BETWEEN TECHNOLOGY AND AI, CAN WE STILL REMEMBER HOW TO BE HUMAN?

While wars are transmitted in real time on TikTok, teenagers watch 15-second videos with gameplay in the background to be able to pay attention. Artificial Intelligence tools write texts, simulate voices and produce images in seconds. In the middle of all this, maybe the most urgent question is not how far will technology go but: do we still know how to be human?  

Attention War 

Our head has become a disputed territory: physical war, information war, war for attention; all competing for the same mental muscle. Technology connects us and at the same, time transforms us into uninterrupted producers of stimulus, like small emotional machines, competing for the human brain. 

In 1971, the economist and psychologist Herbert Simon, created the term Attention Economy, precisely to represent this: human attention is considered a scarce good and the term explains how attention can be capitalized on and treated as a commodity. An example is the competitiveness for our attention between brands and influencers on social networks, and even the platforms themselves want people to be alienated in scrolling the feed with the algorithms that are programmed to show the user only what interests him.

And this is not restricted to the digital environment.The Attention Economy is in all spheres of the logic of the current market: in the disposition of supermarket products to TV commercials and billboards. According to the journalist Andrew Lewis,  “if you are not paying for a product, it is a sign that the product is you”. 

There has been a significant change since 2020, the period in which we went through a global pandemic, that the practice of endless scrolling the feed began to occupy even more time in everyday life. This is what we call Doomscrolling. 

It starts with the desire to stay informed and understand what is happening in the world. After a while, it ends up becoming a necessity to keep scrolling the cell phone screen, jumping from one bad news to another without stopping, and the more bad news is consumed, the worry and fear of losing any information arises. 

According to psychologist and teacher, Antonio Fernando, excessive social media usage becomes a problem when it goes beyond being a communication tool and starts to shape people’s thoughts and emotions. He points to behaviors such as the constant need to give likes and repeatedly check for new information. 

Brainrot

This excessive consumption of online content that deteriorates the mental or intellectual state is called Brainrot. The term began as a joke but it reveals the real thing: the difficulty in focus, fragmented consumption, excess of stimulation and cognitive exhaustion. 

All of this happens because our brain releases dopamine, a neurotransmitter related to motivation and pleasure, and, as the algorithm is always sending short and continuous videos of your interest, the brain becomes addicted to this constant search for quick pleasure.

Antonio notes that multitasking, such as looking at a computer, listening to music, and writing simultaneously was once considered a valuable skill. However, this practice has consequences, as it can fragment concentration and reflection. He also highlights other effects, including sleep disturbances and irritability, which can have a significant impact on young people’s lives. According to him, the brain absorbs these sensations and visual stimuli, activating neural circuits and neurotransmitters in response.

This hyperstimulation impairs the ability to pay attention, which, as a domino effect, compromises memory. In the end, there is mental exhaustion, difficulty in making decisions and procrastination, making us act just like machines guided by technology. Some examples are the memes created by Artificial Intelligence, such as fruit novels, or the videos divided into multiple screens, in a try to catch the viewer’s weak attention. 

But maybe Brainrot is less of a digital disease and more the emotional language of a tired generation. Phrases like “my attention lasts 5 seconds” or “my brain melted” are said mainly by teenagers as a disguised joke. The truth is that this generation lives 24 hours exposed to excessive information, always connected on social networks and under constant anxiety without knowing how to stop, or even without knowing how much this affects them. 

Antonio also highlights that “the excessive and continuous consumption of short-form videos, notifications, and platforms such as TikTok can alter attention patterns and even the brain’s reward system. These digital platforms operate through mechanisms designed to provide immediate stimulation, which encourages the fragmentation of attention. In a certain way, this can lead individuals to ignore or struggle to tolerate slower processes, such as in-depth reading and critical reflection.”

The use of constant AI is a good example. Letting a machine think for you is the biggest symbol of how we are giving up on acting like humans, and just copying and pasting answers made by machines. 

And when Artificial Intelligence writes texts, creates images, imitates voices and talks like people, what is exclusively human left over? Are we starting to behave like algorithms? 

“We were born without the technology that now permeates our lives, but we can build something beyond it”, says Antonio. We need to establish limits for the use and control of technology. And this means creating screen-free moments and recovering practices that allow us to talk, read, listen, and connect with one another, explains the psychologist .

We consume without processing the information, we measure the importance through numbers of likes and views, and we live in a continuous digital flow. We have never been so connected, but many experiences seem increasingly superficial or too accelerated to be truly felt. The brain was not made to process this emotional volume without collapsing a little.

Maybe being human today is not escaping from technology, after all we are moved by it, whether at work, at school, in language, in relationships. But resisting the speed in which technology tries to transform us into machines.  

According to Antonio, what preserves our humanity is its very essence: humanization, meaning, freedom, life, relationships, affection, and empathy. In other words, our existence is fulfilling when based on genuine experiences, attentive listening, art, and solidarity. And values must prevail in the face of technological transformation. 

The ability to step away from technology, appreciate beauty, contemplate life and nature, and process experiences from that perspective is profoundly healthy, profoundly human, and deeply necessary. “Preserving our humanity means recovering a sense of purpose and, in this society of spectacle, reducing superficiality and pragmatism it also means giving time the time it needs, allowing things to happen naturally, and respecting both our own pace and the pace of others.”, says the psychologist. 

We cannot be reduced to clicks, data and numbers. When everything requires speed, immediate responses, what happens to experiences that need slowness? 

Thinking is slow, feeling deeply is slow, even really loving someone is slow, and paying attention also takes time. 

So talk to someone without looking at your phone, read something until the end, contemplate nature. In a world where everything needs to be fast and viral, the best we can do is breathe and reboot.

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The article above was edited and translated by Ana Beatriz Carvalho Sapata.

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• AI
• brainrot
• college
• doomscrolling
• internet
• mental health
• modernworld
• screentime
• thecnology
• wars