I can't fucking stand how detached everyone has become.

[u/Tea-Swiz]

Seriously, what the actual fuck has happened to people? New Years is always a reminder of this for me and it gets worse every fucking year. Everywhere I look, it’s like no one knows how to just exist anymore. No one’s living in the goddamn moment—everyone’s too busy chasing some fake-ass Instagram aesthetic or curating their TikTok "brand" to even fucking live their real lives.

To the people I'm referencing: When was the last time you sat at a concert, a beautiful view or celebration and just felt something instead of holding up your fucking phone to capture it for people who don’t even give a shit? When did people start caring more about likes from strangers than actual goddamn human connections?

It's all so fucking empty. People post their "perfect" lives, their curated vacations, their fake-ass smiles—when in reality, most of them are probably fucking dead inside. They spend all this time trying to make other people think their life is worth something instead of actually doing anything that IS worth something.

And don’t even get me started on how everyone’s heads are fucking buried in their phones during meals, conversations, or even just walking down the fucking street. God forbid you make eye contact or smile at someone—nope, gotta check your notifications for the millionth fucking time today because, you know, that’s way more important than human interaction.

The whole thing feels like one giant fucking lie. A sad, hollow, disconnected, soul-sucking lie. And the worst part? Everyone just fucking accepts it. No one stops to question it. No one gives a shit that we’ve traded living, breathing, feeling lives for some bullshit dopamine hit from a fucking screen.

I just want to scream at everyone: PUT YOUR FUCKING PHONE DOWN! Stop chasing clout, stop trying to impress people who don’t matter, and just be fucking present for once in your life. Is that too much to fucking ask?

I’m so goddamn tired of watching people trade their souls for social media validation. It’s depressing as hell, and I’m over it. Fuck this disconnected, fake-ass world we’ve created.

[u/wolf_city]

Good rant. I am a bit older and not to say unaffected by this phenomenon, but my younger sister is exactly one of the people you are describing, but she is very much wrestling with it. 

I think everyone is aware of this issue now and trying to work it out for themselves.  So it's just going to take a bit of time for the hive mind to collectively move away from it. That is, if the world hasn't been totally fucked by the guys in charge by then.

[u/According_Gazelle472 → u/wolf_city]

As I was sitting in ihop on New Year's eve with two of my sons I looked around the restaurant. No one had their cell phones out or were taking selfies!We have a no phones at the table rule when we eat out.I don't have tik tok ,Instagram or Facebook. This is it for me .I was thinking about sending a Pic to my sister but left my phone at home !lol.We had a very nice meal that night and while we waiting for our food they had a new years eve party of 50 family members file into the restaurant and head to the party room !No cell phones there either!I could see them from where I was sitting. Most places in town closed early for new years eve so it was either ihop or the Chinese buffet !lol.

[u/chickenthinkseggwas → u/wolf_city]

So it's just going to take a bit of time for the hive mind to collectively move away from it.

The hive mind is the whole problem. People are acting this way to build a relationship with the hive mind. The hive mind gradually creeps in and boils the frog until it conpletely subsumes our entire sense of social life.

On that note, it took me a long time to realise how this applies to Reddit. I spent years thinking there must be some real conversation going on here somewhere. People expressing their own thoughts. But it's only what everyone thinks that matters. There's plenty of interesting stuff to read here, but it's always what we hold to be true, not you or I.

[u/iamaskullactually]

I always wonder how people from the past would react to societies nowadays. This is one of the things I think they'd be baffled about

[u/tourdecrate]

5-10 years ago I’d call this a boomer rant but now i agree. As someone who can’t deal with the artificial connection of social media I find it so hard to make friends in a world where people only exist online. They feel more connection with an influencer who doesn’t even know they exist or the people they stitch TikToks with than the people around them. It’s hard. We’re losing third spaces like parks, community centers, coffee shops, game shops, etc because people can create an entire social life without ever leaving their home.

I have a different take on this rant though. What breaks me is seeing how badly things have gotten with people equating views and “engagement” with their worth and value in how sociopathic people have become. Remember the days before YouTube was monetized and creators were mostly just people showing off something they really enjoyed be it their music, playing video games for fun, talking about their favorite topic, being funny, traveling, etc? Now YouTube, TikTok, and all the other livestream platforms are filled with people who just flex all day about how rich they are, pull increasingly cruel pranks like breaking into houses, poisoning food, stealing, pushing people to the ground, harassing homeless people, and mocking entire cultures or memorials for war crimes. And those people get rich off it. The people who are just having fun are crushed by the algorithms. Meanwhile people are being actual menaces or embarrassing themselves and even going to jail just to get views and engagement. People are ruining their lives through their actions or destructive things like 24 hour streaming. The richest people in gen z aren’t actually talented people anymore. It’s the people who could top everyone else’s sociopathy to make overstimulated viewers feel something watching their content. Because if it happens online we can rationalize it as not real and not happening to real people.

Look at all the research on how thoroughly FUCKED gen alpha is due to growing up with iPads in their hands and unsupervised access to the internet. They’re not growing up on pbs kids anymore where we got entertained while learning life lessons or Cartoon Network where stuff was wild but still age appropriate more or less. Now we have kids learning life lessons from Jack Doherty, Andrew Tate, KSI, and Jake Paul. They’re being marketed to constantly making their parents run an endless treadmill of buying expensive merch and electronics for them to prove to them that they love them. Their “educational content” consists of cocomelon, bad life hacks from content farms, and actual f*tish content embedded into mobile games marketed to kids about popping boils on Elsa’s feet and an obsession with pregnancy. Gen alpha straight up can’t read. Now you’ve got me ranting but I hate the digestion tech is moving us in and will continue to do so because it’s profitable.

[u/yohosse]

I salute you OP 

[u/dancingpianofairy]

People did this before smartphones, it was just harder and less obvious.

[u/Fickle-Secretary681]

It's pathetic. It really is sad

[u/Kristaboo14]

I take videos and pictures for me to look back on later. You never know how important those memories are until they're all you have left.

[u/Ok-Location3254]

I'm afraid that this is the new normal. It's just one step more in long road of alienation from what humans actually are/were. We have developed always new technologies which have alienated us from our work, environment and each other. Now it has reached a point where you actually don't have to anymore interact with other humans or think. Everybody has created themselves a fictional online persona which is based mostly on what products they consume, what media they watch and what political movement or religion they support. People get their identities online.

Physical reality itself is something people disregard. Whenever it gets too unpleasant, you can just drift away into virtual world. And what you see there, is custom made for you by corporations. And it tricks you to believe in fairy tales and fantasies. At the same time it also pulls you deeper and deeper into abyss.

And with the rapid development of AIs, soon people mostly communicate with machines. Even the online interaction between humans ends. We'll be all alone, in our echo chambers shaped by bots. Already you can't know if you are interacting with a bot. Pictures we see are made by AIs. In future, when photography becomes more rare, what we see about foreign countries and distant places, are created by AIs. How we think the world outside our homes looks like is starting to be shaped by AI-images.

There is no more reality or living in the moment. There are only Instagram, X, Facebook, Youtube and smartphones you use to merge your mind with them. We are going into era of permanently online cyborgs who constantly consume content created by AIs. Dealing with basic human social relationships becomes difficult and everything is outsourced to the machines. The first memories of children are of communicating with some program. There are already children whose first words were "like and subscribe". The language young people speak is shaped by memes. Young people can barely write without assistance of ChatGpt. Reading books is difficult for even adult population.

And after few decades, it'll be only the "boomer" Millenials who even miss the old reality. We'll be laughed at because we are so old-fashioned and out of touch. Things like physical touch, acts of lovemaking, having children and being offline become rare events that only few people get to experience. They'll be something curiosities and things of yesteryear.

Better get ready for that post-reality world because that's where we are going. Just give up your humanity because that way it is easier to adapt. Fighting back is useless.

[u/gundamfan83]

Cellphone addiction is basically the new smoking. In the past people used cigarettes to fill the silence, to pass the time, to be less awkward, to seem like they were cool and worth a shit. Now it’s the phone

[u/Constantlearner01]

People are so distracted they can’t even listen anymore.

Instead of enjoying a movie or show and really being into the moment, the ipad is being looked at throughout the entire program.

If you watch a concert on tv or attend one, the artist is looking out at a stadium filled with phones being held up. How shallow are we? Does anyone really go back and watch the video they took or see the photos or is it in the black hole?

Books are no longer read because attention spans have become shorter. It truly is a zombie takeover.

[u/jollyreaper2112]

Typed on your fucking phone. :) ok yeah I'm being a dick but I feel you. Wait that sounds terrible.

Best way to avoid social media is to avoid social media. It's trash.

[u/Rhesusmonkeydave]

On behalf of the internet, thanks for sharing your content for validation. Your post and or content is real and has produced increased engagement.

[u/RamJamR]

Yeah, I've never totally understood the need to chase online validation either. Sometimes I think it's because we don't recieve it from the people we need it from the most though. The thought comes across my mind about whether the online addiction is the disease itself or more a symptom of our failure to each other.

[u/According_Gazelle472 → u/RamJamR]

I could care less about upvotes or down votes .When people become keyboard warriors then I ignore them .Some people just want to argue online.Or try to get you banned if they don't like your opinions.

[u/Narcah → u/According_Gazelle472]

I upvoted you but you don’t care.

[u/Dudeimadolphin]

Isn't getting that bad? I'm a loner who stays at home lol idk these things

[u/StillFireWeather791]

Thank you OP. This is something I've thought about for a long time. Structurally, I believe that most urban dwelling human populations are being conditioned and taught to be psychotically disassociated from their own needs. These populations then are highly suggestible to craving and using false and increasingly virtual substitutes. Anthropologically this structuring takes advantage of trends in human groups, especially urban groups, since the late neolithic. Thus most groups today face the climatic and nuclear apocalypses with indifference and denial at best.

[u/jackfaire]

"When did people start caring more about likes from strangers than actual goddamn human connections?"

Millennia. Time immemorial. It's just more accessible to more people now. In the past you had to suck up to royalty to get that kind of attention. Now you can get it from random strangers online.

[u/schillerstone]

Did you see the video of the guy staring at his cellular when pushed onto the train tracks in NYC? That whole scene portrays this rant

[u/Delmoroth]

I have to say, if those things would make me feel shit, I would 100% do them. Sadly, that isn't how my brain works. It sucks even though I am generally not unhappy.

[u/Wonderful_Formal_804]

"Everyone."

That's a fact.

Is it?

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