner being subjected to reenacting a movie-style scene as a result of her crime, to a man developing obsessive tendencies when he uses his memory replaying device to observe moments when his partner seems to be interested in another man. With an eerie take like this, it only makes me wonder how much the human mind and behavior patterns can actually change with the onset of these rapid technological advancements.
Now, I know that I won't be having a chip placed in my brain anytime soon (although Elon Musk has been talking about some weird stuff), I genuinely hope that everyone (including me) can minimize their time online. Aside from physical and mental benefits, it also might be able to improve the social interactions that people face every day. Aside from my desire to once again be funny to my friends and family, a lack of emotional intelligence can make it more difficult to "read the room" in terms of observing reactions/social situations, giving advice, or even comforting someone in a time of need.
Do you feel like you've been desensitized to the world around you lately? And if so, what do you think is the main cause of your desensitization?
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