Frequently, when we think of the addition of a new technology to our daily lives, we think in terms of the amount of frictionless relief from stress that it is going to bring us. However, sometimes it just doesn’t work out that way. A perfect example is Zoom. With the addition of Zoom to everyday life, one of the last limitations of computer usage as a means to do everything at home that one used to do in the office has been removed. Skype, WhatsApp and FaceTime may have been good for one-on-one telecommunication, but they seem to have lost the battle for group telecommunication, for office meetings. With the creation of Zoom, one no longer has to worry about long commutes to and from the office. One can work remotely in the comfort of one’s home and, at the same time, be able to participate in group meetings with other members of one’s company. It sounds great, except that there are many company executives who like the sense of control and community that can be obtained by having office workers spend at least a few days a week within the confines of the office. Furthermore, there is, supposedly, the sense of workers becoming more innovative if they can easily bounce ideas off their coworkers, who are at least part of the time sharing their work space with them.
Certainly, there are some professions that have been done entirely from a posture that would be denominated as quite remote. Like being a composer, for instance, or a novelist. In these cases, the product is generated entirely from within a worker’s mind. Traditional isolating practical professions include being an accountant and being one of certain types of lawyer. But now because of Zoom, and because of Covid, which accelerated the use of Zoom, more and more people are enjoying what for them are the benefits of social isolation in their work.
And it is not just conventional company work that is being done remotely. Many doctor’s appointments are also being done remotely. Many religious services are being done remotely. All sorts of social groups are meeting remotely today. Many college lectures are being done remotely. Pretty soon, one will be able to live practically his entire life from his home.
The real question is does all this frictionless experience from Zoom bring one’s life any relief from stress in the long run. Hardly. The paradox is that the more frictionless one makes one’s life with Zoom, the more one experiences primary experience, external world experience as a form of abrasive uncomfortable stimulation. One loses one’s capacity to properly absorb organic stimulation, as the flat two-dimensional images of people from Zoom meetings act as a mirror for oneself and one subtly changes into a two-dimensional image of oneself, like an avatar, incapable of properly absorbing the immediate three-dimensional organic stimulation from primary experience, external world experience. And this makes it more and more difficult for one to have a meaningful life narrative where he can make, receive and preserve the kind of organic imprints that make his life feel vibrant and that helps him accumulate enough preserved organic imprints to prepare for death through a personal surrogate immortality.
So rather than create a frictionless relief from stress, Zoom leads to the creation of a new kind of stress from frustration as it transforms a person such that he gradually becomes incapable of absorbing the organic stimulation that is the foundation of primary experience, of external world experience.
But in addition to this passive kind of stress that results from the frustration of not being able to absorb the kind of baseline organic stimulation that is presented to a person by primary experience, external world experience, there is the more active kind of stress that a person generates himself either against himself or against others. For the first category, there is everything from mental illness to cutting to committing suicide. The latter is the ultimate way of getting rid of all stress. The second category involves everything from psychological aggression – everything from gaslighting to ghosting – to physical assaults to murder.
So, we see that this search for the frictionless relief from stress within modern technology is not so free from negative consequences as we might wish. Losing one’s capacity for organic grounding, sinking into an experiential vacuum, floating in social isolation and becoming one of the lonely people. This is what is leading to the deterioration of people in modern society in today’s world.
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