Addiction leads you to believe that you’re getting more of the pleasure that the drug or behavior gives you. Gamblers feel like winners, and they do win sometimes, but they lose more overall. Meth users feel like they have more energy, and they do briefly, but they have less energy overall.

In short: You tell me what you fear losing, and I’ll tell you what you’ll gain more of when you unaddict yourself.

People addicted to flying, social media, binge TV, and other things that make them feel like they’re propagating and adding to culture are demolishing culture. They’re homogenizing it on the scale of travel and communication. When family and work was driving or walking distance away, more than driving or walking distance would expose you to people with different influences and cultures different than yours.

These two articles a full of pictures and graphs illustrating and documenting how similar many things are becoming: coffee shops, apartments, skylines, movie posters, movie plots, makeup, and more.

The Age of Average

Pop Culture Has Become an Oligopoly

I don’t like Instagram, but here’s an account called Insta_repeat that shows tableaux of very similar images, like these similar roads with similar skateboarders by similar trees in front of a similar mountain:

The account has plenty more.

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Want to help reverse the trend? Overcome your addiction.

Go camping or sailing instead of flying so much.

Move closer to your family or see them fewer times per year.

Read or write books instead of using social media or talk with friends.

Go outside instead of watching TV.

Play sports instead of watching them.

Cook instead of going to restaurants and cafes.

Most of all, stop polluting and depleting. Without using power beyond your muscles, you live humbly and locally. You’ll prefer the change, though you may struggle through withdrawal. Afterward, you’ll wish you unaddicted yourself earlier.

You tell me what you fear losing, and I’ll tell you what you’ll gain more of when you unaddict yourself.

• ← Overwhelming research: “Green Growth” is a scam that accelerates lowering Earth’s ability to sustain life. Following or propagating it hurts us.
• Sustainability: Too many Thomas Jeffersons and not enough Muhammad Alis →