When we think of a world filled with innovation, we would normally think of a world filled
all sorts of electronic gadgets intended to make our lives easier. The world that we live
in today is the farthest that we have advanced so far. But the reality is, mental illnesses
like depression or anxiety are more prevalent than ever before. So why is it that they are
continuing to increase despite the existence of all sorts of inventions to make every
aspect of our lives more convenient? Shouldn’t we be more comfortable and satisfied
with our lives compared to our ancestors who lived in the past? The truth is, we have
innovated far more than nature intended. Especially economically, which is an aspect
that affects society as a whole.
One of the main factors within this issue is our desensitisation towards dopamine, the
chemical produced by our brain that is responsible for feelings of satisfaction and
pleasure. Take inventions intended for our entertainment for example like television and
social media, these inventions are actually completely unnecessary for our survival. But
the reason why they are so popular and commonly consumed by today’s society is
because we’re all addicted to the dopamine boosts derived from these convenient forms
of entertainment. Just a few clicks away and we’ll get to see movies of any genre,
videos and pictures of all sorts of fascinating things, we even get to read about the
latest news regarding our idols. The companies in charge of it, are aware of this
phenomena, and they take advantage of it by capitalising off of it. They craft algorithms
that take note of the content we interact with, and show us content they know we would
like to see.
Most modern inventions are no longer purely for the sake of practicality. In fact, a lot of
products are marketed purely for the sake of making money. For example designer
brands. These luxury brands are marketed at an insanely high price, not because the
function of their products are especially good. But because it has become a way for
people to show off their wealth and status. Due to the natural competitive nature of
humans, those who don’t have it tend to envy those who do. But those who do already
own such products only want to obtain more and more. Once the satisfaction from their
newest purchase has worn off, they look for the next best thing. The desires of an
individual who has access to it all are endless and therefore they can never truly be
satisfied.
Since we’ve become so used to these automatic feelings of satisfaction, we no longer
have motivation to do things like reading a book or writing a journal. Those were what
our ancestors did in the past to pass their time before they had all the fancy gadgets
that we have now. They got their dopamine through beneficial and more complicated
tasks whereas we get it from mindless entertainment like bingeing a television series or
scrolling for hours on social media platforms. Since we’ve already seen all the
excitement through our digital screens, simple things in daily life now seem much more
mundane and boring. We end up trying to compare our own lives to the ones we see
displayed on social media.
Another problem that arises related to innovation, is that we need to constantly be
improving to keep up with the fast paced world that we live in. For example, in the past,
it was much easier to sustain a basic lifestyle. All you needed was a higher education
degree, and you were guaranteed a high paying job. But nowadays with the way the
world has evolved, most big companies require higher qualifications with lesser pay.
This is due to the hyper-competitiveness within the economical market, this is especially
prevalent for larger corporate companies. A lot of them even resort to unethical means
of production. For example sweatshops or even child labour. Thus, this leads to high
levels of stress and pressure on the working class to be perfect in order to simply make
a living.
So how can this issue be resolved? Do we just get rid of all the expensive gadgets
we’ve bought and isolate ourselves from everything? Not necessarily. All the products
and inventions weren’t made specifically to do us harm. With so many different search
engines and endless access to all the information in the world, we can try to use these
gadgets in the most beneficial way. We can try slowly limiting the amount of time we
spend doing non-beneficial activities and train ourselves to do beneficial activities
instead. That way, we can actually get the benefits we were marketed. We must also
remember that not everything we see displayed in the media is true. We all go through
struggles, the best we can do to genuinely be happy is to learn to be content with what
we have. Instead of purely striving to improve materially, we must strive to improve both
mentally and intellectually. Your own mindset is the key to happiness. .
Why "Innovation" Might Actually be Leading to our Downfall