Continuous Downgrade of the Human Mind
January 14th, 2025 (20 days ago) • 2 minutes
Every organism seeks maximum benefit for minimum effort.
This natural tendency extends beyond physical actions to how we manage our emotions, learn new things, and even consume information on social media.
We end up in echo chambers because challenging established thoughts and beliefs and applying critical thought to new information requires more cognitive effort than accepting information that confirms our current thought pattern.
As human, we are wired to conform to societal wants and needs. The specific term is being 'homophilous'. No one wants to stand alone on an idea or opinion because he/she risk being ostracized. And this is very bad because it leads to our thinking becoming more extreme and less resilient.
With Instagram and Facebook adding fuel to fire by showing us what we want to see, we unknowingly become more and more engraved in our own thoughts and decide that no other opinion is worth listening to. This has come to a point where people actually stopped talking to a family member or friend over the results.
Think of this like genetic inbreeding. Morals and ethics aside, the problem with having children with relatives is that your genetic material is too similar. The result is that weaker, detrimental genes aren't removed, so those traits propagate through the gene pool. Recessive harmful genes become dominant.
It's so scary to think that we are not thinking critically anymore. Ask yourself when is the last time you challenged an idea or opinion that you hold dear?
Credits to The Daily Stoic for the excerpt.