LYing wake At three o’clock in the evening, I asked Chatgpt: “Am I real?”
The question was not born of curiosity or philosophical interest. He appeared in a panic adjustment. I was worried about my future and rapid changes that would soon occur – Gradation, University, far from my home. The slowly fear of these upcoming changes finally took place in full anxiety-not just above my future but also my identity and, ultimately, identity itself could really mean.
While I am a spiral, I was not interested in treating, or even accepting this uncertainty. I was only interested in a quick solution, pushing Chatgpt to respond to my anxieties. In a few seconds, Chatgpt described a variety of philosophical perspectives on identity and existence – all from Hume and Descartes to Heidegger and Nietzsche – eminning each approach in a few sentences.
I felt embarrassed that I turned to a chatbot to get help. Of course, read all of Speech on the method At 3 am, it was not an option, but why had I not chose to read a short article from a real philosopher? Why not a five -minute YouTube video by a teacher or other authority formed?
The answer, of course, was simple. These options required time and patience. They forced me to feel my fear longer. More than that, they needed a form of critical thinking that would imply to face certain aspects of humanity – such as uncertainty, fear and self -reflection – which, at this late hour, were Rather unbearable.
For a very short time, I felt relief – relieve that there were possible answers to these great uncertainties, that there was something that could spit easy answers to difficult questions. But I hadn’t really learned anything. The true nature of these complex philosophical perspectives and their application to my life had not been revealed. Very quickly, my fears returned, because this uncertainty – on my future and who I was and that I wanted to be – had not been at all publicized. The rapid solution only provided temporary comfort, because it gave the impression that my uncertainties could have easy answers, in the same way that AI gave the impression that this massive question had done. But this feeling of mediation was only temporary. Human pain is not technological.
I observed this trend – the need to mediate, drown and instantly avoid psychic pain – in myself and almost everyone around me. People began to rely on quick technological solutions to deal with each thought or uncomfortable feeling – the most important escape tool being social media (where the ability to scroll constantly is very good for bury human discomfort).
I came to believe that these rapid solutions threaten our mental health, our relationships and our creativity. Indeed, these shortcuts do not allow us to move, accept or understand our pain – they do not bury them, do not isolate them or delay them. So what can we do to counter this insatiable need to bury our humanity under a bunch of distractive media?
SThe Tudies found These adolescent depression rates have radically increased since the early 2010s, coinciding with the popularization of smartphones. A 2019 study revealed that adolescents spent more than three hours a day on social networks “can be increased at increased risk of mental health problems”, including symptoms of depression and anxiety.
The link between poor mental health and the use of social media is often attributed to comparisons of body types and inaccessible lifestyles, because people tend to present only the most desirable and organized aspects of their lives . Although it certainly plays a role – social media often exclude the most difficult, trivial or little glamorous sides of everyday life – I believe that the damage is even deeper.
The more my friends, my family and I are on social networks, the more I notice a scheme: when stress, anxiety or sadness occur, we did not sit with these feelings – we suffocate them. The reflex is not to treat or confront but to escape, to disappear in the infinite parchment of distraction. And the more we do, the more automatic it becomes. Doomscrolling is not only a habit; It is an adaptation mechanism.
Hunting this immediate relief has distorted our understanding of human pain. Discomfort, uncertainty, sadness, panic and loneliness no longer feel like natural parts of life – they feel intolerable. Instead of sitting with these emotions, instead of working them, we scroll. Do not relax, not to relax, but to numb. And the more we numb ourselves, the more our own feelings are foreign and unmanageable. We don’t treat them. We don’t even recognize them. We have lost the ability to be with ourselves.
The relentless rhythm of social media leaves little room for self-reflection or a real calculation with our own isolation. Art, on the other hand, offers what social media cannot. Reading, watching movies, listening to music – these experiences slow down, inviting us to sit with the discomfort of human being. They allow our pain, instead of numb and bury it.
Indeed, art is used to fill the gaps within our experience – to put words or images or sounds on the feelings that we cannot impose by ourselves. During a period of fear and uncertainty about my future, I found great comfort in the tragicomic of Samuel Beckett Murphy and Virginia Woolf Lighthouse. Part of the reason why this period was so difficult for me was that I could not quite place what was wrong: Why I felt such fear, Why I felt such a feeling of confusion. I felt isolated from myself and the characters of the two novels feel the same thing. They too are fighting with uncertainty, with a goal, by giving a meaning in the way of moving around the world. The writers of these novels had words for these experiences, words which, at the time, I did not do it.
Art does not only help us to reconcile fractures in ourselves. It also fills the distances between us. This allows us, even if briefly, to enter into the experience of another person. It doesn’t matter if the person is on the other side of the world, is a different age, or even from a different period: we get a window in their world. In doing so, art promotes empathy. We start to understand why people act as they do, to see that their struggles and joys are not so different from ours. By engaging with stories, music, film – immersing ourselves in a real artistic expression – we reconnect not only with others but with our shared humanity.
For centuriesOne of the greatest roles in art has been to cultivate empathy. Fiction, in particular, plays a crucial role: studies show that reading stories can improve our social cognition, helping us better understand what others think and feel. It was also linked to increased empathy. When we engage with art, we do not just passively observe; We absorb perspectives, emotions and experiences beyond ours. This feeling of deepening of the connection can push us to act, to care about it, to help those who suffer, which is a cycle numbing of the condemnation rarely inspired.
You could say that social media also contains authentic art and human experiences. And although this is true, simply meeting these moments is not enough to counter the numb effect Ducroll. Even when we come across something significant – something that connects us to ourselves or to others – it is quickly swept away, buried under an endless flow of new content. Whatever the resonance she had is ephemeral, replaced almost instantly. Doomscrolling does not create space for reflection, to sit with an idea or a feeling. It does not offer the depth or immersion that real engagement with art provides – the type that allows us to treat, understand, feel.
I do not suggest that social media are an all destructive force that should be avoided at all costs. It has its advantages and is undeniably woven in our daily life. But I want to challenge its role of rapid solution for the discomforts of human beings. When we use it to temporarily escape pain, we erod our ability to tolerate or understand it.
I came to see AI in the same way. Just as I believe that social media should not be a shortcut towards feeling, AI should not be a shortcut towards reflection. The biggest questions we face are not confronted – and should not have quick and easy answers. Art is one of the ways we are engaging in with these questions, the parties, rebuilding them and deepening our understanding. These questions emerge from a distinctly human experience of the world, and the search for answers must therefore also remain human.
Pain, uncertainty, wonder – these are not technological problems, and AI, incapable of real interpretation, cannot give voice to the complexity of human life. Only the art of human manufacture can.
