In the not-so-distant past, Western
society opened the tap on a few seemingly minor cultural shifts. They were
subtle. Innocent, even. We called them "progress,"
"compassion," or "modernization."
We didn't know we were bottling a
vintage of neurosis that would ferment for 25 years—and be uncorked, proudly,
by a generation that no longer knew whether disagreement was a debate or an
assault.
This is the story of societal
feedback loops: those delicate, well-meaning changes that, left to simmer
in emotional insulation and algorithmic comfort, transformed a society into a
jittery tangle of therapy jargon, tribal politics, and identity fragility.
Let us examine the key ingredients
of this dark brew.
I.
Everyone Gets a Trophy → Fragile Ego Structures
Cause (1990s-2000s):
Educational culture shifted toward protecting children's self-esteem at all
costs. No child left behind. No child criticized. No child made to feel
"less than."
Effect (2010s-2020s):
A generation emerged for whom failure felt like betrayal, not opportunity.
Praise was expected, not earned. They do not take feedback—they absorb it as
trauma. Employers, professors, even lovers must now tiptoe around adult
children raised in emotional bubble wrap.
Example:
College campuses where midterm exams are paired with "puppy cuddle
zones" to help students process stress. Or workplaces where performance
reviews are discontinued due to "emotional harm."
II.
Digital Anonymity → Real-Life Accountability Collapse
Cause (1995–2005):
The internet grew teeth. Forums, message boards, and early social platforms
allowed users to create personas unbound by consequence. You could say
anything, be anyone, without risk of being punched in the face or publicly
shamed.
Effect (2010s–2020s):
A generation of users grew up rehearsing cruelty, contradiction, and conspiracy
from the safety of a glowing screen. When those users stepped into the real
world, they brought with them a warped sense of conflict: disagreement as
threat, nuance as betrayal, and argument as violence.
Example:
Cancel culture flourishes not because people are offended—but because it mimics
online shaming rituals. There's no face-to-face confrontation, no
accountability, no mercy. Just digital pile-ons that feel righteous.
Resulting Loop:
People raised without in-person confrontation don't learn to handle
disagreement. They avoid difficult conversations. They retreat into echo
chambers. And when they do engage, they do so as avatars—angry, brittle, and
terrified of being wrong.
III.
Hyper-Curated Reality → Identity Collapse
Cause (2005–2015):
The rise of social media and filters allowed users to present idealized
versions of their lives and bodies. Imperfection became taboo.
Effect (2020s):
Real life is now seen as the flaw. People experience dysphoria not just about
their gender or body—but about their unedited face, their unfiltered
relationships, their inconvenient emotions.
Example:
Children requesting cosmetic procedures to look more like their filtered
selfies. Adults unable to form lasting relationships due to unrealistic
romantic expectations shaped by algorithmic fantasies.
IV.
Parenting Reversed → Children Raise the Adults
Cause (2005–2020):
Parents, raised in fear of being "too strict," overcorrected.
Discipline was replaced with negotiation. Authority became a performance. Many
parents—emotionally stunted themselves—began to seek validation from
their children.
Effect (2020s):
The child becomes the emotional barometer of the household. The adult walks on
eggshells. Boundaries blur. The parent fears upsetting the child—and worse,
fears being disliked.
Example:
A 6-year-old refusing dinner is not met with parental authority, but with a
buffet of options and a therapist on speed-dial. Teenagers scold their parents
for "microaggressions" they learned about on TikTok, and the parents
apologize.
Long-term Effect:
These children grow up without encountering the word "no" in a
meaningful way. And when society tells them "no"—a job, a partner, a
reality check—they collapse. Or rage.
V.
Shift from Religion to Ideology → Morality Becomes Tribal
Cause (1990s–2010s):
As organized religion declined, it left behind a moral vacuum. Humans, being
inherently religious creatures, filled that void with secular
ideologies—political, dietary, sexual, environmental.
Effect (2020s):
Moral certainty is now distributed not by sacred texts, but by Twitter threads.
Belief becomes identity. Doubt becomes heresy. And if you leave the tribe,
you're not just wrong—you’re evil.
Example:
People changing their bios to reflect ideological allegiances: "she/her,
vegan, anticapitalist, BLM, atheist, neurodivergent, trauma-informed."
These identities are no longer descriptive—they are sacred vestments.
VI.
Radical Individualism → Loss of Community
Cause (1980s–2010s):
"Be yourself" became "define yourself, endlessly, in opposition
to everything else."
Effect (2020s):
People abandoned the idea of shared values. Everyone is a bespoke identity,
stitched together from online fragments. Community becomes impossible when no
one shares a foundation.
Example:
Pride parades that were once about orientation and rights now resemble
competitive showcases of niche micro-identities. Unity is replaced with
fragmentation.
VII.
The Feedback Loop Accelerates
The danger isn't just in each of
these loops—it’s in how they feed one another. Fragile egos flee into digital
echo chambers. Fragile parents raise fragile children. Fragile leaders enforce
fragile laws. And soon, society forgets what strength even felt like.
We are birthing a world where the
greatest sins are emotional discomfort, where authority is abusive by
definition, and where disagreement is a form of violence.
And the bottle is still fermenting.
A
Foreboding Future: 2045
The children of this era—raised
without hardship, insulated from dissent, trained to interpret discomfort as
danger—will soon be 50. They will run governments, companies, universities.
What happens when those who fear
words write the laws?
When adults require emotional
support animals to endure corporate meetings?
When dissent is criminalized not
because it's dangerous—but because it feels mean?
You will know this future by its
kindness. And you will fear it.
Because beneath its soft, gentle
tone lies a society that no longer knows how to cope with reality—only how to curate
it, censor it, and sob when it leaks through the cracks.
So raise your glass to the vintage
we’ve brewed: aged 25 years in oak barrels of neurosis.
Drink deep.
You helped make it.
No comments:
Post a Comment