OVERFED

I just shouldn’t look,

I know it’s all shit

But my midbrain is cooked

From these dopamine hits

Overstimulated!

Willingly inundated

By streams I should ignore

But instead? I scarf down more

Like a thirsty, data-starved ‘vore

How my need is hyper inflated

Attention span stunted, my hunger for stims will never be sated

My eyes swallow flashing lights

My ears follow quick sound bites

And I can no longer make a true meal

Of those forgotten things that used to be real

I just tried touching grass, what a fucking bore!

This phone is an endless buffet of so much more

Of grasses, of asses, of memes, news, and whores

Of clips and of quips, of joys, blues, and wars

Yes the feed is full

Of bytes with such pull

I just can’t look away

Cuz the unfiltered stuff’s gone so gray

I feel the digital hooks in my skull

And the real world is now dull

I’m locked in a car and it’s rolling downhill

My ADD is dragging me far from whatever I’d will

Right past the drop in the glowing blue road

So now down, down, down is the only way to go

As the wheels gather speed,

My eyes are burned raw by all that I see

And what can I do besides stare

As images flash through my window’s cold glare:

I’m alternately comforted and mortified

By the images pulsing by on each side

A bright-pixeled parade of dream girls on the left side and doom scrolls on the right

What a way to waste my sight every night

They say we are what we eat

But what will we be

When we scroll and drone through an infinite feed?

I think one day soon, psychologists will find

There’s a whole new kind of broken-down mind

The dsm six is gonna have to discuss

This tech-driven depression that turns full lives to dust

Cause psych pros are great at “discovering” obvious things

And in this case the public is glued to blue screens

Placated,

Addicted

And numb

Our overfed brains are getting bloated and dumb

For nobody believes human brains were ever up to the task

Of swimming through this flood, that’s an awfully big ask

And for now it seems the chaos will only grow

So let’s hear the researchers say what we already know:

It really never was, nor could it have ever been healthy

To scroll through warcrimes and then lulz and then some rando’s hot selfie

***

Authors note:

When it comes to social media and screens I really think we’re gonna see the same kind of hindsight realizations that we finally had about cigarettes and lead paint.

People are gonna have novel mental illnesses, cognitive decline, and emotional paralysis and social disconnect. And later we’re gonna blame the drug everybody carries in their pockets: unlimited data.