Why the Internet Made Us All Dumber and Meaner
Something gained, something lost.
I previously wrote about my developing hypothesis that since lead in gasoline and paint had contributed to decades of greater crime (well-established now in the scientific literature), it might also be impacting older generations right now.
According to the theory, lead toxins from a critical period of exposure between 1950 and 1975 were stored for decades within the bone tissue of Baby Boomers and older Gen-Xers. This toxicity is causing real problems as those generations age and their bones inevitably begin to degrade, releasing those lead toxins back into the bloodstream and causing accelerated mental decline.
This is a pretty scary big-picture idea to take in, which is why I suspect that a lot of people are going to be very resistant to it. I will note that I didn't get any pushback to my previous article or from those I’ve actually asked for help determining if this is just an idea I’ve fundamentally misunderstood. The scientific literature certainly makes clear that aging could release lead stored in bone tissue, producing mental effects on whole generations, whole cultures.
The idea that a technology that we all cherish as much as the car, which is so central to our lives, our culture, and our economy, could have created such a catastrophic effect in the past and will actually become even worse in the immediate future—that's more terrifying than the scariest horror film.
I don't want that to be true. That's why I'm not arguing the idea as much as I'm being forced to consider it and force myself to evaluate it with some analytical remove, given how high the stakes are. After all, these are the minds of more than a generation - and, in fact, they're the generations which are still broadly in power (both recent US presidential candidates belong to the affected group here). The impact this would have much more broadly on American culture, even on global affairs, is absolutely staggering.
So if there's even a chance that this theory might be true, that the bones of people between 49 and 74 are now or will soon leach lead toxins into their bloodstreams, leading to premature cognitive decline, then the possibility must be taken seriously.
Today, however, I offer no skepticism. The evidence overwhelmingly confirms the below argument. This is more an explanation than an argument, since - once one sees this - it becomes so self-evidently true.
I just finished the updated reissue of Douglas Rushkoff’s Program or Be Programmed as part of preparing for our upcoming premium series on AI. It'll be the first on a list of books recommended. He provides an important overall model for engaging with not just AI but technology more broadly.
One of the chapters makes points so valuable that it did not seem right to put them behind a paywall. These are ideas that I knew already, both from experience and from reading the original release of the book in 2010. But I firmly believe that everyone who uses online media in 2024 needs to understand them.
Unless you're about fifteen years old, you've probably looked up, baffled, from some type of online political or cultural discourse - whether Right, Left, or other - and thought helplessly, “It wasn't like this when I was a kid."
If so, you're right. It wasn’t. Even entirely aside from the fact that you didn't have the internet when you were a kid, or if you did, it was so different as to be laughable in comparison, people didn't always communicate like this in living memory.
Why not? Well, there are two fundamental and insoluble problems with the digital technology of the internet. These two sticking points have resulted in the entirely unintended consequence of making not just America, but the whole online world, both dumber and meaner. (Remember when we thought all humans would flourish in a veritable second Renaissance - a glorious utopia of instantly-available knowledge? Ha!) Culpability lies at the feet of:
The absence of non-verbal communication, which - believe it or not - accounts for 90% of total human communication.
The promotion of anonymity, which enables, encourages, and empowers people to let loose with their worst impulses - and to suffer virtually no consequences.
When you sit in a coffee shop and look your friend in the eye and show your active engagement with what they are saying through your body language—that is communication. That is real, often powerful and transformative communication.
In a way, it's really what life is all about. We sit with someone and then give them our full attention, empathizing with their feelings, providing a second perspective to help figure out pain and problems, or at the very least, a sounding board.
But how could that be possible to do sitting across the table with someone entirely covered, who did not move, who you had never met, whose voice you could not recognize, and who could shout at you whatever insults and vulgarities they wanted and suffer no consequences? They could even chant these things in a crowded room with everyone watching, even laughing at their cruel jokes - and maybe even joining in.
The internet strips away 90% of the tiny, subtle yet crucial physical ways in which humans maintain communication. Without all of those cues to guide us, let alone the reminder that we're talking to another human and not a line of code, we become, essentially, dumb: because we totally miss the majority of what other people say.
And that leads to another disturbing truth: the internet strips away 100% of how humans maintain morality. We become cruel because civilization’s safeguards against immoral behavior vanish.
Never mind how easy it is to snark at, tease, or taunt someone online for sharing something the tiniest bit off-key. Forget entirely how easy it is to dox and harass a person with whom we strongly disagree. An organized crime gang in Russia could force its "employees" to scam, threaten, even sexually blackmail people in free societies. They do so anonymously, never looking the fellow human being in the eye. Governments remain powerless to protect their citizens from such crimes, which, if committed in-person, could result in prison sentences in America.
And now, failures of both communication and responsibility amplify across our cultures, seeping into politics.
People on the Left and Right of the ideological spectrum don't understand each other. They can't communicate to understand each other when 90% of what they would say to each other is lost or even hidden.
People on the Left and Right don't suffer any consequences for being as cruel to each other they possible can. They can’t stop this cruelty because it’s just too much fun - and too in line with exploiting addictive tendencies which evolved into human biology.
So of course they look at each other as The Enemy. Why wouldn't they, when they're collectively fighting thousands of skirmishes and battles in the supposed “culture wars” every single day?
It wasn't supposed to be this way. Not at all.
The internet was supposed to create this “information superhighway” where ideas would shoot fast around a "worldwide web," where one could make connections across subjects. We were supposed to become smarter.
We were supposed to connect with others all over the world, to empathize with the struggles of people anywhere, everywhere, all at once, but now all the time and always in your pocket, forever.
And, of course, many of those positives happened. We've all met people online at this point who have changed our lives, mostly for the better. Many of us have even married our spouses as a result of the internet. We've had meaningful, emotionally-enriching experiences where we need some encouragement or support. And when a flesh-and-blood friend isn't available, then these little words and smiley faces from unknown people anywhere with silly names will do the job instead, we suppose.
How often have you had the chance to meet some online pal in person after chatting or emailing with them for years? Perhaps I've had this chance more often than most, given my profession of blogging, activist journalism and ideological troublemaking, but it seems most people would have gotten at least a taste of this rather surreal, but wonderful experience.
How does that feel shaking their hand for the first time? Looking them in the eye, finally gripping the skin, muscle, and bones of someone who's given you so much time, joy, laughs and comfort? Or sometimes you just give them a hug right away: you're already that close, and the friendship just feels that real.
Admittedly, the situation has improved to a small degree in recent years with the major advancements in streaming video chats. Suddenly, to one degree, we can look our friend in the eye, hear their tone of voice, see their gestures, observe their body language, share a smile when we laugh over an inside joke together.
But that's still not most of internet communication, and it's not the culture which the internet has promulgated for decades.
Even if you want to be one of the "good guys" here, if you are striving to make text-based conversation ring true while remaining fully cognizant of the medium’s limitations, if you reject anonymity by writing under your own name, you can’t really make substantive change or any meaningful dent here. You're just one person.
This is what we are now as a country. More and more, this kind of communication will spread across the whole world; the entire human species. As with the lead, we cannot extract this poisonous manner of miscommunication. It’s just too convenient. Instead, it's just going to continue to intensify, and most people are not going to realize it. And even if they see the problem, they cannot muster any sort of will to fix it.
Whether I get to count as a conservative these days or not, Thomas Sowell's wisdom on these problems always returns: There are no solutions, only trade-offs.
Something gained, something lost.
We gained so much through the industrial revolution, but it poisoned our bodies and thus poisoned our minds.
We gained so much through the digital revolution, but it poisoned our cultures and thus poisoned our souls.
What is to be done?
Something lost, something gained.
The cost for the individual regaining their intelligence and kindness is simple enough:
You have to spend less of your fucking time on the fucking internet.
I have to be on here for the vast majority of my waking hours to put food on the table and, more importantly, to do as I believe the God of Israel commands. You do not. Go do the Will of God in your own community, face-to-face with real people.
Or simply put your phone down.
Place this wonderful device somewhere you cannot just reach for it without thinking, in order to feel a sweet dopamine hit.
And if that is so hard to do, if it is too difficult to go back to 20 years ago when almost none of us had access to the internet attached to our bodies, then maybe now’s a good time to fucking ask yourself:
What does that mean about you?
I already know what my internet, phone, book, and writing addictions say about me. I am fucking traumatized from the violence and psychological abuse I have experienced since I was a child, and I have to distract myself 24/7 so as not recall all the painful memories.
So what's your problem, then? Who are you trying to hide from behind the shield of your screen?
Excellent points. I would add — in the spirit of Program or be Programmed — that online political discourse is so ugly and volatile because people don’t really believe what they’re saying. It is the ultimate expression of cognitive dissonance, and they are defending points for Culture, not for Self. More than anything ever has, the internet provides these instant wearable identities and people panic to defend those identities because tearing them apart would force them to build their own. No one who has pierced the ego to reach a Self has the need to defend identity to this extent because the identity is foundational and not fragile.
As Carl Jung would say, confront your shadow self instead of running away from it. The internet makes it easier to keep repressing aspects of ourselves instead of doing the work to live with our balanced, whole identity.
Even worse, hiding behind our screens allows our shadow to take over without acknowledging it. We spit out anger instead of looking into each other’s eyes. We judge before we feel each other’s vibes and movements. We forget how communicating is more than words.
That’s why I’m not against Substack becoming more visual. Leave a voice comment, record your articles, or have a video podcast—it can’t replace in-person communication, but it’s a start, and I’ve noticed it firsthand in my online classroom. I don’t only talk to my students; I physically communicate how I feel and what they want to learn and ensure we connect on a human level.