Has your experience with porn addiction made you a social pessimist?

Here is a topic I think about on occasion and have discussions among some of my best friends about.

I started thinking about this over a year ago when a different group of friends was discussing the nature of society and if we are progressing or regressing. A few individuals in that group pointed out that inequality in American society has increased dramatically as has the cost of health care, education, etc, and these were indicators of a decline.

Another person in that group responded that despite those indicators, since we have technology, and specifically social media, internet, Instagram, VR, etc etc that we are nonetheless unambiguously better off. That these technological innovations have improved our lives to such a degree that anything else is piratically irrelevant. I took note of these arguments, but didn't actively engage in the discussion.

As I've grappled with my own journey with porn addiction, and social media addiction as well, I've thought about that discussion and wondered "what if instead we are unambiguously worse off instead of better off because of these 'innovations'?". I just recently killed my social media, and feel much more free and relieved because of it, although I acknowledge that some people require it for work. I also grew up in the 80's and our TV only really got 2 -maybe- 3 channels. I just spent my time running around the neighborhood and with the other kids, and the internet wasn't a thing until I was in high school. I don't think my childhood was particularly worse off because of it.

This is a bit out there, but sometimes I think about people who do homesteading (in the modern connotation of the word, and not using the historical sense) and I kind of 'get it'. I know there are people who do it for all types of reasons, some pretty crazy and out there, but I get the need to be away from a lot of this shit, and I suspect life would probably be just as good.

 

I use youtube, but sparingly. I deleted all the subscriptions that were causing problems. I am a bit reliant though for looking at tutorials for python/computer coding help, and but it hasn't been an issue lately.

It wasn't until relatively recently -within the last few months or so- that VR porn was a thing. Holy shit this society is doomed.