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jointpdf

Possibilities:

- stress/anxiety/depression

- sleep deprivation/disruption

- high-speed internet access (—> overuse of porn)

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Another possibility:

- Internet access (and better telecommunications in general) means you're competing with the whole world. Every day you see many people who are more successful than you, which lowers your perception of your own social status. Testosterone is believed to increase status-seeking behavior. If such behavior persistently fails, maybe testosterone production is reduced to avoid pointless risk.

That's an interesting hypothesis. I do feel that as the amount of content online increases, it becomes harder and harder to feel like any output you have matters. Be it writing a blog or open source software, there's competition everywhere. It's also harder to make it a say, a musician, when you consider the amount of music that everyone can access on Spotify for example. Any amount of creative output that someone can output is somewhat diluted.

I find it much harder to motivate myself to produce anything than I did 10 years ago. I might just be older, but I do think that content dilution has something to do with it as well. How do you free yourself from that?

I struggle with similar feelings as an aging amateur musician, particularly in genres like jazz where it sometimes feels like there is almost no point putting something out there unless it's world-class technically... which I'll never be.

Something I realized recently - and admittedly this hasn't changed any behaviors for me yet, but maybe it will help you - is that a lot of the music I listen to is objectively not the best in the world in terms of technical skill, originality, popularity, etc. and yet I enjoy and appreciate it anyway. So maybe it's OK for me to make music that's also not the best in the world - someone might find it and like it anyway. And if not, no harm!

Go offline I suppose? Talk more openly to people in real-life, to build a real-life community of like-minded people? Easier said than done, I know.

But we have kind of inadvertently let the internet shape our lives. There is nothing stopping us from living like it is the 80s + using the internet only where it makes our lives actually better.

That might be especially difficult right now with the government mandating that people shouldn't leave home.

i personally chime in my antidote towards stress and sleep deprivation. a year after significant reduced stress and better sleep hygeine I'm seeing better test levels and performance in the gym.

> sleep deprivation/disruption

Add to that an extremely unhealthy work trend. 50 years ago, an ordinary factory employee could feed on a regular full time wage a wife that could stay home, two kids, have a simple house, health insurance and go on a vacation once a year.

Today? Two jobs (and/or extreme overtime) for both people to make rent, home ownership rates dropped because even simple homes run up for well over a million dollars, 2008ff/corona have caused an immense wage depression, and people regularly go to gofundme for medical issues or go bankrupt.

Add to that: highly processed, unhealthy food is way cheaper than fresh, selfmade food, and people living paycheck to paycheck can't afford bulk purchases or Whole Foods. The effect of food on health is more than sufficiently documented.

That is an immense mental toll, and not just in the US but worldwide.

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