Lack of social interaction causes stress and boredom in birds, especially more intelligent ones like parrots, leading to pterotillomania - plucking out their own feathers. How much more then do humans need social interaction to stay healthy? Wikipedia claims feather plucking has similar characteristics to trichotillomania - humans pulling out their own hair. This is often caused by anxiety.
Since the industrial revolution technology has been a disaster for human social interaction. First we replaced our fellow workers and even work animals with machines. Then we made trains to get further away from our own communities. Then transport became individualized and isolated with cars. Human interaction was removed from entertainment through radio, television and eventually personal smartphones. And worst of all, socialization itself became mediated via the phone then the internet, and finally it lost all humanity when people began to talk with AIs.
Is it any wonder that anxiety, depression and mental illness have been sharply rising in the 21st century, and have been rising even since 1938? The coming crisis of AI-induced psychosis is just the latest in a long line of mental health disasters caused by modern technology.
Is it any wonder that anxiety, depression and mental illness have been sharply rising in the 21st century, and have been rising even since 1938?
No, it is not. It is based on:
- we now know what depression is
- we are better at diagnosing
- we have better availability to healthcare
- we stopped with “just shrug it of” and “everybody is in a bad mood sometimes”
- the social stigma is reduced, leading to more peoples going to the doctor.
Your argument could as well be an argument why vaccination cause autism or let’s say cars make kids trans.
Correlation is not causality
The coming crisis of AI-induced psychosis is just the latest in a long line of mental health disasters caused by modern technology.
It is a real risk and a symptom of the whole mindset of the industry. That is not inherently tech, this is greed and capitalism.
Like the tabacco industry makes tabacco more addictive, big tech make their products addictive.
You seriously think all the increase in mental illness is due to changed attitudes and better diagnosis? Does that explain depression and anxiety prevalence doubling in a single decade, 2008-2018? Does it also explain how results of a standardized psychometric test rose consistently from 1938 to 2007? Obviously it falls very far short of explaining these things, although it is one factor affecting many mental health statistics.
That is not inherently tech, this is greed and capitalism.
Greed and capitalism enables the tech which causes the problem. The effect of the tech would be largely the same if it was developed for other purposes. Social media that wasn’t developed by companies for profit is still addictive and is still a lame substitute for real human interaction. It’s slightly less bad but the fundamentals are the same.
