Can reading garbage on 4chan all day long cause brain damage?

>>7757397
wotu do you men damage braim''?

>>7757397
Don't know about other boards but /sci/ is carcinogenic

>>7757397
Reading /b/ every day makes you smarter believe it or not. My IQ skyrocket from 138 to 174

>>7757492
>/b/
you mean /soc/ 2.0

>>7757497
/b/ came before /soc/.

>>7757502
yeah but i heard it wasn't shitty like /soc/ way back when

>>7757509
Not after 2006.

>>7757397
Not "damage" so much as maladaptation.

>>7757537
What do you mean

>>7757538
When you're submerged in a culture, or an environment, you're also subject to its feedback loops. They will dictate how you respond, what you see as viable, what you have to process and how that information is responded to. You are your environment as much as you are yourself.

If you're constantly given shit to evaluate, put into perspective, pull apart and calculate out, then your mind will begin to be good at it. If you just mindless throw everything of a certain sort under an umbrella of "retarded" then you might incur error later. The whole things changes your expectations and the way you frame incoming stimuli.

Sooner or later, you will be overwhelmed. Even if you don't take on dumb ways of thinking, acting, or beliefs, spending too much time around, and more specifically, attempting to meaningfully engage or interact with idiots will make you one yourself. It changes how you think.

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>>7757397

the damage is instant and retroactive

sorry u had to find out this way bud

>>7757562
>retroactive
Lol.

>>7757397
Dunno. I was already brain damaged when I came here for the first time.

>>7757397
Yes. But its significantly better than most western media

>>7757778
What sort?

Can confirm. Ever since browsing 4chan I have become literally autistic.

>>7757397
Being on 4chan for extended periods of time can influence the way you interact with normies. Unfortunately normies are the majority of the population so you're probably harming yourself in the long run by being here. Reddit is a healthier site for this reason.

>>7757397
Some boards. For instance, you become retarded after browsing /x/ and /pol/ for more than a week

>>7757881
>reddit
>normal
They're insufferably pretentious. 4chan is probably closer to normal people speak when you consider that the majority of people aren't insulated middle class college kids.

>>7757397
Reading anything improves brain function.

On 4chan you must not only read you must interact with what you are reading on a social level. Thus, it should have more impact on your mental function than merely reading a book.

However, your moral, ethic, and social standings my be subject to change in ways your old-self would have seen as degrading and seen your current-self as an insufferable autistic cunt and/or intellectual juggernaut.

>>7757881
Are you implying 4channers aren't normies?

>>7758218
Go outside and call your neighbor a nigger, report back with your findings.

>>7758229
Poor argument. Everyone on the internet acts like an asshole.

>>7757397
I think it's the other way around,

Reading shit on 4chan doesn't cause brain damage, Having brain damage causes reading shit on 4chan

4chan is a website full of extremely insecure people full of bitterness, cynicism and hate.

It's a toxic infectious attitude and is very bad for your mental health.

>>7757940
>Reading anything improves brain function.
This is only true if it's challenging.

>>7758312
The quality of communication on 4chan is still uniquely low and excessively abrasive. Anonymous posting and the relatively fast pace means there's no reason to post anything intelligent or well thought out. Plus the userbase is full of dysfunctional teens and crazy people.

>>7758834
And autists. Lots and lots of autists.

>>7758834
then why the fuck do we still come here? we all agree this place is garbage yet we never leave.

>>7758842
compulsive need for distraction, personally

>>7757559
This. I think visiting 4chan regularly is a bad habit just like smoking. The problem is that we all are fucking with our minds, not with our body. We watch all these pictures from which 99% are pure garbage. But some of it will stick in your head nonetheless. You will start to think about it, when you are bored or liieng in bed. You will waste your attention on irrelevant topics, that are malicious for society in general if we are talking of /b/. ...
...
:::
Why is it so hard to stop?

>>7758842
I don't have a social life, and unfortunately going too long without actual communication and mental engagement with other people, no matter how garbage quality, causes my mind to begin to atrophy and shut down. It takes a few months, but will typically happen eventually. It requires novelty and the perception of interaction. I could simulate a two way conversation internally, quite well, but that drives you a bit crazy eventually. I know because I tried it.

This never used to happen to me, but it appears to some degree hardwired. The problem is also that I don't really care enough to truly fix it, because that would require very base and fundamental change. You get sick of changing over and over. And once you've taken the cover some of the way off the black box, and did a lot of screwing about with your mind in an architectural sense, you eventually might decide to put the cover back on and leave it there. Leave the mind to do the work on its own. Fuck it, I just don't care.

The reason I come back though is for the porn boards, or because I have some panic attack and need to rant about it on /adv/ to try to calm down. A panic attack is a failure. Then the infection branches out from there and you find yourself visiting other boards more often. Etc.

>>7758847
Shit. You re right.

>>7758868
It's easy to get addicted to gambling if you win once in a while. You know the payoff is out there somewhere. Just press F5 again; this could be your lucky day.

>>7758834
Well nigger if you don't like it then fucking leave. I wonder how many times you've posted something very similar to that comment.

>>7757881
>Reddit is a healthier site for this reason.

Why?

>>7758880
Reddit's been positively mentioned in the media and pop culture many times, which matters a great deal to the general public, while 4chan's mentions are always negative. When you mention Reddit and act with a Reddit personality there won't nearly be as much stigma because it's more widely accepted. Sure, Facebook, Twitter, and the like are even better to be on if you're concerned about how you'll act in the real world but still want to use social media. I mentioned Reddit simply because it's 4chan's "rival".

>>7758913
Reddit is a better community all around anyway.

>>7758878
He's complaining like a gambler who thinks the machine is broken. We all know who is really broken.

>>7758913
Do you give a fuck about media?

I know that there are persons pretty fucked in this website but you can get a nice conversation in other boards. The same shit that Reddit.

>>7758926
I don't, that's probably why I'm here, or maybe me being here made me not give a shit. The point I'm trying to make is how you'll interact with the majority of people in real life by being here. You're going to have a harder time socializing, connecting, and relating with the vast majority of people simply because of how this site and its mannerisms are perceived. If you use this site casually as a light way to pass time occasionally and visit only the right boards then sure you'll be just fine. Most people come for boards like /b/ and /v/ and then roam to other boards when they're bored though. I have pretty much no experience with Reddit compared to this site though so maybe I'm wrong.

>>7758875
Unfortunately this describes me quite well. I'd never framed it like gambling.

I just f5 over and over, waiting for something interesting. Waiting for something to respond to. Waiting for a (You). Anything for that spike of stimulation and gratification. Likewise I'll write out long and highly substantial posts, just for the tiny chance of having valuable or meaningful feedback. I'll also construct short and inflammatory posts that are also substantial in their implications, just so I can get draw people in and potentially fight with them about it.

Terrible. And then I go to sleep, but the next day, I know I've posted in certain threads. So I'll just check them when I can. To know what happened. To see how the whole scheme of things panned out. I won't post in any other threads, then 'll have no reason to come back.... right? Right? ....Right?

>>7758989
On the whole it's kind of a net loss. You get out of it less than what you put in.

I kind of used to do the same thing (this was at the height of my anxiety and depression problems, so maybe that's a factor for you as well), but anymore I don't really care that much. I can walk away from it without checking for replies or thinking about it ever again. Generally the urge to browse is a clue that I don't really have my shit together at the moment.

>>7758829
Incorrect. The act of translating words into thought are itself the reason for better cognition. The level of better cognition can go up with more challenge, but just reading will give you results.