The Internet is Worse Than Ever – Now What?

In 2022 nearly half of Americans expected a civil war in the next few years, one in five now believes political violence is justified. And it is not just the US but around the world. People increasingly see themselves as part of opposing teams.

There are many different reasons for this, but one gets blamed a lot: social media. Social media divides us, makes us more extreme and less empathetic, it riles us up or sucks us into doom scrolling, making us stressed and depressed. It feels like we need to touch grass and escape to the real world.

New research shows that we might have largely misinterpreted why this is the case. It turns out that the social media internet may uniquely undermine the way our brains work but not in the way you think.

OUR CHANNELS
▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀

HOW CAN YOU SUPPORT US?
▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀
This is how we make our living and it would be a pleasure if you support us!

DISCUSSIONS & SOCIAL MEDIA
▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀

OUR VOICE
▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀
The Kurzgesagt voice is from

OUR MUSIC ♬♪
▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀
700+ minutes of Kurzgesagt Soundtracks by Epic Mountain:

The Soundtrack of this video:

You can find info on what subtitle files work on YouTube here:
Thank you!

🐦🐧🐤 PATREON BIRD ARMY 🐤🐧🐦
▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀
robek, Brad Christensen, Asija Newns, Pedro Castro Verdezoto, Lucas Watkins, damien perolle, Fab Cars, alomanola, MikyF2K, Mithilesh Hinge, okor, Lucan, The Gnome, Kyung Geun Kim, Misa Brass, Martin Hippenstiel, Morgan, Anthony Distel, Filip Rogowski, Gabe, Tobias Hofmann, Zaret, Bootools, David Earl, Ben Hamilton, still [Redacted], polyploidy, Elgenzay, Jared, Soda celeste, Felix, Benjamin Goodrich, Taher Rangwala, Jesse Barnes, WillowTree, DarkKot 686, Aaron Phillips, Luc Royal, Lukas Meier, esamoth, Smithius, Mermor, Laura Kühne, Tyler Fendone, gassi30, Andres Arce, Suzanne frounfelter, Akito Nozaki, SirRender, Space, Daniel Hofmeister, Dan M, Jacob Culp, ReyesX77, Aaron T Haltman, DJ Dubbes, SchnarcheNoah, Keira Standing, Steven Lamontagne, Bliss, David Anderson, Uhh Uhhh Uhhh, The Paul Family

[i_like_orange_f]

“Unfortunately, your brain is stupid”
I 100% agree. Thank you Kurzgesagt.

[KodakYarr]

The most annoying thing is being acutely aware of all of this and seeing it happen without any agency whatsoever.

[KoongYe]

The curse of the internet is having to know what I don't need to know, and be angry abouth things I don't need to be angry about.

[commentatingcommenter]

I think the worst thing about social media is when you begin to realize how narcissistic and egotistical people become when they're behind a screen. You ironically see more flaws in humanity despite only seeing people's highlight reels.

[notaburner]

My mom always taught me that it's no one person's responsibility to fix the world, but it's everyone's responsibility to not make it worse.

[SrPelo]

I remember loving forums or sites with "affiliate" banners, you could jump site to site! Social media was a mistake

[tlucski]

This is why I deleted Tik Tok and Instagram, only kept snapchat to message friends and only use youtube for informational videos. Once I started spending my time reading, going outside and practicing self care, I found self love and feel smarter.

[janelle]

i think another problem is how, during covid, the internet/social media switched from being something we all use when we want to use it to being something we're all dependent on for work, school, communicating with others, etc. i honestly feel like everything becoming more convenient by being able to do it all on the internet has kinda changed how we live everyday life for the worse

[cu]

I find it absolutely bizarre that parents are willing to put an iPad or phone in a baby's face and let them scroll endlessly through TikTok. I genuinely worry about what this effect will have on future generations.

[CaseyCorrupted]

I can't believe my nostalgia for the old internet is actually justified

I miss when each website catered to a niche. It made it so much easier to interact with higher quality content and creations.

[diagojonathan]

Social media always makes me angry especially instegram and YouTube short it's just full of toxic people that try to advertise their political views that I don't give a damn about

[TV-rfhq]

Every social media user should watch this video before getting annoyed by anonymous strangers living in the fake world.

[smartereveryday]

"One model that seemed to work well was the pre social media internet OLD people might remember."
*SHOTS FIRED*

Great video, and I enjoyed the ad at the end.

[irynabutsenko]

Had this problem when I was stuck inside for a few years and didn't really socialize IRL.
Then when I got a job and talked to a lot of people I was extremely pleasantly surprised that people are actually normal.
Being perpetually online, or even just thinking that the online world is representative of the real one, is such a hellish trap, and you might not even realize it.

[craftycadence]

This is why debate is so important. Logic and reason combined with perspective is the way forward. Looking at both sides of the same veiw.

[EternalTheMandarinGoddess]

A drama is currently unfolding in a fandom i love, and i am of the opinion that is widely considered the "wrong one" within that drama. All the fighting and all the opinions were genuinely stressing me out so much... And i don't think YouTube could have recommended me a better video. It genuinely resonates with me so much. Maybe it's because it gives me a logical reason as to WHY I'm so upset about this... But it's like I'm getting closure. So, thanks for making me feel slightly better about this whole thing.

[prod.winterxphool]

Deleted all my social media off my phone. Deleted YouTube as an app. I still have access to it, but I force myself to have to hop on my computer in order to see what I want to. Works like a charm, I’m happier and now I have more time for the things I’m interested in.

[kenyaholloway-reliford]

I'm glad someone is acknowledging this. Exploring the internet has become more stressful and discouraging to me lately because of people' behavior and attitude, and all the negativity, propaganda, and algorithmic curation that's constantly being pushed.

[wojciechm]

Thats why I deleted Twitter, It started to make me very angry and even racist. I kinda miss it now but Im much happier.

[JJ-pjkz]

This made me really want to go outside and lay on the grass. I need to smell the earth it's been so long