Sorry I typed a lot, so I get if you don't want to read my whole post lol.
I recognize the irony of asking this on a super online forum, but with the introduction of Sora AI and the AI getting harder and harder to detect, I'm getting to the place where I'm personally think I need to start fortify my mind and start to unplug from big tech and the internet more.
I'm starting to build my own NAS to self host media that I curate. For me, my digital plan to ward off the brain rot is easy: RSS feeds, email newsletters, and self-hosting and getting off big social media platforms (YouTube is gonna be hard , ngl; I legit have a YT addiction...)
But for the IRL offline piece, I don't even know where to start. I spent the vast majority of my life by myself on computers (entering my mid-20s). Because I have neglected building social relationships, I'm so socially inept, lol. I'm starting from zero. Like, I know for older folks and more offline zoomers, this might sound dumb asking, but if you are more comfortable being by yourself alone on a screen, dealing with the real world and ppl unpredictability is hard knowing where to start.
I'm out of college, and grad school is too expensive, lol. It's crazy to think just 20 years ago ppl lives were completely different. And with the direction the internet is going, it just getting filled with bots, slop, and ragebait, I recognize I need to better use my time on earth, but it's hard when most of my life I've spent online in front of screens. Like, I'm kind of a bit agoraphobic,(not completely; I go to office when required, though), and WFH and all the internet conveniences make staying indoors so easy and attractive (amazon, walmart, streaming, porn). I was listening to my favorite podcast and they said "We need to make real life more enticing than the internet." And that really stuck with me.
Our brains have been hijacked by big tech to keep our eyeballs on their platforms for profit. and with the AI stuff, the level of fakeness I cannot personally tolerate, and I dunno if the combo of just me getting older and becoming dissatisfied with my life and all that is causing me to seek advice from strangers on the internet to help inform some changes lol.
I think it's a combination of many things from social media, to the lackluster economy.
In many ways technology has made us less human and less tolerable of other people. We are becoming like the humans from Wall-E where they are content to eat and watch slop all day, even losing the ability to walk and think because the machines can do it for them. We are becoming mean, self absorbed blobs!
All this technology has made our lives so frictionless and easy. Everything can be done with our phones that in many people's minds humans are "obsolete". Which I disagree with, but I'm not better too. I struggle with making friends and maintaining connections, it's so hard but it's something I would want to change as well. I guess it's just a sign of the times, and zoomers, hell other generations too need to try our hardest to connect with our fellow humans.
I was on sub stack and some put it perfectly: " We must resist the pull of the machine." And that's the struggle being human today and why making human connection is so hard. Our machines are so designed to be so alluring that we must fight against it to stay human.