If a remote Amazon tribe got addicted to social media in just nine months, none of us stand a chance
The internet is both a wonderful thing and a horrible thing — a lesson that a remote Amazon tribe is now learning the hard way.
After getting access to the internet just nine months ago, the Marubo tribe of Brazil is already suffering from social media and porn addiction.
Tech is so pervasive that it’s easy to forget a time before we all got hooked on our devices. That’s what makes it so depressing to see the same fate unfolding in real time among the Marubo.
The small tribe of 2,000 was able to plug in to the internet thanks to Elon Musk’s Starlink technology, which can provide internet access virtually anywhere via satellite technology.
The tribe was suddenly able to access a wealth of information and gain communication with the outside world — on the face of it, a great thing.
Previously, these people weren’t even able to make emergency calls. “It’s already saved lives,” a member of the tribe said.
But the Marubo say the downsides have been big.
“When it arrived, everyone was happy,” a 73-year-old tribe member told the New York Times. “But now, things have gotten worse. Young people have gotten lazy because of the internet, they’re learning the ways of the white people.”
Most of the world is so used to seeing kids glued to their devices, picking video games and social media over playing outside or hanging out with friends.
For the Marubo, that lifestyle was completely unimaginable before Starlink. So was the paradox that, as we become more connected online, we become less connected to one another in the real world.
“Some young people maintain our traditions,” a Marubo said. “Others just want to spend the whole afternoon on their phones.”
Suddenly, their boys are hooked on porn, swapping it in group chats and displaying “aggressive sexual behavior” towards girls.
It’s an especially jarring development considering the Marubo are a conservative tribe in which even kissing in public is frowned upon.
This dissent into disorder and addiction is the exact same fate that’s played out in the larger world over the past decade, as social media and smartphones have completely redefined daily life and, especially, upended childhood.
Here in the US, we know the typical preteen uses their screens for 4 to 6 hours every single day. Drifting off into the virtual world displaces healthy activities in the real world, from exercise to spending time with friends and family.
“Everyone is so connected that sometimes they don’t even talk to their own family,” another elder observed.
And, for the tribe, it’s not just a matter of laziness — tech addiction could be a matter of life or death.
“In the village, if you don’t hunt, fish, and plant, you don’t eat,” one member said.
The whole spectacle is depressing.
Living unplugged is a bygone memory. In the age of technology, nobody is safe. It’s taken over the lives of even the most remote of tribes.
The Marubo tribe’s predicament is a reflection on human nature, and it should make us reflect upon our own descent into a tech-dominated existence.
We should be protecting ourselves — and, especially, younger generations — from falling into the digital vortex. New York state’s push to restrict kids from social media is a good start.
The time to act is now, for the sake of our culture.
We don’t think twice when we walk down the street or hop on the subway among a sea of strangers with their faces buried in their smartphone screens.
Pulling out a phone over dinner is hardly a faux pas anymore. It’s common to be broken up with over a text message.
It’s now more normal to see a group of kids sitting together and looking at their devices than it is to see them outside tossing a football.
It’s been a gradual descent into abject addiction for most of us, but to see it play out at a rabid speed should remind us all of this truth: an online existence is an inhuman existence.