The Collapse of Self-Worth in the Digital Age
thewalrus.ca
The Collapse of Self-Worth in the Digital Age
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Re: The Collapse of Self-Worth in the Digital Age
#2A few things that inspire me in the Digital age
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Citizenship_in_a_Republic
Re: The Collapse of Self-Worth in the Digital Age
#310$ says AI was used to partially write this.
Re: The Collapse of Self-Worth in the Digital Age
#4The other day I was talking to a psychologist about [difficult personal situation which I am unable to discuss publicly] and she said to me “This must be really damaging to your self-worth.” And, my honest internal reaction to her statement (although I didn’t say it out loud to her) was “Self-worth, what is that?” Because I’m not sure if I have any? I don’t mean that in the negative sense that I think I am worthless or anything. It is just that in my mind “self” and “worth” are concepts which do not intersect. Maybe that’s an autistic trait.
Re: The Collapse of Self-Worth in the Digital Age
#5The other day I was talking to a psychologist about [difficult personal situation which I am unable to discuss publicly] and she said to me “This must be really damaging to your self-worth.” And, my honest internal reaction to her statement (although I didn’t say it out loud to her) was “Self-worth, what is that?” Because I’m not sure if I have any? I don’t mean that in the negative sense that I think I am worthless…
I think the idea is that "people" tend to be attracted towards things that they think will increase their self worth and avoid things that decreases their self worth.
Though from a stoic perspective the only thing that can affect your self worth are your own actions, not external events which you have no control over.
Re: The Collapse of Self-Worth in the Digital Age
#6The other day I was talking to a psychologist about [difficult personal situation which I am unable to discuss publicly] and she said to me “This must be really damaging to your self-worth.” And, my honest internal reaction to her statement (although I didn’t say it out loud to her) was “Self-worth, what is that?” Because I’m not sure if I have any? I don’t mean that in the negative sense that I think I am worthless…
One way of looking at it is how you assess yourself in things and take pride in or feel regret about that.
For example, you wrote this comment. It is a well written comment. You likely have some belief roughly along the lines of "I write reasonably well". You have probably received feedback along those lines throughout life, and that reinforces that belief. This is perhaps mildly pleasing or at least seems correct.
Now suppose instead that whenever you wrote things people replied:
"Huh?"
"What? This makes no sense"
"Good god what led you to think that? That's so stupid!"
And so on. And you even reread some of your own writings that you thought were good and they seem to strike you as not good. The view that your writing is not good comes to strike you as correct. You aim to improve but continue to receive negative feedback. The view that you are genuinely not good at writing seems to be correct and you come to believe you cannot ever be good at writing.
That would be negative self worth. Does this example line up at all with any internal thought processed you have? Are you pleased by praise or hurt by criticism? Even to the level of thinking the judgements are correct or incorrect.
(To be clear you are good at writing)
Re: The Collapse of Self-Worth in the Digital Age
#7I have a career, nice coworkers, have few hobbys and have good friends. The only thing fucking up my selfworth honestly is the dating landscape with all this social media artificial bullshit were nobody wants to commit anymore and everything is fake. It is not worth engaging in it currently and you rather focus on yourself and education/career more it gets you further. If by chance you meet a unicorn take the chance but else just don't bother it only fucks with your selfworth.
Re: The Collapse of Self-Worth in the Digital Age
#8Call me unempathetic, but how would this be any different in a non-digital era? You’ll still have a market (albeit significantly smaller, IE: lets say a small locale or village). But you could have easily said the same thing in a non-digital age, with just more rudimentary metrics and a market that is a community that either values or doesn’t value your work. Much like the proverbial school playground (which could also be analogous to a market).
It’s like the author is blaming technology for illustrating the truth in a highly efficient way.
She may as well have complained about the printing press being problematic.
Re: The Collapse of Self-Worth in the Digital Age
#9What I love about these types of articles is it reminds me how fortunate I am to live in the wealthiest and most comfortable time Earth has ever seen and it’s very likely to get better. These types of existential panics aren’t possible when you’re sustenance farming as nearly every human that has existed was forced by nature to endure until a painful, horrifying death from disease or illness perished them.
In order to access our hyper modern comfort you’re only asked to contribute something frivolous like clocking in at a record store or writing something that will entertain some people as they enjoy their morning tea. That we increasingly measure contribution, although terrifying in many ways, is also a more just way to compensate contributions. This article seems to yearn for a more political system that would allow her to indulge her creative passion at her whimsy without accountability to the reality of if anyone wants those outputs. A very self serving system indeed.
But again what great fortune to be alive today in a wealthy western political zone. To be able to entertain this fantasy.
Re: The Collapse of Self-Worth in the Digital Age
#10The other day I was talking to a psychologist about [difficult personal situation which I am unable to discuss publicly] and she said to me “This must be really damaging to your self-worth.” And, my honest internal reaction to her statement (although I didn’t say it out loud to her) was “Self-worth, what is that?” Because I’m not sure if I have any? I don’t mean that in the negative sense that I think I am worthless…
That sounds like a question for your psychologist, not randoms on the internet.
To interact a little more with the substance. I don't think I understand what you're saying. You're clearly using the concept when you write
>I don’t mean that in the negative sense that I think I am worthless or anything
That's what negative self-worth is. You seem to understand it fine. self-worth is your subjective assessment of how much you are worth. The self's assessment of the "worth" (whatever you choose to load into that term) of the self.