The honest truth...

It comes to my attention quite frequently that people of this modern age - myself included - seem to get so caught up in artificial and trivial entertainment, so much so to the point where they essentially contract an addiction to large, fast hits of dopamine with as little effort as possible. Of course, this is by the design of society; with time comes progress, with progress comes ease, with ease comes a decrease in effort, and with a decrease in effort comes laziness which directly induces in us a lackluster vitality as humans. Why put in work to get satisfaction when satisfaction is just a click away? All you need to do is open up YouTube, or TikTok, or Instagram, and you're promised that there's something on there that will give you happiness with no work at all on your part. Doesn't that sound like a great way to live? Yet when we close those apps, we only leave feeling less rejuvenated and deeper in the slouch we were promised would be fixed. Isn't it a little crazy to think that just a few decades ago people would live without worrying about what others thought of them? Without fretting over how many friends they have? Without striving for just one more like, one more video, just one more, "Then I'll be happy..." over and over, to the point where we develop a morbid dependancy to our phones and these bright, flashing lights and colors? A few days ago, I went to the google app store on my phone, which I've purged of all apps and games and social media as of a few months ago, and I decided to download three games which I had happened to remember on a whim; Mahjong, Busted Brakes, and Fruit Ninja (The latter two of which were cornerstones of my childhood- great games. I wanted to have a taste of nostalgia). When I downloaded the Mahjong title that tickled my fancy most (Mahjong for Seniors), I waited, then I opened the app and started playing. Then I made a match between two tiles, and immediately it was like a flashbang of particles and colors and noise. It was blinding. I didn't even have my sound on, yet I could practically hear all of the visual effects blasting off of the screen. I deleted that app and settled on another less flashy title, Vita Mahjong. Then, I moved on to Fruit Ninja. This one was originally on my xBox 360, with a motion tracking add-on, but I had heard that it was available on mobile, so I decided to give it a try. The moment I opened up the app, there were four diabolically cringy cartoon characters posing in various manners as the game loaded very slowly. I had to stare them in the eyes for the most unbearable 60 seconds of my life before the game loaded, and then I was flashbanged with colors and visual noise again. Heck, it's like that everywhere. And here's where this connects back to my first point; we're in a positive feedback loop. Consumers suck up colorful, loud, fast hits of dopamine, and then they slouch deeper into the depression they face in the real world. The suppliers notice this and bump up the flashiness of their apps to meet the dopamine demand of their consumers, lest they stop playing their games. Then the demand increases. AI plays a role in this, too, but I won't waste any more of your time. To anyone who's read through all of these 3000 characters of yap, good job and have a good day. To anyone that hasn't read through all of these 3000 characters of yap, you have a good day too.