The problem

  I spend too much time on Facebook, I'm aware of that, and I'm told awareness is the first step to recovery. I guess that means I'm on the path. It's a journey we all have to take, a journey of survival, of overcoming the obstacles we face in life. It's a mental health crisis and we should all seek help, no stigma attached to any of that. When you allow your emotions to controls your actions, instead of reason and common sense, you do need help. I can't argue with that. Perhaps it is all this social media that is the cause of that. We do have an entire generation that is constantly "connected" as they go about their lives. As we eat our lunch or go sky diving, the camera goes with us, videos are created and we are connected. I have noticed that it is an infectious thing. I laugh, a bit nervously, when I realize I have left the house without my phone. Am I becoming dependent?

  I do not spend much time on my phone as I don't have that unlimited plan and the phone screen is a bit small for my eyes. I don't play games on the phone or scroll whatever it is others seem to be constantly scrolling. I see groups of kids together, walking and no one is looking at the other, just staring at their phones. I wonder what it is they are doing? I would suppose it has to be some form of gossip, it is what I did when I was a teenager with my friends. If we weren't talking about the latest music or movie we were usually talking about someone. Someone that had done something stupid or got into trouble for something. If we wanted to look something up, we went to the library. The vast majority of the time however we were engaged in some physical activity like playing baseball or basketball. That was the "activity" that kept us entertained, it wasn't our phone. 

  We are becoming connected to what? The social conscience? I haven't taken any phycology classes, haven't been to college and didn't tune in and turn on back in the day, but that is what it seems like to me. It is our conscience that disturbs us. The real issue however is in how that conscience gets formed. I'm certain there is a fancy name for all of that, some discipline that defines what I'm thinking about. We develop our conscience based on what we learn. The lessons taught aren't as important as the lesson learned. The problem today is that we are all being exposed to such a large amount of "data" that our personal conscience is being destroyed. They are different things! Personal conscience and the social conscience are often at odds with one another. In fact, the social conscience is the attempt to create your personal conscience. 

  This has occurred with every generation. It is really nothing new. For my generation, the boomers, it was rock and roll and the hippies. That was the big threat to society, challenging the social conscience. We called it free love and doing your own thing. I didn't fully participate in any of that, as I was limited by my parents. It was also a matter of where I was living, my environment. Then video games and the digital age began. There are those that will cite the first computer made in 1946 as the beginning of that and others will say it was the 1950's through the 1970's. I'd say it began in 1989 with the "invention" of the internet. 

  With that the expansion of the social conscience began in earnest. We all became connected. For my generation it was long hair on men, and women without bras. Following the invention of the internet Casual Fridays came along and mental health days. Inclusion (tolerating just about everything) became the watchword. Legislation was passed guaranteeing that inclusion. Today we include "diversity" and "equality" in that social conscience. Compliance with the social conscience is mandatory, any objections will be met with cries of prejudice, bias, inequality, a lack of social justice and an entire litany of expletives to describe your failure to comply! And that is where the mental health crisis is rooted, your personal conscience is screaming in your ear, you know better! You are reacting to your emotions rather than common sense and reason. The social conscience however is whispering to you constantly, saying, if you don't listen and comply you have no empathy, you are a bad person, an evil person. 

                                                                                   

                                                     You are the problem