An Israeli professor spoke out in a recent video about the current mental and emotional deprivation of today’s youth, how they are programmed to seek stimulation and consume, while being deprived of meaningful relationships and purpose-driven work. Sam Vaknin, author of Malignant Self Love: Narcissism Revisited, said that today’s youth are “walking dead” and living in a dystopian hell.
Vaknin is deeply concerned that the up-and-coming generations are being trained to seek the most convenient path, one of constant stimulation, one that provides a constant escape from reality. This spiritually-deprived culture is leading to short attention spans in relationships, shallow conversations, a lack of intellect and meaningful engagement. Hobbies and careers are no longer pursued with discipline, determination, and loyal ambition. Critical and analytical thinking have dissipated. Talents are left unexplored and interests are abandoned as digital distractions and a constant stream of dopamine rushes take precedence.
Developing brains are being short circuited by a constant stream of digital distractions, as young brains are stimulated into perpetual dopamine rushes through the mindless gossip of social media, the algorithmic information streams and advertisements, countless new apps and entertainment channels, click bait visuals, video games, and other addictive excitements engineered by the tech world.
Tech culture is creating a generation of victim-minded narcissists who seek self-intoxication and self-gratification
Professor Vaknin warns that this tech-driven, zombie culture is creating shallow people who have “flat speech” that lacks depth and context. He sees a youth that is constantly programmed to activism, yet the integrity of these movements is flat out fake, represented by intoxicated, impulsive individuals who are mindlessly repeating the next most popular victim-mentality. Vaknin says that their actions do not matter. “The heart matters, motivations matter,” he says. In order for the world to change, individuals must change from the inside out.
The world only changes for an individual when they take ownership over their life and assume responsibility for their own shortcomings and failures. Many young people emulate “action” and support causes, but these shallow actions only regulate their mood and feed their pleasure, nothing else. Each person should work on themselves, if they want to see change in their reality. This real change cannot take place if the individual is mindlessly following the next trend, emulating victim mentality, with their emotions programmed into self-intoxication and self-gratification.
From a very young age, kids are being pacified by apps and games on a cell phone or tablet, detached from real life that is happening all around them. As social media and gaming addictions drive these short circuit connections, young people lose their purpose and desire for understanding, and are further detached from their true emotions. As a result, their conversations lack depth, their relationships lack emotional intimacy, as their interactions become robotic and shallow. These addictive dopamine rushes only short circuit cognitive development, developing neuron connections that put the brain in a cycle of stimulation-seeking behaviors and attention-getting personality traits. As brains are trained to seek quick gratification, low attention spans result, leading to learning and behavioral deficits, disappointment in reality, deepening depression and ultimately suicidal thoughts.
In 2019, more than 47,500 people committed suicide, a tragedy equivalent to one death every eleven minutes. According to the CDC, 12 million people think about suicide every year, with 3.5 million making plans to take their own life. Approximately 1.4 million people make an attempt to take their own life, every year. (Related: Fight depression with these 15 tips you can use today.)
Check out the professor’s video at Brighteon.com.
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