i saw a good comment on reddit today
(i know, shocker)
but actually. and i really don't want to forget it so i'll copy it here.
i'll also link it here to credit the author, in a way where if they should choose to delete it for whatever reason, the quote will become an anonymous quote.
the comment was parent-level on an askreddit thread titled: "What is something that should end before 2030, but won't?"
the response was:
This won't happen before 2030, but we'd all be better off if it did:
We need to shut down the Ennui Engine.
Every hour of every day, people depress themselves by mindlessly scrolling through low-effort content on social media. Said content doesn't entertain, inform, educate, or inspire; it only distracts us, slowly sapping us of our motivation, our emotional energy, and our satisfaction.
In order to appreciate something, we need to invest a little bit of ourselves in it... but when longer-form or more-in-depth offerings seems like they'd require prohibitively large investments, we make do with gambling handfuls of seconds – sometimes hundreds of times in a row – on a slot machine with only one reel. Unless we win the proverbial jackpot every single time (which is impossible), we'll always come away at a loss.
That same loss makes us feel like we can't afford to focus on anything worthwhile: Long paragraphs are "harder" to read than short sentence fragments, well-produced videos are "tougher" to enjoy than single-frame image macros, and original thoughts are "more difficult" to consider than done-to-death memes. Think about how many times you've glanced at your Steam library, looked through your Netflix cue, or stared at your bookshelf, decided that all of those options would take too much "work," then gone right back to scrolling.
For another example, think about how often you've stayed up far later than you should have, making your way from one piece of junk to the next, all the while telling yourself that you'll go to bed once you feel satisfied.
Low-effort content drains us... so we go right back to consuming low-effort content.
There are other factors in play, of course, but with the above in mind, is it any wonder that we're all so listless?
it made me close reddit, at least.
last updated march 2 2022