Addictive internet landscapes — video, games, pornography, e-stores, social media, etc. — affect our perception of color, music, relationships, and everything. It seems ludicrous to let someone else, some unknown person (with, no doubt, greedy motives), choose the qualia we see.
Imagine a child who begins to buy stuff on line. Just looking and wishing can become a Big Dopamine rush. Consuming can be so easy that it changes his (or her) landscape. Everything he sees becomes something he can buy, and he doesn’t look for anything else. (Researching on YouTube — ha! ha! — has been known to happen. watching reviews by savvy older “kids,” sometimes in their 30’s and 40’s.) For a kid like this — and they aren’t rare — everything becomes buyable, and what is not buyable, he/she doesn’t see. Meanwhile, programs track him and lead him him on and on…
Imagine how hard it is to leave this Big Dopamine, addictive landscape. And he/she hasn’t even grown up yet. What’s in store as a future grown-up trying to buy relationships, careers, and happiness?