''Soon, smartphones may become more intelligent than humans; for some, they already are!''
Intellectual crisis
The most critical aspect of the cultural crisis is intellectual decadence! Our culture has degenerated mentally since a five-year-old child and a grown man or woman play the same computer games or games on their mobile phone. Progress in science has decelerated as tech is focusing mainly on gadgets. All the technological achievements that previous generations envisaged for the 21st century have yet to come.
For instance, modern humans have not achieved space trek, flying vehicles, cancer (other than leukemia) treatment, and others. Even the progress in gene therapy for various diseases, nanotechnology in medicine, and high computer speed are slowly developing at a tortoise's pace. Notwithstanding, costly military equipment, such as fifth generation stealth jets, has grown. At the same time, there is still no unifying theory in cosmology.
Although contemporary people have many degrees, they are incompetent in performing essential things. For instance, most people do not know how to perform CPR and defibrillation via an AED correctly, and the ones they know do not update their lifesaving skills that may be needed in a cardiac arrest. The fact that there are no defibrillators (devices performing cardiac shock in case the heart stops pumping) dispersed everywhere means this is not a priority. However, these devices now cost the same as some expensive smartphones. But soon, smartphones may become more intelligent than humans!
People today rarely read literature and newspapers and are less educated than the previous generation. For most young people, their routine is to watch viral 4K videos on the internet, fly their drone, play computer games endlessly or chat aimlessly with strangers on their social media, and upload vlogs of their life or homemade action movies to catch some ''likes.'' But even in computer games, people watch nonsense such as battles with zombies and fighters who are shot and miraculously revived!
Today many people act childish. For instance, as referred above, many grown people play computer games like kids while many adults play games on their smartphones and scroll to read fascinating stories and gossip on the web in places such as the subway. Another example is the themes of cinema movies that are primarily childish ''Marvel'' type tales with superheroes and stories that should be more appropriate for kids. These silly tales, most of them created in the studio with animation, monopolize the US movie industry that treats people as if they are five years old!
Populism is another phenomenon that shows that low intellect allows populists to manipulate the masses, come to power, and their agenda, and the best example was US President Donald Trump. He ruled the country with far-right policy and began a trade war, making the US unpopular to the rest of the world. In Europe, along with populism, the far right is an ongoing trend in politics that has aggravated because of the uncontrolled and without rules massive migration. However, far-right parties, as populists, appeal to people of lower intellect who are amenable to their propaganda.
People do not understand that they rule the government by casting their vote, which renders them responsible for everything wrong. Notwithstanding, a considerable percentage that may surpass 50 percent of adults do not mind voting in the national elections. With their absence in the elections, they defy that they have the power to change things with their vote, as every single vote counts! These people were considered idiots in ancient Greece, where democracy was born.
The linguistic poverty
Linguistic lack means intellectual deficiency. Intellect and language characterize the human species. Walking erect on two feet, swallowing food, intellect, and language make humans different from other species. Poor language mirrors a meager intellect. But this may be deliberate as the ''system'' does not wish citizens to be wise, as they are manipulated better when their intelligence is low.
Many people speak and write with abbreviated phrases. That is more striking in comments on the internet. This American style of abbreviating every word and phrase has prevailed, especially in the youth. Characteristically, internet chatting consists of stupid telegraphic abbreviated terms such as lol and OMG and swearing such as OMFG! That makes people speak like a machine, a robot.
The abbreviation of words in US English is now a worldwide trend. For instance, the words ‘submarine,’ earthquake, and alligator have been replaced by the phrases ''sub,'' ''quake,'' and ''gator''! There are also other stupid and childish ways of writing words, such as the word str8 for ‘straight, 24/7 for ’24 hours, seven days of the week’ etc.
People could improve linguistically and, therefore, intellectually by reading books. However, most people do not care about reading a regular or eBook. Reading books is essential for the human intellect as it feeds the brain. But this refers to books such as those of Noam Chomsky and Paulo Coelho, not just to read a novel or a romance. Many people do not even read a newspaper, printed or online. But also, when they read the news on the internet, such as ‘Google News,’ most only read the headlines of the story and skim through the article.
The deleterious effects of biases, stereotypes, and generalizations
Most people today are biased, use stereotypes and generalizations, and enjoy labeling people and things. Prejudice is an enormous problem. The sources that many people use are often unreliable. People can easily find the necessary information online. However, the data may be false or biased. Re-blogging and reposting inaccurate data are common. The internet offers millions of relevant sites for a subject, yet reliable sites are fewer!
Biases, generalizations, and stereotypes have harmful effects on human relations as well as human intellect. An example is far-right and populist parties that have become popular in Europe and the US. Along with populism, they use stereotypes, such as that the migrants take all the jobs, although it is questionable if an ''indigenous'' individual with a pack of degrees would seek a labor job. The internet aggravates the phenomenon of using biases and generalizations as often online information is biased and lacks credibility. Even online encyclopedias are biased. A notable example is Wikipedia, an online encyclopedia exceptionally biased, as anonymous people can write or edit an article instead of experts.
Propaganda via the mass media
Many people are prone to believe in propaganda, which is related to overspecialization, instead of a broad education that would prevent manipulation. For its propaganda, the system has always used the mass media to manipulate people. The media are commercialized and suggest to people what is ‘trendy’ and ‘cool’ to watch and buy. For instance, TV channels such as MTV show music videos that are the best ‘hits’ to watch. The news on the TV and the internet is usually biased, and many journalists seem to serve the interests of specific political parties and financial Trusts.
A famous example is a fake video with the cormorant that CNN showed during the Gulf War of 1991 that seems that it was shot in another place than Iraq. A recent example is the migrants who massively entered Europe in the last ten years. The media called them ''refugees.'' However, a small percentage were genuine refugees from Syria or Libya, while the rest were economic migrants! The real reason for this was that those wealthy European industrialized countries, especially Germany, needed heaps of cheap working labor as the European population is aging.
The widespread hate
Not only does indifference characterize many people today, but hatred is also a universal emotion. An example is the hate comments on sites such as YouTube or blogs, where many people exploit their anonymity to express their real character that's twisted in hate! The far-right groups have increased, especially in Europe. Many show hatred and animosity against sensitive social groups such as immigrants and Roma (gypsies).
Additionally, many people are homophobic. Homophobia is encouraged by almost all religions, including Christianity. Instead of preaching to love our neighbor, it teaches hate against homosexuals accusing them of being ''sinners'' and ''sodomites,'' even though Jesus has never spoken against gays or lesbians. Islam is highly homophobic, and in fanatic Muslim countries or regions ruled by ‘jihadist’ groups, they kill gays by throwing them from the roof of a building or stoning them.
Indifference about everything
People do not mind reacting to terrible things that happen. The only reaction is ‘like’ or ‘dislike’ on social media and videos. Most people today are egocentric and selfish and mind their own business, while they do not care a damn for the other people who may starve, be homeless, unemployed, sick without access to healthcare, etc. Once, a journalist asked a British lady what she would do for the children that starved in Africa. The lady cynically replied that her dogs were hungry as well!
Virtual ‘relationships’
Weirdly, some people say they have a ‘relationship,’ an affair or friendship, with a cyber partner or a cyber friend on their social media. Nowadays, many people first meet on social media, including Meta, and next meet outdoors. Notwithstanding, many people with social media profiles are fake, meaning they may be a ''catfish''! They deliberately have a fraudulent profile and counterfeit photos downloaded on the web that you can quickly uncover with a reverse image search on ‘Google’ images!
Consequently, the time someone may be ''catfished'' using social media means they are not 100 percent safe. Additionally, many people may have a contrasting character to the one they show on social media. For instance, they may be aggressive or even abusive. That means it is unsafe for someone to hang out with an unknown cyber friend on social media. A social experiment by Coby Persin proved that everyone using social media could lure and date even children! He showed that social media might become very dangerous, especially to minors. You may watch his video at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6jMhMVEjEQg
Commercialization
The commercialization of TV and the film industry
Multinational companies manipulate the masses and dictate what kind of entertainment they need to have, such as which are the best movies to watch, which are the best music hits to listen to (usually on popular channels such as MTV), and which are the most ''viral'' videos to watch on sites such as the YouTube, etc.
TV news broadcasts usually try to show news and videos that are impressive, even by showing scenes of violence, aiming to increase their views. TV programs and series are commercialized and are usually of low quality, interrupted by commercials as their profits are based on ads, and sponsors are mandatory for their sustainability.
TV and streaming media have already been commercialized by American multinational companies, such as Netflix, which invest in cheap productions. Documentaries are monopolized by four American global networks: the Discovery Channel, the History Channel, National Geographic, and Animal Planet. The History Channel has inexpensive productions with battle scenes played by realistic and gory stunts, making them unsuitable for minors.
Cinema has lost its old glory, and the ‘product’ it sells is typically low quality, sometimes even ‘trashy.’ All movies include violent and often sensual scenes to which young people, even children, get addicted. An example is when young people want to upload their naive ‘action’ videos on sites such as YouTube. These videos are characterized by the extreme violence of ''shoot-'em-up'' content resembling video games. Their common theme is special police forces that ''eliminate'' the bad guys or special forces in the army ''neutralizing'' terrorists, stereotypically Islamists.
American cinema movies are characterized by fast alternating scenes of ‘action’ without any profound messages in the film industry of other countries. At the end of the movie, most people do not even realize the story to describe to a friend, but the usual description is that some good guys chased the bad guys!
The scenario of most American movies is usually naive and childish, as in the last decades, the film industry has lost its old prestige entirely. The American film industry lacks innovative ideas, and currently, it creates remakes and sequels of older movies, from ‘Superman’ to ‘Star Wars! Tales and childish stories with superheroes and mythological characters are a common theme for modern cinema and TV movies, from the ‘Assassins Creed' to the ‘Lord of the Rings,’ ‘Games of Thrones'; and superhero ‘Marvel’ movies. It is not a coincidence that the American film industry considers its mean audience as ten-year-old children! Childish themes of the ''Marvel'' type of tales are prevalent today and do not appeal to children but to everyone.
Compared to non-American international film productions, the US film industry is of lower quality, even from authoritarian countries such as Iran, where many movies are of better quality, have more profound messages, and are not just ‘action’ childish movies.
The US film industry is very profitable, and the movies are distributed and promoted worldwide. Most action movies not only include scenes of violence, and martial arts for films (often they use ropes to show the actor swaying in the air), mostly acrobatics and scenes characterized by sexual hints and sexism. The dialogues usually are characterized by biases, stereotypes, and generalizations.
Significantly, modern cinema inclines to movies without actors as in our days and time many films are shot in the studio with the help of computer animation. Animated movies resemble computer games! Another issue is that most actors in the US film industry are of the white Caucasian race, specifically of Anglo-Saxon origin (usually from the US, the UK, Australia, Ireland, New Zealand, and Canada) rather than other white backgrounds, such as those of Mediterranean descent. Interestingly, non-Caucasian actors randomly appear in US movies, and when they participate, they are demeaned. For instance, they play the role of gang members living in a ghetto.
Often actors of origin other than white Caucasians play stereotypical roles that may also show racial discrimination. For example, a Mexican or a Filipino woman may play the role of the maid in a mansion rather than being the leading actor. The fact that usually white Caucasian actors play the prominent characters in most US films is disproportionate to reality, as black people and Latinos are a large part of the US population. Notwithstanding, rarely do they play in movies. They are also less frequently awarded an Oscar.
For the same issue, the British TV and film industry is characterized by ''retro'' movies that refer to the past, such as Agatha Christie's stories with towers, etc. The UK film industry shows mostly vintage movies to intone the glorious past that contrasts with the monotony of the modern multinational and multicultural ''underground'' Britain of diversity. Whatever the reason is, the British TV and cinema industry is characterized by movies in which actors of white Caucasian origin play, like the US film industry.
Most American movies are of low quality and aim only to earn a profit! But the viewers make a movie successful or a "box office flop." Some movie theaters play international films that are considerable and with plenty of profound messages. I recommend international films rather than trashy action movies with violent shoot-'em-up content to which even kids get addicted.
The commercialization of the internet
The internet has been commercialized, and it is unbelievable that all sites use cookies to learn the user's interests to show targeted ads. In all sites, the number of hits shows how popular something is. The desire to be liked, admired, or supported makes millions of ''attention seekers'' upload striking, often stupid, videos on YouTube and other video channels on the web to show off and become famous so that they will get away from their misery. Some may even become celebrities, such as Justin Bieber, a young YouTuber whose popularity was used by the star system, making him a superstar singer of music videos appealing to the youth.
The commercialization of sports
Sports have also been commercialized and are a profitable business. Top athletes today have managers, earn a lot of money from commercials and sponsors, and are super-rich. Recently, a Greek tennis player earned 6,5 million dollars. The issue is that scientists make less money! Famous actors, top journalists, and politicians are also wealthy. Today's lack of meritocracy is an issue as people with impressive CVs, even if they find a job proportionate to their qualifications, are paid less than celebrities!
Football players earn millions of dollars from sponsors when many scientists struggle to find a job. Contrary, in the original ancient Greek Olympics, the only prize was an olive wreath and popularity! Most high-level professional athletes have managers and are sponsored by multinational companies. Moreover, the obsession with being a champion and earning millions of dollars makes many athletes use illicit ways, including doping. But nowadays, doping is not only based on chemicals, but it may be accomplished with more sophisticated methods, including genetics, that are impossible to detect.
Materialism
Nowadays, everything has been commercialized, and this is how the system works. People feel happy if they purchase material goods such as the latest smartphone, smart TV, or car, even if that means they will spend a fortune to acquire it! Many may also starve to buy something they desire, or the commercials make them crave it! In the US, the country of capitalism, everyone has the American dream of owning a home, a car in the garage, and a chicken in every pot or a dog. The American dream started in the early 1930s. However, most worked endlessly to achieve it! Accommodation is an issue, as many work overtime, often in two jobs, to afford and pay their mortgage for their home. Notably, in 2007, many Americans could not afford to pay their mortgages and lost their house, which triggered the 2007 mortgage crisis in the US.
Today, even kids are addicted to obtaining material goods. An example is when a parent visits the supermarket with his children, and they wish to buy everything they see. Everything is mainstreamed. For instance, kids play nerf wars, have smartphones and tablets, etc. Even women are lured into buying cosmetics and purses from specific brands, such as ‘Louis Vuitton,’ which are costly. Metrosexual is a consumer type of contemporary man who takes care of his appearance, meaning that he may tan, depilate his body hair, wear expensive clothes, spend time on his hairstyle, do manicures, trim his eyebrows, etc.
Addictions
Addiction to social media
Today most people spend many hours of their life on TV or the internet, where they chat on their social media, including Facebook and Twitter. Also, most people are online 24/7 via smartphones, notifying them when something exciting happens on their social media. Consequently, most people do not enjoy the moment, not even when they spend time together with friends, because they always check their cell phones and comment, check their message box, post news, and upload photos on Instagram, ''like,'' read the news, etc.
Many people spend endless time surfing aimlessly on the web instead of doing something more creative, including recreational activities or reading a book. Many attention seekers upload videos continuously on sites such as YouTube, where they expose their personal lives entirely to the public, often mentioning private matters. For example, if they are gay, they make a video informing their viewers if they are ''top'' or ''bottom''! When they hang out, many young people hold their smartphones and may even talk to each other via social media rather than chat directly!
Addiction to alcohol and recreational drugs
Alcohol abuse
Alcoholism is today a pandemic that primarily affects young people who get addicted to alcohol from their adolescence. Alcohol is the cause of many disorders, while it is an important cause of motor vehicle collisions, violence (including domestic), rapes, suicides, etc. The consequences of healthcare from alcohol are counted in millions of dollars. A significant percentage in Northern Europe may be considered alcoholics! However, the countries do not mind dealing with this plague, perhaps because alcoholics are more vulnerable to manipulation.
Abuse of illegal drugs
Abuse of illicit drugs is a significant problem with health-related and social ramifications. Many college students, especially in North America, have tried ''weed''. Cannabis as a hash or marijuana is still illicit in many countries as it is a psychoactive substance. Apart from cannabis, many people are addicted to illegal drugs and substances, including opioids (such as heroin), cocaine, glue, diluents (they sniff them), poison mushrooms (they eat them), and recreational pills such as ecstasy and other amphetamines. As with alcohol, most governments do not mind dealing drastically with the issue of illicit drugs, as people under the influence of drugs or alcohol are more susceptible to manipulation!
The degeneration of the new generation
Today the system aims for the new generation to become good consumers and obedient employees. With the aid of mass media and the internet, capitalism manipulates the new generation not to protest but to be docile. The youth are not interested in politics but in tangible things like gadgets. So most young people are apolitical and do not vote in national elections, leaving a minority of the population to decide. The previous generations grew up reading books with the fantastic tales of Jules Verne as young and later more sophisticated books. On the contrary, contemporary youth read fewer books than their ancestors, affecting their intellect. They prefer surfing the web and posting on their social media.
Most young people are addicted to the internet, especially their social media, while through their smartphones, they are online 24/7, notified of everything that happens. The internet has affected how young individuals speak as they use abbreviated phrases of internet chat slang. Additionally, many youngsters are addicted to violent computer games from early childhood. This activity is not only a squander of time but also familiarizes them with violence and renders them more vulnerable to brainwashing.
Many young people regard it as usual to have a ‘relationship’ with a cyber mate with whom they chat on social media, even if this mate may be fake, as many profiles are! Finally, many young individuals are often biased and use stereotypes and generalizations about everything, while many are apt to label people and things.
The widespread attention-seeking behavior among the youth
Nowadays, attention-seeking is ubiquitous and shows that our society is hugely egocentric. Many people have superiority or inferiority syndrome, both sides of the same coin, to show off and seek the attention of others. Many people, especially the young, wish to attract attention; for this purpose, they are obsessed with posting, blogging, or vlogging something noticeable on their social media. Many individuals post videos of doing stupid things such as silly pranks (similar to the ''Jackass'' TV show) or 'stunts'' (such as risky front flips, backflips, or parkour). Others make violent home movies such as ''action movies'' of battles with special forces (always American) or videos with airsoft or Nerf war! Some even make homemade horror films.
Commonly, many, especially the younger users, make ‘challenge videos’ where they do a stupid challenge merely to impress their audience, while they think having a social media profile, such as a YouTube channel, is noteworthy per se. It should be mentioned that ‘funny videos’ originate from the TV show of the ''America’s Funniest Home Videos'' TV series on the ABC channel and the Canadian show ''Just for Laughs: Gags.'' This trend of hilarious videos continued on YouTube. Additionally, many people show off their wealth in their videos, for example, their mansion or swimming pool. A video may be costly, and someone with a few thousand dollars may create an impressive video that can add special effects more impressive than the childish Adobe After Effects on YouTube that even kids use.
The Americanization of our planet
Many people worldwide try to make a US-themed video, even if their culture is unrelated to the US. For instance, young individuals who are not Americans upload on YouTube or somewhere else a video for Halloween or the 4th of July (Independence Day in the US), something that, as a theme, would be expected to be uploaded by an American! But some people try to show more Americans than genuine Americans.
I remember once I read an impressive post of a guy who wrote perfectly American English on Facebook (that I later left disgusted with the case of data misuse). When I searched his profile, I realized that he was from India! That made me wonder why this man used an Americanized style instead of acting following his culture. Ironically, the US has recently launched a global trade war (by adopting protectionism, a trait of communism), and the Americans mind their interests as they always did. That means Americanization is still for the benefit of the US, for example, by selling their products. Meanwhile, many individuals are still happy to act like Americans, which is more apparent on the web and social media!
Today, everything in the global market is controlled, monopolized, and manipulated mainly through American enterprises. American companies, including Amazon, Google (that also owns YouTube), and Facebook (that also owns Instagram), exploit the web, from internet browsers, e-shops, and social media to video games! Even the ''Nerf guns,'' that most kids play war with worldwide are manufactured by an American company. Notably, Microsoft exclusively monopolizes computer markets with its Windows and Office™.
Importantly, as most Trusts that monopolize the web are American, they take advantage of the leniency of European trade laws and especially tax havens such as Ireland. Often American companies have used unfair means, which has led to numerous fines by the European Union for unfair tactics! Recently, the US prohibited all American companies from collaborating with the Chinese technology company Huawei. Consequently, Google excluded smartphones of Huawei from access to its services, including the Google Play Store (TM).
Additionally, the US exercised political pressure on many countries, including those in Europe, not to collaborate with Huawei to develop the fifth generation of mobile broadband (5G) but instead to assign 5G development to other companies, such as the Finnish company Nokia. The excuse was security concerns. But the question is if we would still be happy if the security threat were from the American side, something that cannot be excluded (our cell phones know our every move). For instance, in 2018, it was revealed that Facebook misused the data of its users. The $5 billion fine from the US authorities for the data breach was an embarrassing joke.
Most social media and YouTube users speak American English, primarily American urban slang and online chat abbreviations and slang! That means that the language of Shakespeare has been destroyed and replaced worldwide by American colloquial language. That causes a linguistic discrepancy. For instance, the word ‘ant’ (insect) is pronounced in UK English: ænt, but in US English, it is pronounced ænt, the same as ‘aunt.’ Another classic example is the word aluminum, pronounced əˈlu·mə·nəm in US English. However, it is aluminium, pronounced ˌæl.jəˈmɪn.i.əm, in UK English. Also, when a British says, ‘coach trip,’ a person from the US may not think that ‘coach’ refers to a ‘bus,’ but to a ‘teacher.’
YouTube is wholly Americanized, and it is ridiculous that many users feel obligated to make American-related videos. For instance, they may not be Americans, but still, they may post a video with ''Halloween nerf war'' or about Independence Day! Additionally, all ''action movies'' have the same scenario of the SWAT or special forces team, always American, infiltrating a base and fighting terrorists (typically Islamists). Similarly, computer games are related to the US army or American warriors that fight villains. Massive propaganda from the US film industry overtones Americans' role in liberating Europe in World War II when Russia's role and resistance in the occupied countries were also significant.
Epilogue
The level of technology we have reached now is disappointingly different than expected. People today use their brains less than previous generations! Most people, along with ''attention-seeking, ''suffer''' from dogmatism, jingoism, and bigotry, while their comments are filled with hate, biases, stereotypes, generalizations, and often conspiracy theories. The mental progress of the population is disproportionate to the advances in technology. Consequently, they can be manipulated more easily by the system.
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