When comfort becomes the norm

Basic conditioning implies that once a subject has gotten used to the correlation of two different stimuli, they will expect both in every situation consciously or not. Once both stimuli are separated or delayed, or made more difficult to obtain, the subject becomes anxious from expectancy. An anxiety which is reinforced every time the stimuli come together. In modern society, thanks to the advancement of technology, most people in developed areas have access to their basic needs with a matter of pressing a few buttons, it’s become customary for things to be easier. But when comfort becomes the norm, is it really healthy for us?

The development of technology has been fast and abrupt. While we love to pretend it’s an essential part of our lives as modern humans, in reality that’s not true. Our minds and bodies are wired for our life in nature, our sleep cycles, our fight or flight response and, most important for my point, our search for completion of our base needs, which brings us a natural sense of fulfillment.

We see time and time again how our needs are becoming automated, being one of the last ones, social interaction, which doesn’t even require a two-person conversation anymore, just you, a phone, a prerecorded video, or an algorithm made to pray on your own psyche.

The more we engage with these systems, which were made to make our life easier, the more difficult it becomes to deal with the original push-back we get from these tasks, making us anxious, trapping us in a fabricated golden cage, where an empty life of comfort expects us.

In case of an unavoidable societal downfall, once all our automation and the walls that kept us from the discomfort of real life crumble, we will become those anxious creatures desperate for the simpler way of life, the correlation between hunger and opening the fridge, between loneliness and turning on your phone. When everything goes down, will you stay inside from fear?

Well, see you all in my next rant. Keep yourselves safe

-Anarcho Brew