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+---
+title: Sensory Overload
+published: 2019-08-23
+---
+
+> this aint a dream, its a deity cursed arms race
+
+quite a bit, things get just a *little* too much, and it seems like theres nothing you can do and it all just weighs in.
+
+i think, personally, this is in part due ***three*** things, of which we shall ~~explore~~  ~~make valid and informed points about~~ rant vaguely until i run out of things to say
+
+## advertising
+
+this is the big one, and its absolutely *everywhere*
+
+every store everywhere is basically the equivilent of the old eb games joke about needing a machete to get through the banners advertising sales.
+
+to be completely frank, its strikes me as incredibly masturbatory, if someone is already ***currently in*** your shop, what point is there to bombarding them with images specifically designed to prey upon their judgement
+
+i repeat, when they've ***already decided to support your business***
+
+its disgusting, its the equivilent of kicking a child when they're down, but instead of kicking them you actually just put them in a room with flashing neon lights and yell at them until they give you a dollar in return for a cocaine habit.
+
+and its not just stores, the average web page is more advertising than actual content, and that isnt me being overly poetic, the amount of data you need to download to view a webpage is majority focussed to ads, code that tracks you, and code that tracks the things you use to have it not track you
+
+even small things
+
+software that we use daily is so packed full of useless features that essentially only exist to say
+
+> hey we added a thing please check it out so we can maybe make some more money off you
+
+its like they're purposefully adding more icons and more menus than you can handle, under the guise of "needing the latest and greatest features" just to, confuse you, and make you vulnerable and feel stupid so they can easier sell you stuff you dont need.
+
+and then you walk *outside* and everything is just plastered in brand names and business names, everywhere you look you cant get away from it.
+
+imagine a world where everyone had their own metal bottle and cup, and stores had big versions of soda dispensors so everyone could just get some nice cheap drink of choice in the morning, without having to pay for packaging, and without causing even more garbage than there already is.
+
+but **no**, we cant do that, because apparently its so important that people who just want a drink of something be carrying around an advertisement about what they're drinking.
+
+part of what i love about the free, libre and open source stuff movement is being able to do what i do best, *fucc around on computers all day*, without being bombarded by advertisements im not specifically making a conscious choice to see.
+
+i think its something thats very *easy* to not realise the impact of, and very *hard* to get away from fully
+
+## dopamine traps
+
+getting into conspiracy nut territory here but `¯\_(ツ)_/¯` what're ya gonna do i guess.
+
+but basically, it feels to me like everyday parts of our lives are, as set forward by... sigh...
+
+> the society that we live in \*evil gamer noises\*
+
+... explicitly set up to give us these constant upticks in short term validation, over and over again until we're forced to continue these practices ourselves like some sort of drug fiend looking for their next hit.
+
+games have become nothing more than money hungry scams, soullessly generic clones, and slash or glorified slot machines, just to get people addicted to that feeling of accomplishment.
+
+i used to enjoy playing games quite a bit, in my youth i held many strong opinions on the medium (yeah i was one of those *actually games ARE art* dickheads) and thankfully there are still some new games i would consider worth playing, but for the most part, its dead to me.
+
+sad times.
+
+back on track though, social media and services in general seem to be designed around being one large dopamine trap too.
+
+everytime you refresh youtube to see a new lot of videos
+
+everytime you frantically scroll through facebook to try and refind something you saw
+
+everytime netflix reccomends another thing to you without you asking
+
+its all designed to trigger that reflex, get you using the service for ***just a bit longer***, make you feel ***a little better about yourself***
+
+its the software equivilent of the single worst scene in all of end of eva, except instead of realising theyre *so fucked up* people seem to be happy about it
+
+its artificial hedonism that doesnt even really help the self
+
+and it goes so deep as well, more and more sugar in our foods to get people feeling that rush, get them buying the type of foods ***The Powers That Be*** want them to buy.
+
+the disgusting amount of celebrity worship that seems commonplace, acting as easy validation in leu of making actual connections with people.
+
+its possible to physically talk to someone on the other side of the planet with minimal to zero delay, for free (both easily, and libre) and yet people are getting sucked into the dopamine trap that is ***watching people play videogames***, ones they dont even want to play themselves
+
+birbsite is an endless stream of he-said slash she-said and endless actual celebrity ego pandering and people are happy to be part of that?
+
+thousands and thousands of times each day were getting hit with this little low quality bare minimum hit of validation, the absolute basics of what our monkey brains will interpret as validation and feel good about, and we need to start making a conscious effort to try and lower the amount of times this happens.
+
+## memetic hazards
+
+memes are no joke, and memetic hazards are a real thing, something i think we're all going to have to take a long hard think about in the coming future.
+
+self propogating information is dangerous, we've literally turned this entities life cycle into something of a *hobby* if you can call it that, and id argue that memetic internet habits are the modern day equivilent of lowest-common-denominator television, or gossip mags, or candy.
+
+and it devolves more the longer it goes on, the *types* of memetic hazards we share have basically all devolved into the same "here is a picture that represents a specific type of  common feeling", with no incentive to create, or put effort into them.
+
+and yes, they can be fun, they can be entertaining, but in the same way someone can easily spend 10+ hours a day watching nothing but reality tv, its all too easy for people to lose so much of their lives to nothing but click bait, and memetic dickery, constantly resharing the same small images that thousands of others have before, no creativity, no improvisation, nothing of any real benefit except to keep this weird new lovecraftian god that is the modern day memetic hazard alive.
+
+## fin
+
+i would have mentioned the unhealthy obsession with corporatism we all seem to be stuck in, but i have done that many a time before in much shittier writing than this, so for today we'll give you all a break from it.
+
+the rest though, i think, all add up to, in ways we have difficulty noticing, brainwash ourselves into being more stressed than we need to be, more anxious about things, to feel worse in general, such that we may buy products to trigger that dopamine rush.
+
+please think about the media you consume, the software you use, the things you own.
+
+whoever runs the world, the 1% of the 1%, the tech giants, the elite;
+
+they dont care nearly as much as theyd like us to think they do.
+
+`:wq`