I am a millenial. I have owned my first house for a year and a half now. I have decided it’s time to quit the internet.
Obviously I can’t quit the internet all together, I use it daily for my job. But I will no longer use the internet as anything but a tool. A little over a year ago I unplugged my only major social media account and left Facebook. I have never once regretted that decision. However, I have always held that the internet, social media, forums, and news aggregators are the best and most responsible way to consume news. It was a shotgun approach, by having many sources of news I can get the real facts of a story. My opinion has changed and for my New Years resolution I am completely unplugging from internet unrelated to my work and subscribing to a local newspaper.
My opinion changed because of several reasons, but I will list three. The first reason is that being a responsible news consumer consumed all of my time. I was so focused on understanding the truth of the world that I ate up large chunks of time chasing stories. Time I could have spent at the gym, gardening, talking to my wife, etc. etc. I don’t want the internet to eat my time and I want to be able to focus on the things most important to me in my own home.
The second reason is that, despite my efforts, I would be deluded to think that I actually was getting unbiased news. I am a source of bias and my news collecting led to me honing down my sources to basically places I “trusted”. It’s important to be cognizant of our biases and I think we are fooling ourselves to think we can get at the whole truth free from our own bias.
The third reason is the most important reason is that the internet and social media are disintegrating the fabric of society. Our relationships are breaking down at the fundamental level and this is due to the internet. If you know much about economics you know that value is derived from scarcity. Social interactions have become infinitely less scarce with the internet and infinitely less valuable. We do not value our family, neighbors, community etc anymore because we do not need them for relationship, we can converse online and our echo chamber will always validate us. The internet also puts a toxic barrier between us and other humans. Our online interactions are unlike physical interactions. When you talk to someone in person you can read the subtleties of their body language and you must respond to their reactions in real time. It affects you. You care more about humans when you can see them and touch them. Social media and all forms of conversation on the internet dehumanize us. Is there really a question as to why we are on the brink of a civil war? Many people do not even know their neighbor, let alone trust them.
I have done my due diligence and researched the local paper. It is not owned by the New York Times or another globalist propaganda network. I am taking out a subscription and not looking back. I implore you all to consider what I’ve said and work towards healing the relationships that have degraded this year and work towards strengthening your community. When the clock strikes for January 1st you will never hear from me again.
God bless you all.
h/t Hector_of_the_Forums