The Troubling Truth

The Troubling Truth about Tech

Have you ever asked yourself, why do so many of us struggle to find happiness? Why has this struggle progressed from the beginning of humanity to the present day? Why has mental illness skyrocketed in recent years? How did we get to this point? Why has America lost its moral compass? I believe that one of the major causes of mental illness in America is that we believe that the people in control know what is best for the rest of us. As we have submitted to a divisive political system, our morality and spiritual awareness have eroded. We have accepted a very limited understanding of ourselves. 

The divisive political system has not been beneficial for our self-esteem. It has made us believe that the answers to our problems are outside us, and we must behave a certain way to find happiness. In the process, we have neglected our connection with God. Instead of relying on God to guide us towards our life’s purpose, we rely on politicians, media, social media, science, and technology to dictate the quality of our lives. 

As we have collectively turned away from the God of love, we have lost our ability to discern what is true and what is false. It is impossible to find fulfillment in this way. When did we get so lost? When did we forget a strong connection with God is the only thing that can fulfill our spiritual and emotional needs? When did we stop worshipping God and put our faith in the government, technology, and the media? When did we become a society that worships these things like idols? Scripture tells us in 1 Corinthians 10:18-22 that if we worship idols long enough, evil will have power over us. It should be no surprise that mental illness is common in present-day America. In a 2020 documentary entitled “The Social Dilemma,” Jonathan Haidt, a social psychologist at New York University, states the following: 

The Rapid Rise in Mental Illness

There has been a gigantic increase in depression and anxiety in American teenagers, which started around 2011-2013. The number of teenage girls that were admitted to the hospital for cutting themselves, or hurting themselves, that number was stable year over year, and then it began to go way up as social media came to the forefront of society. 

Even more disturbing, we see the same pattern with suicide. Generation Z, the kids born after 1996, are the first generation to spend a lot of their time on social media. This generation is much more anxious, fragile, and depressed. They are much less comfortable taking risks. The rate at which they get driver’s licenses is dropping. The number who go out on a date or have any kind of romantic interaction is also declining rapidly. This is a dramatic change from previous generations. It is sad to realize that with every child admitted to the hospital for mental or behavioral illness, there is a family that is traumatized and horrified, thinking, “My god, what is happening to our kids?” 

According to the same documentary, the former president of Pinterest, Tim Kendall, once said, 

“It is plain as day to me. The social media services are killing people and causing people to kill themselves.” 

Tristan Harris, co-founder and CEO of Apture, former design ethicist at Google, and the co-founder for the Center for Humane Technology, said: 

When you look around, it looks like the world is going crazy. You have to ask yourself, is this normal? Or have we all fallen into some kind of a spell? I do not know any parent who says, you know, I really want my kids to grow up feeling manipulated by tech designers who manipulate their attention and make it impossible to do their homework and make them constantly compare themselves to unrealistic standards of beauty. Nobody wants that. But that appears to be the foundation of social media technology. 

Harris goes on to say: 

No one got upset when bicycles were invented. When everyone started riding around on bicycles, I don’t think anyone was thinking, ‘Oh my God, we have just ruined society, bicycles are affecting people, and pulling people away from their kids, and ruining the fabric of democracy, and making people believe they don’t know what is true.’ No one ever said any of that when the bicycle was invented. That is because when something is genuinely a tool, like a bicycle, it will just sit there and wait for you to use it, and when something is not a tool it is demanding things from you. It is seducing you; it is manipulating you; it wants things from you. So, what we have done is moved away from a tools-based technology environment to an addiction and manipulation-based technology environment. Social media is not a tool that is just waiting to be used. It has its own goals, and it has its own means of pursuing them by using your psychology against you. 

Edward Tufte, professor of statistical evidence, information, and interface design at Yale University, said, “There are only two industries that call their customers ‘users’: illegal drugs and software.”

A New Serious Addiction

In an article written by Simon Parkin, he points out that every “like” on Facebook produces dopamine in the human brain. He then explains how big tech uses dopamine to keep us addicted to social media. In the article, Sean Parker, the founding president of Facebook, admitted that the social network started with a mission to distract Americans, not unite us. Parker said, “The thought process was: How do we consume as much of your time and conscious attention as possible?” To achieve this goal, Facebook’s architects utilized a “vulnerability in human psychology.” When someone likes or comments on a post or photograph that they have uploaded, dopamine is released into their brain. Wolfrom Schultz conducted a test that demonstrated how dopamine relates to the reward we receive for an action. He concluded that dopamine is related to desire, ambition, addiction, and sex drive. Social media was intended to be addictive, it has distracted us from our connection with God, and it has devastated the inner wellness of the American population.

The time is now for Americans to take responsibility for unplugging from Big Tech, reclaim our minds, and establish a healthy relationship with the God of goodness. We must re-learn how to live with morality and virtue and encourage one another to love the way God created us to love. The United Creed inspires Americans to unplug and Be Golden. 

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