Media Isolation

The downsides of technology have proven stronger than the benefits. It is no longer a generational thing. 

We’re experiencing an Internet meltdown for the last few days and I feel isolated.
I never felt that way in my youth.

Internet started as a valuable resource in the mid-90s just to turn into slavery.

I had my first cellphone at 30 without regret, they were the best years when I knew where to find my friends at any time of day or night in 24 hours’ London, UK.
Friendship was in a different realm: starting a conversation with strangers was absolutely normal and welcomed in a British pub.
Everybody was a friend even for one night.

Nowadays, one has to make friends online first, eventually in real life after long exhausting chats.

The question is whether adaptation comes easier than imposition.
Recent studies on teen-agers showed a reduction in anxiety after few weeks off social media and more interest in life activities.
Internet has gone out of control too quickly.

My take is that Imposing has always a negative effect on Mental Health.
It leaves no options.
I believe my generation is more flexible since we went through the process of Adapting.


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Camaraderie

 It is difficult for neurodivergents to experience Camaraderie, despite the longstanding way. Camaraderie is Acceptance throughout Belonging, Loyalty, Fellowship, highly valued societal gifts.

I was talking recently of the years we grew up in.
We use to refer to those imprinting times as ‘generations’.
New Generations typically borne every 20 years, the average lifespan of Youth.
I’m not sure whether that’s a biological or cultural thing, or a combination of the two.

We look for protection in our 20s, the time when personality is forming and each decade is characteristic, be it in music, fashion, politics…

My generation-80s- is being deemed the most influential of the last fifty years.
Those were the days when most subcultures were born: the Gothic, the New Romantic, the New Wave, to mention some post-Punk movements.

People sharing same ideals naturally aggregate, by so forming a movement, party, fellowship, club.
Fellow members feel protected and heard.

Neurodivergents seek protection.
Needless to say, I joined the Goth movement in my teens.

The melancholic, soothing notes and atmosphere, the sense of belonging, captured me immediately.
There was no judgement, exclusion, just a warm camaraderie.

It’s not true that autistics are self-absorbed, they don’t know how to express their craving to belong.

Music is the most powerful outreaching means: notes have no words, thus activate brain circuits involved in thought-processing.
Words are the result of thought-processing, what makes a song, words put in music, so-called ‘lyrics’.

Sure, social media help to connect with all the world, although I was born in ‘the physical age’… that makes me feel extremely lonely and homesick.


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