CHRONICALLY ONLINE!

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It's kinda dystopian that in order to remain friends with people we have to constantly text eachother

“Half human and half cocomelon” had me lol 12 seconds in. Then, at 13 seconds, start to worry about certain younger family members.

Currently in high school and I hate that so many people my age treat reality as a place to discuss what you’ve seen online. Like when you go to someone to talk it’s expected that you’re both up to date on each other’s posts, stories, and the posts of people around you. There’s somehow judgement when you haven’t seen a friend’s story she posted 3 hours ago which feels so dystopian to me somehow.

I love this side of youtube. It's the closest thing to thinking one can do while tired and passive

There is an awful irony in watching this video on social media while engaging with the hyper reality

I would describe myself as an "iPad baby", as my single parent who was herself chronically online and drunk quite literally just gave me an iPad and almost never interacted with me. Socially isolated at school, the internet has become everything to me. Time away from information technologies feels like a waste. I turned 18 two months ago, and I find myself struggling. Personally, being stuck in my own head and the perpetual information-based environment I have been engrossed in for at least 10 years now has led me both to a disordered and stunted emotional state, to be hyper-intellectual & socially inept, and led me to political extremism. Being left to the internet from a young age has made me less human. The social and emotional parts of me feel completely shut down. My lifestyle is now comprised of being at my computer at least 80% of my waking hours. This new parenting style has become extremely damaging. Personally I appreciate you linking the current state of labour in capitalism to the growing failures of parenting, it's an aspect I often lose sight of.

I've basically re-entered hyper reality as a cope for real life and 2 months later I'm mentally incredibly crippled. It's actually really surprising how quickly you can start judging your own actions, the hyperstition is real, but slowly and surely interacting in the real world again seems like the only way out Edit: Since posting this, my life has changed so significantly I cannot state it. I'm in college so it's definitely easier to just go out, but I also have been going to therapy for 9 weeks (a/o today). Get help, try reaching out to people. Everything is scary for everyone, but if you do little things that scare you (asking for help!) then bigger things will come next.

There are a handful of Sisyphus videos that have caused me to think deeply in ways I have not before. This is one of those. Thank you for your always superior content and for being a rare voice online that challenges our digital consumption habits.

I'm still young, and this video made me realize that whenever I feel "depressed" or "deflated," what I really feel is boredom. I feel that boredom is no longer as prevalent nowadays as when you're bored, you just turn on your phone and browse through media. When you're bored, you usually try to get creative and find a way to quench that boredom. But now, instead of getting creative, we just mindlessly scroll. At some point, the repetitive scrolling through social media becomes boring in and of itself and satiating the boredom becomes difficult because instead of having learnt various skills or hobbies, we just developed social media habits. I think this leads to many people feeling like they don't have a purpose in life. A lot of the youth today reports themselves as having depression or other mental health issues, and I feel that a number of it stems from them not feeling like they have any purpose outside of being chronically online.

“If the iPad baby is our present, then it’s diaper is our future.” Well said lol

The subway-surfers-ification of tiktok podcast clips is just baby sensory videos for adults. Every corner of culture is becoming more hyperreal

I'm tired of living in hyperreality but I feel too stuck in it. I've been chronically online since middle school so my social skills remained at relatively same basically nonexistent level. All I do all day is consume media: endless hours on youtube, gaming, gaming with a video on the background, eating while watching a show. When I finally get a break from looking at a screen and pushing buttons the world gets ironically unreal. It's like virtuality and reality changed places. So even when I try to do something "real" I don't feel anything or I get bored and irritated.

This is like watching the matrix while actually being in the matrix.

The online world is still relatively new in the vast history of humanity and I think this is one of the reasons why chronically online people are growing to be desensitised or over-sensitive to issues. This is almost the first time where we are being bombarded with information about the issues all over the world and unlike before when news used to be the primary source of knowledge, we now see actual people who are in those situations. This sudden exposure to these new situations that ask for empathy from us is overwhelming. People are starting to compensate by either being offended on behalf of the people in those situations when when the issue at hand does not relate to that or by simply giving up as they cannot provide empathy to all. This new world is starting to scare people, many of which did not even know of the issues. That's why I think we are getting even more skeptics about nearly every topic. The world feels like it's in a constant state of war, sickness and death and for some people it has begun to feel like everything is simply a ploy to garner sympathetic reactions.

To add on to this, another thing I find particularly frightening is the notion that our devices (especially phones) are effectively considered an extension of the body itself, at least to an extent. Many of us (myself included) have our phone on hand 24hrs a day, whether it’s in your pocket or on your nightstand while you sleep. In a way it’s almost parasitic…

I've noticed the older I get the less chronically online I become. I realized fairly quickly that social media wasn't making me fulfilled so I started doing hobbies and actively went outside more. I don't use any social media aside from one that I post my art to and discord (which I only actively interact with a few choice friends and only briefly check larger servers) I still like web surfing but I've gotten better with managing my time with it or only using the internet as a reference guide for illustration. I've started doing chalk drawings on the sidewalk as another way to encourage myself to go outdoors. My dad has told me that a lot of people just come over to stare or check new drawings, and directly I've been told by a person that she looks forward to checking to see if there are new ones. Its nice, and its fulfilling, even if its something small. I get to see a lot of kids running around and playing outside, and it warms my heart to know that they're allowed to be kids when so many are being raised online.

I watched Serial Experiments Lain just 2 days ago and it's incredible how accurate this anime from 1998 portrayed modern issues

The children I see in kindergarten as a teacher have absolutely no social skills. I see shockingly innapropriate behaviors and emotional development that more likely would be seen in a 2 year old. Scary stuff.

I'm a teacher and after covid... holy shit this next generation after Gen Z is gonna fail hard... these kids can't read or do basic math, and they have no idea what manners and social skills are... literally night and day between the kids who experienced school pre and post covid. The kids in my school were always really smart and competitive before, and we haven't dropped at all in our state's rankings, which means this devolution is happening everywhere.