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You're wrong about about what's causing the apathy and disinterest. It's not being caused by phones and tablets, social media addiction, or doomscrolling. Those are symptoms of the real problem.
That 22 year old cashier is zoning out because that's their 2nd or 3rd job, and they're exhausted. Those folks who refuse to watch the video? Some of them simply can't, because they're burnt out from just trying to survive. Those cynical kids with no hope for the future? After 2 recessions and a pandemic, that's kept them out of the jobs market, I can't blame them.
A lot of people are struggling to survive. Struggling to ensure they can keep a roof over their head, struggling to afford groceries, struggling to afford that car they need to get to the 2 or 3 jobs they work.
The cost of living is ridiculous now, and wages are stagnant. A large amount of people are simply surviving. All their energy is going to getting their basic needs met, and not all are able to meet those needs. They can't spare the attention to care about the rest of the world, when they are worrying about which bill to pay and which can wait. Or how to keep that car running just a bit longer until they can get it fixed.
Trump and his goons are absolutely taking advantage of this too. Don't fight back, or we'll make things worse. Argue with us and we'll take away that benefit you're using to survive. So you're absolutely right when you say something has to be done. And the sooner, the better. But understand that for those folks we are talking about, they won't be able to help. Not yet. Unfortunately, things will have to get worse before they are forced to act. And not "ICE is killing more people" worse. It'll be "I'm getting evicted, I can barely afford to eat, and a lot of people I know are the same."
I will agree that the system is now a cycle, that it's now self-sustaining apathy that breeds exploitation that breeds apathy, etc. It's a downward spiral, but I will not budge that our dead internet of mindless dopamine hits isn't a strong link in that chain of despair or a major factor in people's lack of willingness to organize to actually address those problems that are making people want to escape reality. To say nothing of what it's done to our atomized perspectives and inability to agree on a shared world anymore.
But that aside, the crux of what I'm talking about is community. In other times, we were much better as a species and society at creating community that reinforces both the laws of the land and provides us with opportunities to either change the system or to reinforce it and help each other. Whether or not you think that doomscrolling is responsible or not for the conditions we're in, it's absolutely keeping us divided and isolated and alone. We are a species wired to have face-to-face socialization and it's on the decline. Rates of young relationships are dropping like a rock, birth rates are dropping, people don't go out and hang out and enjoy being around each other anymore because we all have a billion voices of strangers stomping around in our heads making us fear and hate each other and ourselves. Social pressure is what drives people to want to make better choices, it's what drives people to want to not look stupid so they will be pushed to learn about issues and ideas. Social pressure is a stronger guiding hand for morality and ethics than any legal or religious system. Instead of nurturing community we all have discord servers with other self-diagnosed people unwilling to answer the phone or even say hi to a stranger.
This might not be the only problem we have, but it's a huge one and we're broadly not addressing it or caring how much harm it's doing, and people, particularly in places like this, will feel so triggered by the mere suggestion that their online habits are depriving them of a better world and more opportunities that they'll rage and drop essays about how much being online all the time has helped them, and then 5 minutes later make another post in another forum talking about how lonely and depressed they are. Make it make sense.
I agree with you about the harms social media causes. It's not helping matters at all, and actively harms people. But so does alcohol. Drinking can relax people, make them feel numb and happy for a short while. Doesn't help them at all. But we don't point the finger at alcohol, we say it's a symptom of a larger problem. In this case I'm saying social media consumption is the same, just a symptom of a larger problem.
And like alcohol, it doesn't actually help at all. It just takes a person's mind off their problems for a while. It lets them unplug and just mindlessly scroll Tiktok or Instagram. Say stupid shit on Twitter.
Building community is an answer to this problem. Arguing on the internet is like yelling at the void, where speaking in person tends to make someone think more and be more mindful of what they say, since the repercussions are immediate and right on front of you. And it's just better for the person too, getting to feel that connection to other people.
The problem though, is that it takes a lot more effort, time, and money to participate in community. The people I'm talking about, simply can't. They don't have that time, energy, or money. They can't afford to meet friends for dinner, even at each other's homes. They can't go meet friends at a nearby park because they're exhausted from work. They can't go hang out at a friend's place because of the time commitment. The couple of hours they might have at the end of the day is spent browsing simply because it's low energy and doesn't cost them anything more. It's the only thing that lets them unwind, or unplug, or blow off some steam.
I think the answer is to have the community meet these people where they are. That's a huge undertaking though, which is probably why we haven't seen very much of it yet. But it's going to be sorely needed.
Good comment. You see a lot of why dont all Americans just strike? type comments from people living in countries with workers protections.