Thanks a lot Stephen!

Very eloquently put! The lure of promoting the self - becoming a mini-celebrity with a following and an audience - is a large part of what has seduced people into disregarding the consequences of persistent and prolonged use of digital tech.

It has gotten to the point where users can have physical withdrawal symptoms when deprived of their social media and cannot enjoy an experience without boasting about it to the world online.

As you say, a lot of us are just looking for a way to escape the humdrum reality of our existence and being constantly online has made for a convenient distraction. It also seems highly innocuous compared to other forms of escapism, like drugs or alcohol.

The problem is, however, that the harmful effects of this IT addiction are purposefully concealed from us. There are major players who clearly benefit from keeping the detrimental impacts of social media use as obscure and nebulous as possible.

As of yet, not enough research has been conducted to determine just how severely these developments are changing our cognitive function etc, but I believe it will become a bigger issue in the public sphere moving forward. At least in Europe, they are making a show of at least pretending to care.