Read on Twitter
Freddie deBoer, an exceptional writer who has spent the last several years treating mental illness, spoke to @jessesingal about how Twitter can foster those pathologies, exacerbate them, & amplify their worst dynamics. I can’t recommend it highly enough: https://www.patreon.com/posts/patrons-only-on-39708189
We’re using technologies that — by design — profoundly impact our mental health & hyper-manipulate key regions of our brain. One of the most important articles is @NellieBowles’ on how Silicon Valley parents won’t let their kids use what they produce: https://www.nytimes.com/2018/10/26/style/phones-children-silicon-valley.html
Along those lines, read @DavidAFrench’s essay on his complex, sometimes-awful, sometimes-good friend & client who just died, with a broader reflection on Twitter’s obsession with reducing everyone to The Blessed and The Sinners like old-style religions: https://frenchpress.thedispatch.com/p/a-eulogy-for-a-friend-a-lament-for
This is one of Twitter’s main functions for so many. Many have no religion, no spirituality, no connection to community, no broader purpose. The pandemic & isolation have worsened all of that. The ability to create flocks of Good and Evil fulfills that:
https://twitter.com/conor64/status/1287152150108241921?s=21 https://twitter.com/conor64/status/1287152150108241921
https://twitter.com/conor64/status/1287152150108241921?s=21 https://twitter.com/conor64/status/1287152150108241921
There’s a lot of social science research now on how modern society — with its lack of religious, spiritual and community connection and capitalistic atomization — is causing skyrocketing rates of depression, addiction, suicide, etc. Read @DrGaborMate: https://www.kindredmedia.org/2017/10/capitalism-makes-us-sick-video-gabor-mate/
Twitter is a horrific substitute for so many things that humans need that modern capitalism and secular culture deny to people. The history of pandemics is fascinating: fostering new cults and fanatical religions. We don’t know what all this causes but we know it’s serious & bad.
