There follows a guest post by dental student Tom Shaw, who says the paralysing atmosphere of conformity that young people have learned from social media has been made much worse by the last two years.
From early on in dental school, it stumped me why I was one of the few people willing to answer questions in university lectures or practical classes, let alone volunteer my own questions. Why would I, or anyone else, waste £9,250 a year to sit in an awkward silence when it was either reasonably clear what the answer was or I could at least have a stab at answering it and learn something new if I was wrong. Particularly in practical classes, with the answer often being on the handouts we’d been given or available in the session’s pre-reading, it seemed silly to waste time in pointless silence that could otherwise be spent learning the necessary technical skills that make a good dentist. Yet it seemed many of my peers did not subscribe to such a view on their higher education or, if they did, did not do a very public job of acting upon it.
Many scientists and software engineers point to the role that social media is likely having on young people, including on their mental development. I come from the first generation where such technology was ubiquitous throughout my adolescent years and, having lived through that, I can see how social media could contribute to the problem. Kids grow up with an environment in which everyone online appear as ‘model citizens’, who publicise only the highlights of their life and hide the rest to be forgotten to time. In this context, many understandably feel that making a mistake, whether online or in ‘real life’, must be avoided. This leads young people to be constantly thinking about how best to avoid or even eliminate a mistake.
In this mindset, not saying anything that might cause embarrassment and following the herd become highly attractive and young people end up instinctively pursuing what I can only describe as a toxic form of perfectionism. You must be seen as master of life, not for the sake of your own wellbeing, but for the appraisal of others to justify your inclusion in the world. Thus were you to venture to answer a question in class, will that define your image amongst your peers? Will that predispose you to more opportunities for failure than you would have otherwise? In a social media world which dissuades people from taking risks for fear of exposing their flaws, such an opportunity to engage intellectually appears as a threat.
This toxic perfectionism, while I hadn’t conceptualised it at such at the time, bothered me in 2019 as I started dental school. Now, with the recent Covid delirium, this problem has proven to be increasingly complex and consequential for humanity. The mental health crisis that existed amongst adolescents prior to 2020 has not only been exacerbated but exploited. We have seen ideologues in government and media corrupt the idea of the ‘model citizen’ to convey that only certain beliefs and attitudes are acceptable and those who dissent are not worthy of status in the brave ‘new normal’ world. The simple pleasures of nightclubs, eating out and meeting friends in-person become conditional on subservience to a narrative of fear, mask-wearing, medical passports and the like. Many will not endeavour to answer the difficult questions around negatives of the vaccine rollout, the cost of lockdowns or whether we really want a technocratic state. Nor will they ask what these do to children and young adults.
Children are being exposed to toxic perfectionism almost from the moment they begin learning. The very concept of ‘why’ exists in name only in much of today’s education system, with the ‘what’ masquerading in its place. Doing GCSEs and A-Levels, so much of our exam preparation was focused not on understanding the science itself, but in what wording you should use to get the mark. This does little to encourage critical thinking, but apparently that isn’t required for modern education. Worse, its mouthpieces scream that the climate will kill you, that systemic injustices will work against you in every aspect of life, that you will never own a house or afford to have children, that you will never be able to trust your own thoughts because of ‘unconscious bias’, that you should be ashamed of your gender, your ancestors, your everything, and that you cannot be trusted with anything as a result. Is it any wonder that young people feel they can’t reveal themselves to be anything less than perfect, and can’t afford a public slip-up when the stakes have been set so high?
Telling someone ‘no question is a silly question’, as many university lecturers do, underestimates just how ingrained such perfectionism has become in youth culture. It becomes too overwhelming even to begin to think critically, and the craving for limits on life become greater than for any opioid. Cancel culture, no-platforming and free speech restrictions, all of which course through the veins of the universities, are survival tactics in a world that’s constantly out to get you.
Reaching someone who has been trained to avoid exposing weakness and admit mistakes for the sake of feeling secure seems a daunting task to say the least. Our universities, which used to be places that could teach someone how to escape from this degrading mindset, are signalling how they’re more interested in moulding their students to conform to prevailing social orthodoxies than to stand out and change them for the better. There seems a greater need than ever for better examples, stories and structures for our children and young people to help them break free of the toxic perfectionism they learned from formative years spent immersed in the unforgiving world of social media and the stifling, fear-based conformity of the Covid pandemic.
To join in with the discussion please make a donation to The Daily Sceptic.
Profanity and abuse will be removed and may lead to a permanent ban.
Zombies
Walked past one the other day. Country lane, saw this hooded lad in the distance coming towards me looking at his phone. Not once did he raise his head up in all the time i saw him, including walking straight past me. An actual zombie. Younger folk are very antisocial in general i find in these kind of situations, whereas the older folk will always acknowledge you and say hello or have a quick chat. Sad.
Around Durham pit villages youngsters do greet when confronted on the footpaths.
And in many parts of Cornwall, we’ve noticed.
If a any person passes me with eyes down in a situation where one would traditionally acknowledge one another, I prompt them with a simple greeting. Never yet had one not look up and respond.
@Susan – That’s an interesting observation.
Psychologists such as Robert Cialdini who wrote the informative book “Influence” have observed that when for example a nasty situation is happening in a crowded environment, such as when a person is being physically threatened or attacked, most people stand around doing nothing – but when one single person actually does something, such as confront the attackers, often several others will join in…
Similar things were found with the Milgram experiment.
It is vital to keep opposition alive…and therefore to value ordinary language and to anti-value the language of “expert criticism” which is a complete trap.
On the other side of the coin, the rulers know that even one person who thinks for themselves is a threat to the system.
This is why I think next time the crackdown will be more brutal than it was last time. Not only will it not be so easy to self-classify as not needing a mask, but life is likely to be made much harder for those of us who refuse vaccination. We could be criminalised very fast, and without lengthy debate among scribblers or parliamentary deputies. The measures will be shocking. Perhaps, BANG, all children will be interned; or BANG, anyone not carrying a mobile phone with an “up-to-date” vax certificate will be liable to arrest if they leave the house; etc.
Last point: the threat of turning zombies’ mobile phones off and on again is likely to be used. That’s clear from a basic acquaintance with behavioural conditioning (“variable schedules”). Such a practice will turn the zombies into even more complete zombies than they already are. They will become like little obedience machines, like drones.
Now please can you all click on the thumbs-up to make me feel better
You paint a dismal picture of the future. However, your gloomy prognosis is almost certainly very near to the mark. Even now we know that Bill Gates and his henchmen are hard at work brewing up Pandemic 2, while at the same time they are drawing up a set of ruthless measures for their operatives in governments to enforce the next time around. All this unlikely to be more than two years away and in my view probably sooner.
Sorry Star! Just had to down vote you after that blatant narcissism
Depressing but sadly I can see it all as being very likely.
“If a any person passes me with eyes down in a situation where one would traditionally acknowledge one another” = Finland. You greet someone you’re either drunk or crazy.
That explains EF’s disposition then
EF in private messages here is most amiable. Publicly here he displays a most unusual character.
There’s an amount of truth to this. Finns claim they don’t greet or acknowledge others they pass on the street, such as our village, because they are ‘shy’. This is rubbish – it is because they are RUDE.
On the other hand, most Finns are ‘no-nonsense’, generally honest, and usually will help you if you ask for help. They may be rough on the outside but can be genuinely OK on the inside…. unlike many Brits who present the shiny surface but, when it comes down to the crunch, make their excuses and leave you in the lurch.
Strange to say, Finns have a similar sense of humour to the English; I won’t say ‘British’ because the Welsh and Scots just don’t have the same sense of humour as the English.
“confronted”?
“Post humans” gathering around us!
Oh yes.
As well as mental problems, holding a zombie stick and looking into it the whole time when walking along will give the zombie physical problems too – in their neck, spine, etc. I too have seen people who you just know would not be able to stop without experiencing a lot of distress. (To be honest, I have little sympathy.)
Interesting of course that the smoking of tobacco has decreased by a lot. Consuming the physical drug would interfere too much with consuming the digital drug.
It’s so sad when you see a zombie walking their dog, eating in a restaurant, etc., even walking along a street when there are usually all sorts of things that might attract a sane mammal’s visual or aural attention, whether it’s a busy urban thoroughfare or a quiet residential street. Or perhaps you want to relax – well that’s OK, because when you’re walking along you can obviously do that too. Or reflect. Or just mope, if that’s what you want!
But zombies don’t care about any of that. They don’t want stimulation. They don’t want relaxation. They don’t want communication. They don’t want life. Zombies would rather stare at their little handheld advertising and surveillance sticks, which they think make them so free. Every environment must seem the same to them, given that they’re on their zombie sticks the whole time. Frankly they might as well stay in their houses all day long.
They are traitors to the human species.
Often if they do say hello or chat about something, they’re clutching their zombie stick neurotically as if they’re dying to return to the “real world” of the garbage that the big corporations “allow” them to “exist” in.
Those of us who understand some of this stuff need to network…
A few years ago my dog was attacked (while on the lead) by an idiot walking his two loose dogs, but at the same time being totally engrossed on his phone. He had no idea what his dogs were up to. When I shouted at him he was annoyed at being interrupted, and wasn’t concerned that I had picked up my small dog which had two bigger dogs hanging off his back legs. My comments to him are not repeatable here!
Happens to me all the time. I am totally sick of it and am convinced that if their dog hurts me when they are engrossed in their device they are breaking the law as the dog is not therefore “under their control”.
Then take a photo of them and say you will be reporting them to the police. (Yes, silly, I know – as if the police would be interested, unless, of course, you fit their idea of a LBGTQRSTUVW, etc.)
Being glued to one’s mobile is decidedly not age-specific or at least not restricted to so-called young people. A lot of people of all ages (save pensioners who seem to have a more realistic view of the usefulness of these devices) exhibit that in Reading. I also still fondly a remember a sign I once saw on London Underground: When reaching the top of the escalator, please keep moving towards your intended destination. Everyone used to such scenes can immediately complete that with The people behind you will greatly appreciate it if you don’t stop there to send a text message first.
For another example, I’m living on a four storey building with two flats per floor. I almost always greet everyone I encounter in the building but Answer came there none is the usual reaction to that.
Social atomization is an disease of our time, it seems.
Yes, I notice that too, but I live in sunny Streatham, south London.
…
“From early on in dental school, it stumped me why I was one of the few people willing to answer questions in university lectures or practical classes, let alone volunteer my own questions.”
I was born in the early 70’s and the above cover my entire time in education, primary school to leaving college. This is not down to technology although it probably makes things worse.
Most people prefer to hide within the group and won’t risk standing out. They’d rather be within the group than be right. Covid showed me just how many people I know have no autonomy. Zombies.
The very definition of groupthink.
This describes my own university education 30 years ago. Tom isn’t as unique a snowflake as he thinks he is, and this is another swing and a miss by DS trying to find a new zeitgeist to latch onto.
Come Roger, would like to enlighten us old farts as to why you insult Tom by comparing him to the snowflakes/
Roger has been assimilated – his moniker is a dead giveaway.
“His”? Our pronouns are those/thoses.
I’m Beowulf, I’ve come to kill your preferred pronouns.
Because he’s acting like one. Ohhhh so special. He’s not, and if you make me bust out the ancient Greek quotes bemoaning the end of civilisation due to the degeneracy of the ancient yoofs, I’ll bally well do it.
Have you assimilated Alexander Boris de Pfeffel Johnson then, adding ancient Greek to the hive mind?
There may well be a lot to the argument that this isn’t much new. However I’m not going to argue with the DS looking for new subjects to write about. There’s a lot more required than covid and climate change to explain our society’s malaise.
Musical interlude that springs to mind –
https://youtu.be/BIsH686xWl0
Probably not everyone’s cup of tea, but I feel it’s relevant.
Perfect, but two years ahead of its time. Meanwhile, more topically and more focussed on covid conformity, and in a different genre (live musical theatre): https://www.scotchegg.live/
Tom, it’s why I left “uni” after less than a year and got a job.
But I sympathise – this is not an option for some professions.
“The aim of life is not to be on the side of the majority, but to avoid finding oneself within the ranks of the insane.”
Indeed – Marcus Aurelius knew it two millennia ago. Nothing’s new.
That rang a faint bell MAk; I was drifting towards university in ’71 and was rescued by poor results. Signed up instead and found myself patrolling the Shankhill a year later. I can still remember the smell.
Do you mean the Shankhill Road?
Aye, the Shankhill.
Children and young adults nowadays seem to spend their time solely with peer group, they do not learn to interact with others. In fact, they are actively shielded from contact with adults.
Young adults leave school with few social graces, as manners and how to make polite conversation are largely not trained or even demonstrated by teachers and family.
Getting into university does not necessarily mean you have communication skills, particularly if you mainly communicate socially via an app.
The subtleties of meaning enabled by language fluency, logical sentence contruction, formulation of ideas and concepts seems to have slipped entirely from even 6th form education.
You are left with people who turn up to lectures and hope to pass exams, but are disengaged with the learning experience and oblivious to modes of interaction that make the world a more interesting place.
The few who have acquired these old fashioned skills stand out head and shoulders from the group, and are a joy to work with.
So true! I’ve been seriously troubled by the lack of such basic communication skills in final year students on clinical placement to qualify as a Speech & Language Therapist!
One stands out as an utter joy – she was the student who challenged me the most as a clinical tutor as I had to be absolutely on form. She passed her placement with 100% – awarded by her 4 clinical tutors.
The last thing TPTB want is hoi polloi with critical thinking skills!
We don’t need to look into space for “Aliens” – the are now already living among us.
Outstanding.This brought a tear to my ‘guitaried’ eye.
If have two extremely clever university graduated grandsons, only one of which came out a realist.
May God bless and guide this wonderful young man.
Good to know there are people like Tom around. Let’s hope he and likeminded others can be the change they want to see.
All this verbiage.
Looking at garbage on a microwave tracker all day long is bad for your mental health.
Not knowing anything else from a young age is terrible for your mental health.
Who knew?
Yes, but have you any suggestions for unwinding this terrible trap the MSM and our educational system has created for our young people? They are our future.
It is an addiction – an addiction that almost everyone on the planet has fallen into. And which all big businesses, not just big tech, rely upon for marketing and revenue.
I sense that 20% haven’t fallen for it. But they’re mostly ‘oldies’ like me (68) who’ve had a large screen on our desks for 40 years and can’t be a***d to bother with a tiny screen.
It’s now a right PITA getting a good ‘simple’ mobile phone though.
Yes. I’ve heard it said that social media is an extinction level event. Something our brains are simply not evolved for and which will, inevitably be our downfall. Hard to disagree.
Sometimes I worry that my increasing DS addiction is going to be my downfall!!!
The next Carrington Event will prove challenging, but might have a couple of unexpected benefits – no workable mobile phones and the temporary (12 months?) absence of the MSM. Who knows, this cold turkey treatment might result in a majority of people finally waking up?
It could be argued that they are their future. The tragedy is that the education system and MSM have desensitised them to any worthwhile values.
Their future is dystopian by our standards; and they’re welcome to it.
Their future is dystopian by our standards; and they’re welcome to it.
This is true. Running a course in which my students need to come up with ideas for a TV drama. Most of their ideas involved either gay or trans, or gay and trans, or black and gay, or black, gay and trans protagonists. I don’t know exactly what world they perceive themselves to be seeing around them; but they’re certainly abstracted from the one I live in. They are being trained by forces unknown to become non-human and, ironically, racist. Where and how this happens is a bit of a mystery to me but then I’m not on social media. When these kids are in charge, we may need to live underground.
I never thought I would hear myself say this, but it makes me glad I am not as young as they are – to have such a life in prospect for them is hideous.
I think we’ve seen the best of times from the 1960s to around 2020… computerised systems have just become too encompassing now. There’s very little wriggle room (‘freedom’) to do as you please without ‘the authorities’ knowing what you’ve been up to.
Those ‘working from home’ may be in for a shock when their companies ‘outsource’ the work to a workforce in India who will do the same job for peanuts. OK, they will do a shitty job, but the employer won’t care as long as the profits keep rolling in.
Think it can’t happen? Ask the P&O 800.
…
Well I found it an interesting and thought provoking article. Thank you Tom.
Conformism was rife when I was at Uni in the 60s reading electronics. I was doing practical work and got anomalous results. When I highlighted this (it was a repeatable anomaly) whilst plotting the characteristics of a pentode. I was told that is not the answer I should have got and to copy the results from my bench mate.
It turns out what I had observed had a legitimate cause and was to do with electrons moving from one energy level to another. It was interesting to me as I went to university to push the boundaries of knowledgr, but from that moment my interest in university waned and I enventually dropped out.
There is nothing worse than an uninterested and zombified teacher. They are increasing in my, admittedly limited, experience.
They have been cloned for the purpose of reproducing themselves among their pupils. What they don’t know about anything is limitless!
Many of my colleagues are zombified but some aren’t. They did themselves and their students no favours in the plandemic; and now make handwringing gestures about mental health a lot, having contributed to the terrorisation of the impressionable minds in their care. All the kids I teach know precisely what I think; hopefully there will be more such teachers dotted around. I found them to be extremely receptive when I did ‘come out’ as a sceptic anarchist anti-vaxxer.
Good! You might have been the only experience of scepticism they might have come across, considering their parents, other friends and the bulk of their teachers had likely all bought the prevailing narrative.
maybe exactly what Liar Bliar wanted when he proclaimed that he wanted every household to have the internet: telescreens in their homes.
If Wordsworth were alive right now, he might have plumped for:
“Grim was it in that dawn to be alive
But to be young was absolute purgatory…”
I keep reading about the activity of the sun and the regular solar flares at the moment. I have this little daydream where a solar flare takes out most of the satellites and mobile phones become useless. Just imagine the total panic among the phone zombies. Of course it would quite possibly also mean that a plane would fall out of the sky onto my house, but hey ho.
It’d almost be worth it though if you knew TikTok and Snapchat were also doomed.
You can buy a ‘solar flare and EMP shield’ from the Strange Sounds website.
I run our debating society. Imagine. I am often confronted by modern woke sensibilities leading to severe awkwardness. Yesterday’s motion was ‘Social egg freezing empowers women’, a topic I did not choose, they did. it offered a fascinating insight into the modern woke teenage train wreck. Essentially, the students I was with do not think humans are animals. When I brought up other primates, and mammals in general and tried to make the point that maybe, possibly, perhaps, women were instinctively better at parenthood than men as evidenced by the entire animal kingdom apart from seahorses and some migratory birds, they were deeply insulted. They shot each other glances in a ‘Is he for real?; Why is he comparing humans with other primates’ kind of way. it was very awkward. I asked them if gorillas were a patriarchy, or lions. I asked them when the patriarchy was established – the neolithic period? The Pleistocene? When we crawled on to land? Was it time for lions to overthrow their own patriarchy, etc. Didn’t go down well at all I don’t know if they’ll come to the next one.
Anyway thought I’d throw that in. They are deeply misguided and messed up and these were well adjusted, thoughtful and very nice teenagers. They’ve asked for the next one to be on the Climate Emergency. God help us.
What is social egg freezing? I mean, I know what egg freezing is, but what is the social aspect of it?
https://debatingmatters.com/topic/social-egg-freezing-empowers-women/
Social as opposed to medical – elective rather than by necessity.
Toxin free frozen eggs & sperm may be the only option to save the human race….
I wonder if Amber Heard froze her eggs to stop Johnny Depp getting at them.
And whether it was before or after she pooped on his side of the bed for ‘revenge’.
Was initially imagining a social event involving the freezing of one’s eggs. Like a baby shower but with freezing eggs.
Well if your next debate is about the imaginary climate emergency that’s a good thing because in debates the other side is actually heard isn’t it?
That is right. How am I going to chair that one without without becoming recklessly partisan though!?
Again, like my post above, it might be the only opportunity they have to get the other side of the debate put to them – the REAL side, as opposed to the climate emergency crap pushed by the BBC. All you can do is your best with that subject. Rather you than me!
You should have pointed out the origin of the humans are not animals idea, namely, God creating man in his image, after his likeness and therefore, as master of everything subject only to God. The modern (so modern that it only dates back to 1970s) twist of that is that man is somehow different from animals and hence, not natural but an alien evil on earth. But technically, that’s no less a belief.
Hence, either we regard humans as another species of primates not inherently different from other animals roaming the earth. Then, we can discuss the matter. Or we’re entering the realm of religion where everybody is free to believe whatever he wants but his beliefs cannot and must not bind non-believers.
The problem is that the youth of today do not watch enough television. Without the self-discipline and basic literacy to tune in when Radio Times tells them that Blue Peter and Nationwide are on air, they have only the conflicting signals of Twitter and Instagram to guide them through the stormy waters between childhood and adulthood.
Only a few days ago, I was walking down a country lane and a lad with his eyes on his phone did not so much as register the flag of Ukraine. What we need is some form of digital National Service. Social media must be enabled to renounce dreams of empire and find their true role moulding social cohesion, civic nationalism and the respect agenda.
‘Doing GCSEs and A-Levels, so much of our exam preparation was focused not on understanding the science itself, but in what wording you should use to get the mark. This does little to encourage critical thinking, but apparently that isn’t required for modern education.’
This rang a distinct bell with me. I’ve noticed how so many don’t answer questions or won’t risk being wrong (but that occasionally includes me!). But how depressing for students to be groomed in this way. I’ve sent the article to two uni students I know to see whether they agree.
This student is clearly unaware the psychopathic power culture to be found in hospital medicine. By far the most important attribute for success there is understanding dirty politics, joining the Security Services and ‘proving yourself’ by destroying other people’s lives.
The reality of the UK is that you must be ‘good and decent’ on the outside and a psychopathic appeaser of global fascism on the inside.
This did not start with the internet, it started early in the 20th century and recruitment was always made in the ‘top Universities’ because there the potential for high performing criminality was most likely to be found.
If this student wants to succeed, around aged 27, he will have to ‘prove himself’ by trashing the career of another, using very, very dirty means.
The dental world is an establishment and, to join it, he must show his depravity to the powers that be, in a way that shows he can be trusted to be a totally loyal member of the Club that runs things solely for the benefit of the club. If he cannot do that, he will be blackballed.
Learn to accept genocides by ‘our side’, mate. Learn it now.
Iraq genocide was fine because Tony Blair supported it and the Americans carried it out. Learn that bombing Libya to a pulp was fine because Gadaaffi wanted to sell oil in non-dollar currencies. Flattening the most prosperous nation in Africa was fine as a punishment.
Learn that Israel treating Palestinians like Kaffirs is not to be questioned. You will be blackballed as a dentist if you support Palestinians in Gaza. Less than 1% of the UK population is Jewish, but 100% of ambitious people must obey their party line on the state of Israel.
Learn that Russia cheats at sport but the US and the UK don’t. Ignore all the evidence of endemic drug taking in US sport, the ritual use of Adderall as a ‘performance enhancer’ and keep very, very quiet about it. And never ask the question about British sportsfolk – they are all Pope-like in their honesty.
Accept that the Daily Mail actively sells all UK owned assets to the USA because it is a treasonous rag now more interested in selling clickthrus to Australians and Americans. But accept that its UK sheep will still vote the way the Daily Mail tells them to.
Are you beginning to learn how to behave, young man?
You won’t be rewarded as a middle class sheep if you don’t, you know…..
Those who commit all their waking hours to social media deserve all the mental health problems they suffer
A very well written article on a terrifying phenomenon. I have also noticed it in the parents of student-aged people; they abandon the rational brain that tells them that masks are pointless, or that ‘gender identity’ is a nonsense concept and mammals cannot change sex, because they are afraid of rejection by their po-faced children.
Out of 200 of my medical school class in 1974-9, only a handful regularly asked or answered questions. It improved a bit in the final couple of years, but never exceeded a quarter. I think not that much has really changed
A huge thank-you to the writer of this piece. A great help in becoming aware of the how and why of the damage we have allowed to envelop generation after generation. I would like to add that an educational movement like the Waldorf-Steiner movement is fully aware of this and offers a curriculum that leads the Young towards greater independency of thinking.
An excellent post, thanks.
I recall a Star Trek Next Generation episode called “The Game” in which the crew become hypnotically addicted to a hand held video game thus rendering them helpless before an alien invasion. Well – here it is with social media.