The Tik-Tok trend “Kulikitaka” is a prime example of how the social media is increasingly dulling us. Why are we so careless, disrespectful and thoughtless with our digital possibilities? An attempt at a commentary.
How intelligent and loving are we still today? Digitalisation has led to us increasingly staring carelessly at our bright smartphone screens and no longer perceiving our surroundings.
The more time we spend on social networks, the stronger the feeling in us that we are missing out on so much. We get the impression that life is increasingly digital and not real.
Tik-Tok-Trend: How can you come up with a cow challenge?
While life on Instagram and Co. looks extravagant and exciting, your own reality suddenly seems quite boring – obviously too boring for some people, as the moronic Tik-Tok trend “Kulikitaka” has shown.
Someone had invented a challenge to scare cows. A person was supposed to stand in front of an animal, first bend his left arm and then his right arm upwards, and then pull both arms in the air and run towards the cow to scare it.
If you think about it, the tik-tok trend can only have come about out of boredom and thoughtlessness or out of malice.
There’s no other way to explain with common sense how you can think it’s funny to scare other creatures and intentionally cause them unhealthy stress.
Tik Tok has deleted all uploaded videos of the Challenge. But this does not solve the basic problem that we are too negligent with our digital possibilities.
We may ask ourselves why we are not able to use social networks responsibly. We allow ourselves to be seduced by too much nonsense and comparisons with other people that make us stupid, unhappy and sick.
The social media increasingly make us stupid
But why is that? Isn’t everyone free and self-determined enough to take responsibility for themselves and thus also for their digital consumption?
Let’s take a look at how our self-determined way of thinking has been partly trained away from us in recent years. Then we will also come closer to the cause of our careless behaviour.
Today, for example, only a few people take their health into their own hands. This self-determination requires self-determined thinking and acting – and only a few people want to take time for this.
Of course one thing leads to another. It is therefore hardly surprising that most people question their digital consumption little or not at all.
However, since the media and schools do not provide sufficient information on how we can use our digital possibilities responsibly and productively, it is imperative that we take care of this ourselves.
Boredom, carelessness and fear in social networks
Otherwise, we will relinquish control of ourselves to digitalization – and only because of our boredom, carelessness and fear of missing something.
We may realize that the addiction to Tik Tok, Instagram and Co. originates from our basic needs for love, recognition and community.
However, we seem to have forgotten that we cannot satisfy these needs out of lack. Other people are neither digital nor real to make us happy.
Conversely, this means that we can only make ourselves happy – just as we can only accept another person’s love if we love ourselves and are worthy of that love.
We need to be aware of the digital addiction to likes, comments and news. Then we can ask ourselves what we compensate with it in our inner world. Because when we are at peace with ourselves, the desire for attention disappears because we finally give it back to ourselves.
