Our society is brilliant at producing, but unnatural in what it demands of us. It has built an atmosphere where endless output is the norm, and where we treat distraction as medicine for its effects.
Of course, I don’t see another way society could have grown this much, and I wouldn’t desire it to be any other way. But we can’t ignore the consequences: the toll on its people and their minds.
We escape. Into weekends that exist only to numb us. Into Netflix and video games. Into wellness and meditation, which we don’t use as an add-on, but as a must; bandages to stop ourselves from falling apart. But also social media, where life always looks sharper, more colourful, more real than reality itself.
It reminds me of this experiment with rats in the 1970s. Scientists gave the rats two choices: plain water and water with cocaine. Alone in empty cages, the rats drugged themselves until they overdosed. Addiction looked like unavoidable and natural.
Until one researcher noticed the cages themselves were lifeless. So he built Rat Park: a larger cage with toys, tunnels, food, and other rats to socialise with. Basically a rat heaven. In that richer environment, the same rats ignored the cocaine water almost entirely.
What looked like individual weakness was really a response to a bad environment. And isn’t that what humans face too? A society designed for endless output but starved of meaning, pushing us to medicate ourselves with distraction, instead of living our own lives.
The damage runs so deep that these distractions are no longer recognised as remedies for a bigger problem. They’ve become normal, as if disconnection from ourselves is simply part of being alive, and not something totally unnatural.
I don’t claim to know what society as a whole should do, especially with the changes the next decades will bring. But I do know a couple of things you can do right now.
Ask yourself frequently why you’re doing what you do. Is it society’s demand, or your own choice? Give yourself a couple of hours each week to dive into your real interests. Explore, experiment, let yourself rediscover purpose.
This way, you escape the infringement society has on your life’s direction. Just like the rats in rat park. Overall, make the best of your life by trying to live out your own purpose and truth.