What do you think would happen if the interactive web – social media, YouTube, blogs, podcasts, comments, all of it – suddenly disappeared?
It would probably be a little disorienting at first, but in the long run, …
We’d quit living with our eyes glued to little screens and our ears plugged with little pods.
We’d be far less distracted and more focused.
The amount of complete and utter BS in the world would shrink by orders of magnitude.
We’d all have a lot more time on our hands. Think about it. All that wasted time spent generating and consuming online content.
We’d go back to spending all that reclaimed time with our friends and families, on our hobbies, reading books, thinking, feeling and enjoying activities together.
We’d go back to meeting in person – in clubs and other public places – and dating based on what we really see, hear and feel, instead of swiping and hooking up based on BS virtual profiles.
Our lives would be far more productive.
We’d wake up and realize we’re not really superheroes with the power to change the world but just plain human beings trying to live a happy live.
We’d quit thinking we’re big-shot activists whose tweets make a difference.
Ludicrous cultural norms like identity politics, political correctness, virtue signaling and all that wokeness nonsense would disappear without perpetual online reinforcement.
We’d all stop craving constant attention and instant gratification.
We’d have our privacy back.
We’d quit behaving like lab mice in a Skinner Box behavioral conditioning experiment, hitting like and retweet buttons over and over for doses of dopamine.
We’d go back to being normal everyday people in a normal everyday world that makes sense again.
After being trapped inside tiny two-dimensional screens for so long, the feeling of freedom would probably be overwhelming … in a good way.
We’d quit behaving like sheeple – wind-up digital drones living in our own little ideological echo chambers – and go back to being unique individuals again.
We’d all get to hop off the World Wide Hamster Wheel and relax a little.
We’d have a lot more fun.
And we’d all be less depressed, less isolated, less divided and a lot happier, according to all the studies and data I’ve seen.
Sure, we’d be sacrificing some things, but far fewer than you’d think.
If I could snap my fingers and make one thing happen — just one thing — that’s what I’d do. The irony is, that would probably make the world a better place. A far better place.
Image credit Gonzalo Baeza / Flickr