31/08/2020
Mask Addiction
J.N.Webley
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Internet Age.
I’m Drinking a coffee in the shed as I write this, after a small mental breakdown due to the WiFi disconnecting. And it got me thinking, why are people so easily agitated in the mornings? And furthermore, what impact can a few bad mornings in a row have on our mental health conditions?
Well first I’m going to try and work out why I myself got worked up this morning.
As a bit of a social recluse, and even more so due to the covid restrictions, that internet connection to people is one of my only social tools, and the platform to debate and create things and share them with the world, is so vital to my sense of worth and purpose, that It is ruling my emotions. Especially in a morning, when everything’s all ... fuzzy.
Now that I have calmed down, reflected (and more importantly restored the connection), I see that the internet isn’t the problem, my reliance on it is.
We mostly all rely on the internet for one reason or another, our own creativity or entertainment, businesses and shopping. We all have that reliance on it, some more than others. But as we progress further into the future, everyone will be hooked into it. And eventually some say, completely dependent on its unbroken connection. I can’t say if that could happen, but it certainly looks more and more likely with time.
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Double Edged Sword.
The internet is a great tool to achieve good things and great knowledge and also an addictive life destroying entity.
Almost the entirety of our human society’s knowledge can be found on the internet. All of the great libraries compacted into the palm of your hand or on your desktop. Available to you any time of day. (Except this morning for me for about 15 mins).
But let’s be honest, most of us spend our time on it watching cat videos, liking celebrities pictures, or imitating celebrities ourselves.
For most people, the internet is about them, what they can get out of it, how they can use it to further themselves, even down to their own personalized advertising.
Through social media, we’re turned into our own brands. We are recommended things to like, watch or buy based on our personal data.
Through adverts we are targeted, not just with things to purchase, but by political campaigns, and multi corporate campaigns that seek to form and shape our opinions to fit their agendas.
For example, during an election race or process, political parties will target specific people based on information like age ranges, job types, employment status and area codes. As well as liked pages, people you follow and things you’ve bought.
When you signed up to Facebook or whatever site, you allowed them to sell your personal data to these political parties and companies so they could do that.
As we’re mostly connected to this library of knowledge all the time we should be wise to this now right? And understand how our own opinions are swayed by one side and the other. But so many people are still unaware how these influences effect our thoughts and the decisions we make. Most people still believe everything they read or see on the internet.
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Crazy Conspiracy Correlation.
For the last decade in the UK, and most notably during lock down, mental health problems related to depression, social anxiety, and bi polar disorder among others including loneliness have increased substantially. Alongside that funding for mental health treatment has become less and less of a priority for government over their time in power.
As a result of this, I believe those suffering mental health problems have sought to find counseling and comfort in others suffering similar problems.
In my own experience, I had and still continue to struggle with these things, and unable to find the professional support I needed, turned to those in a similar situation for guidance.
The experience of connecting with people and finally finding people that knew how I felt and shared sympathy with me was healing, there is no doubt in my mind about that. But it was not in anyway a good substitute in whole for the professional help I need to really make progress.
But in certain situations, particularly after a serious mental breakdown, and when this peer to peer help is all that’s available, people will put their entire energy into that, and ignore or even forget that they should have access to professional mental health support.
In this unregulated, sometimes misguided and even at times mentally unhealthy atmosphere, dangerous ideas can take hold, movements can start based on conspiracies or ideologies.
The “no mask” movement in 2020 is no exception. After speaking to and researching a number of people who speak for this movement, It is generally made up of people who are socially isolated in their daily life, or who are struggling with the isolation from lock down restrictions.
Some are already being treated for mental health related illnesses, although a percentage feel that it isn’t working. Some feel abandoned by the system, receiving no professional help but feel included by this movement. Many are LGBT activists, some are flat earth believers.
But ALL of them believe that wearing a mask for a short time in public is either killing people, taking away societies freedoms or making them show subservience to the “world government”.
Never during a global pandemic or any other time has this idea formed or spread so widely or so quickly. and I think we can see why it has taken root when we look at the kinds of people that believe these things.
And I am not saying they’re stupid or uneducated or ignorant for believing these things that I obviously disagree with, neither am I saying they’re wrong on all levels with all things. We should all be open minded, but use logic and some common sense with that.
These are vulnerable people in society that have been largely been made to feel isolated for a long time in some cases, before the pandemic.
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Government Failings.
It is not just the current UK government that has failed on the subject of mental health, it has been a ticking time bomb in this country for decades with neither side of government ever tackling it with any meaningful action.
During the pandemic, the current conservative government lead by Dominic Cummings ... sorry Boris Johnson, has announced many millions to help with mental health problems caused or made worse during lock down, but still many many organizations are unable to open their doors, while pubs, bars and the rest of the profit making society opens up.
It seems unlikely that mental health will be meaningfully tackled by the current government, instead the time bomb will continue to tick as thousands gather at anti lock down protests again this weekend. Weeks after the lock down ended for all but the most vulnerable to covid in society.
Cases remain steady although deaths are low, the spread seems to have slowed during the warmer months, but society is now gathering on mass across the now mostly open country, with flu season just around the corner.
A social civil war is playing out both in the UK but more physically in the US. With The US going into what looks like a real new civil war.
Both countries have leadership that divides the people with such contrast, families are easily pitted against each other.
If we can step back from the distractions, we can see the bigger picture together.
