Journal BarbaraHudson's Journal: Internet Dysphoria - if you don't have it, it's likely you know someone who does 5
Yesterday we read about how smartphones are contaminating family life. People are getting to the point where they feel anger or resentment towards the place the internet takes in so many people's lives, including their own. Here I propose both a formal diagnosis and criteria as a first step in helping those so affected.
Dysphoria is a psychiatric term for a state of unease or generalized dissatisfaction with life.
Gender dysphoria is the psychiatric term for the distress a person experiences as a result of the sex and gender they were assigned at birth not being congruent with who they feel they are.
Which brings is to Internet Dysphoria
Sense of dissatisfaction, unease, or distress with life on the Internet, esp. when the person is finding that, no matter how much exposure they get, the feeling just gets worse.
Symptoms can include:
- anger and frustration with the sheer volume of misinformation, outright lies, and manipulation by others, especially for profit
- an overwhelming desire to throw their phone against the wall or punch out their keyboard or screen.
- reminiscing about the "good old days" when you could talk to people without their phones constantly interrupting
- feeling like they, just by their very presence, are somehow inhibiting others from devoting their entire attention to the internet - especially true when visiting someone or sitting down for a meal and everyone else is glued to their phones. See Internet Alienation Syndrome.
The most likely viable treatment is cognitive behavioral therapy to help the individual realize that they are engaging in distorted thinking when believing that the internet should be such a fixture in their daily life, and to see the internet for what it has become - an echo chamber / rage machine / manipulator par excellence for profit at the expense of the users long-term autonomy, independence, and privacy.
Short-term solutions may include
- getting a data plan with crappy limits;
- "forgetting" your phone in the car;
- buying a Samsung Note 7 or Apple iPhone with touch screen disease;
- making mealtime rules such as fist one to use their phone at the table does the dishes, and first one to use their phone at the restaurant pays the bill.
More research is needed on this socially and emotionally crippling problem. Feel free to send me research grants, donations, chocolate and pizza, etc.
Note: This disorder is closely related to, but distinct from, Programmer's Dysphoria, which manifests itself in a growing feeling that coding is no longer enjoyable, that many projects are vapid or even evil, and that affected programmers wish they had gone into a different career and just kept coding as a hobby activity.
People have no couth. (Score:2)
The damned smart phones were invented fifty years too late, right when the GenXers were too busy to teach their kids manners. It's just plain RUDE to talk on the phone or text when you're having a conversation with someone else. Pulling out the phone when it hasn't rung is the height of rudeness.
Telephone etiquette was worked out a century ago. If you have compeny and the phone rings, you say "excuse me", answer the phone and say "I have company, can I call you back?" and the polite answer to that is "sure"
Internet Dysphoria: an anagrammatical analysis (Score:2)
A Serendipity Thorn
A Nerdier Hypnotist
Inherited A Porn Sty
Hyper Transitioned
Pry Into Dishearten
Therapy Renditions
Enthrone Disparity
Restrained Phony IT
Parented This Irony
Sedentary Rhino Pit
Hot Pride Tyrannies
This list goes on. I'll need more time to weed out the good ones....
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
Spirited Hoe Tranny?
Right!
Sometimes its like reading tea leaves, natal horoscopes, and the Sunday crossword puzzle all rolled up in one!
The Easter Eggs are everywhere!
Oh! Serendipity rant.
Dirtiest hyena porn.
It's inherent parody.