#superstimuli

[hellscaperesources]

Exit the supersensorium

The neuroscientific case for art in the age of Netflix

[novakspector]

Superstimuli and the Collapse of Western Civilization

At least three people have died playing online games for days without rest. People have lost their spouses, jobs, and children to World of Warcraft. If people have the right to play video games - and it's hard to imagine a more fundamental right - then the market is going to respond by supplying the most engaging video games that can be sold, to the point that exceptionally engaged consumers are removed from the gene pool.

[untiltheseashallfreethem]

It’s strange being back on Tumblr.  I woke up this morning, opened my laptop, and spent 20 minutes catching up on my dash from last night.  This used to be my morning routine, but my reaction has totally changed.  Instead of hungering for more content, I find myself asking, Why did I just read that?

That’s how I’ve been feeling ever since I returned to Tumblr.  I’ve been trying to follow my dash diligently, but I’ve been skimming over more posts, skipping over more things.  Almost none of it interests me.  Even the blogs that inspired me to join Tumblr have failed to keep my attention.  And it’s not like you guys have gotten less interesting -- I don’t mean to accuse you of that.  It’s just that my habits of information processing have changed.

Tumblr just seems so scattered.  A disorganized collage of the contents of people’s minds.  It tires me to skip from one thought to the next, in such rapid succession.  It tires me to filter out all the distractions, the posts and pictures I don’t care about, the flashy gifs that grab my attention but add nothing to my life.

I care about all of you.  I really do.  And I would like to listen to the contents of your minds.  It’s just the format that annoys me.  So many disconnected thoughts, from so many disconnected people.  There’s not even the sense of human bonding one gets from a disorganized IRL conversation.  There’s only a thousand voices, shouting simultaneously into the void.  We attain a strange synchrony (in topic, in style), but somehow this fails to bridge the gaps between us.  It’s like we’re all sitting in separate cubicles, repeating the same mantra, and hoping it will bring us together.

The topics are bizarre to me.  A debate on whether trans women should be allowed on women’s basketball teams.  A collective outrage over the death of a lion.  Of all the ten thousand problems in this world, of all the ten thousand moral dilemmas, why have we chosen these ones to focus on?  I know Tumblr’s worldview and obsessions; I know that trans issues are prominent in this community.  But after a month away from that context, it all seems so arbitrary.  And I’m not saying trans basketball players and Cecil the Lion aren’t issues.  I’m saying there’s a thousand other issues, of equal importance and compellingness, that no one is paying attention to.

Imagine how powerful we would be, if we could direct the collective discourse.  If we could steer the ship of the media, and get the whole world rallied around our personal causes.  It almost makes me want to take up the art of memetics so I can promote my own particular obsessions.

But no.  I think I’ll merely retreat from the internet, withdraw from it slowly.  My mind yearns for focus.  I have larger goals.  Tumblr imparts a scattered quality to my thoughts, a necessary adaptation for consuming the medium.  But in my month away, I’ve regained the ability to sit down and read a book; I’ve regained the ability to devote myself to academic pursuits.

I used to read Tumblr and then long for more posts.  But now I’m caught up with my dash and I’m eager to get away.  I want to read Authority.  I want to study simulated annealing for Metropolis Hastings.  I want to do basically anything other than read more stuff here.

I fought so long against this addiction, to no avail.  And now it’s gone.  I know if I stay here much longer, my mind will readapt itself to Tumblr, and I’ll lose my ability to focus again.  I know I could easily slide back into the addiction.  But now I also know the way out.

I’m going to avoid spending much time here.  I’m going to keep Tumblr as a rare treat.  I’m not going to read my entire dash every day.

I realize I’m abandoning you guys, and I’m sorry.  Please do tag me if you want me to see something.  I’ll read it.  I might even respond.  But I’m not going to follow all of your words anymore.  I care about all of you.  But I need my executive function back; I need my ability to focus more than I need this place.

[paleoconcierge]

A great article, with references ... and a comic, for us, the overstimulated masses.