Dangers of systemic complexity
Is hegemonic complexity enabling or hindering?
Every day new technologies are invented. New regulations, standards, and solutions are created every hour, from lightbulb fittings to cryptocurrencies and ecological reports to COVID19. The discoveries we make through science add new concepts, new truths, and sometimes entire new dimensions to our reality. The world we live in and the reality around us are increasingly complex and, hence, increasingly hard to fathom.
The prisms through which we see this intricate world are evolving from posts on Facebook, photos on Instagram to videos on Tik-Tok. News is now an integral part of social media and has adopted its standards. I use social media daily, and it can be valuable and entertaining. But, as I see it, social media is not just a youth phenomenon or a "teenage male gamer" issue. Instead, all age groups and genders use social media and the internet (women spend slightly more time than men), meaning that everyone sees these feeds of posts, photos, or videos daily.
On top of all these prisms, facts, concepts, and beliefs, our daily lives are also defined by an increasing number of moral and ethical injunctions, legal and social constraints, and conformism-based trends. Even how we spend our money is now governed by ethical views ranging over veganism, animal welfare, organic food, and locally produced products. The problems around climate change and political issues lead to many swords of Damocles hanging over our heads. These issues, combined with social justice trends that redefine how society should include minorities, what is now politically correct or socially acceptable, are adding an exponential number of variables and constraints that seemingly need to be taken into account daily.
What impact does this undeniably complex world have on us? To whom is this hegemonic complexity beneficial?
Encouraged laziness
Our brain seeks out stimuli it desperately needs, but it only has limited energy and bandwidth. Our brain is also predisposed to being lazy, and although it is addicted to stimuli, our brain does all it can to avoid analyzing the incoming information. After spending most of his life studying how we make decisions and how our brain works, Daniel Kahneman explains in "Thinking, Fast and Slow" how we think in two very different ways. He calls them "System 1" and "System 2," where "System 1" takes care of fast, automatic, and frequent tasks and where "System 2" much slower, manages logical, calculating, and conscious tasks. "System 1" and "System 2" work in parallel, sometimes handing off tasks to the other. When tasks can be automatic, "System 2" hands them off to "System 1," which ends up doing tasks like:
- Driving a car on an empty road
- Evaluating distances between objects
- Solving 2+2
- Knowing someone's mood just by seeing their face
When tasks get too complicated for "System 1," it lets "System 2" take care of it; functions like:
- Parking a car in a small spot
- Using math to work out the distance between two objects
- Solving 29 x 43
- Working out why someone is in a specific mood
"System 1" uses empirical knowledge, instinct, and heuristics to be fast and efficient, but this speed means that "System 1" can be prone to error and biases. Most of the time, they are not significant, and in the situations where they are, "System 1" is usually moderated by "System 2". Here is where it gets delicate. "System 2" uses quite a lot more energy than its efficient counterpart; hence it is very sparing in how it uses it. In other words, "System 2" is lazy, and whatever it decides not to do, "System 1" ends having to do it as well as it can.
We all know a friend or family member who, at one point because of exhaustion or hunger, forgets to "moderate" their behavior. Unfortunately, that rudeness or bad behavior is often down to "System 2" giving up on moderation and letting biased and crude "System 1" deal with things independently. So not only can "System 2" use energy and tire us, but it can also be limited when we are physically tired. This is important because "System 2" is the one managing complexity. The more complex our lives, the more "System 2" works and the quicker we are tired and handing off tasks to "System 1"; a system riddled with biases, stereotypes, and errors. The ever-growing complexity and resulting stimuli make us more dependant on "System 1".
Anxiety and emotional exhaustion
Not only has science become harder to keep up with, but for many, their day-to-day life is hard to follow emotionally. Work has a high emotional cost in people's life. Burnouts on the job are more and more frequent and widespread. Gallup's study concluded that seven in ten millennials are experiencing some level of burnout at work and that three of them are very often or always in a state of burnout.
Depression and anxiety are also an issue. One person out of five suffers from an anxiety disorder that affects 25.1% of children between 13 and 18 years old. Studies show that children with anxiety disorders lead to lower school performance and a higher rate of substance abuse (you can find more stats and information here). Anxiety is very present in our lives, but it is also rising. The introduction below from the paper "Trends in anxiety among adults in the United States, 2008–2018: Rapid increases among young adults" paints the picture.
Exposure to environmental risk factors for anxiety (e.g., financial strain) are on the rise (American Psychological Association, 2019). The prevalence of depression, suicide and substance use disorders have increased in the United States (US) in recent years (Case and Deaton, 2015; Weinberger et al., 2018).
I think complexity has a significant role in this. I think we have all noticed a trend in people yearning for simpler lives, motivated by wellbeing. The fascinating paper "Minimalism as a sustainable lifestyle: Its behavioral representations and contributions to emotional wellbeing" by Jiyun Kang, Cosette M. Joyner Martinez, and Catherine Johnson dives into the emotional impacts of seeking simplicity and minimalism.
The last emotional strain is the media and social media itself. This paper shows how interlinked emotions and media are. The easy access, scrollable feeds, and different platforms mean that we are literally bombarded emotionally. It is so easy to watch 2 or 3 Netflix episodes even after spending emotionally tiring hours on social media where emotional callouts try to catch our attention; we reinvest our emotions in those storylines and cliffhangers.
Conclusion
The intellectually exhausting, emotionally tiring, and unavoidable complexity takes its toll. It means we are more dependant on "System 1", hence more biased, error-prone and raw. The filters and moderation "System 2" would generally provide us no longer protect us from the emotional roller coasters of our everyday "complexity browsing". We, in consequence, become less capable, less empowered, and less resilient.
How are we supposed, in these conditions, to tackle the biggest challenges of all time? How can we solve the ecological issues, social injustices, and other major problems when we are effectively "sub-ourselves"?
