The Decline of Thought

We don’t think anymore. We consume. We scroll. We parrot. Rarely are our ideas our own. And this isn’t a coincidence, it’s by design.

Smartphones and social media have become a pacifier for many adults (let alone children). Hours vanish into TikTok or Instagram, life traded for cheap dopamine hits. Meanwhile, the number of people who don’t read is at a shockingly high level. The number who don’t read at all? Criminally high.

And this suits the powerful just fine. As Pieter Vanhuysse warns:

“An electorate that has lost the capacity for long form thought will be more tribal, less rational, largely uninterested in facts or even matters of historical record, moved more by vibes than cogent argument and open to fantastical ideas. If that sounds familiar, it may be a sign of how far down the path the West has already travelled.”

Or as The New York Times bluntly put it:

“Oligarchs attempting to shape policy to their advantage will benefit from the fact that few will have the attention span to track or change policies.”

An intelligent, critical population is dangerous. It notices inequality. It questions power. It fights back. But a distracted, dopamine-chasing one? Harmless. Easy to rule.

Which brings us to politics and figures like Nigel Farage. The masters of scapegoat politics. They point you “over there”: at immigrants, at trans people, at the poor. Never at the yacht-owning oligarchs, the billionaires, the real architects of inequality. A person in a dinghy is not your problem. The person in a £1bn yacht is. Immigrants didn't privatise British Gas, water, electric, rail, mail or telecoms. They didn't cut council funding or fill our seas with sewerage so that shareholders can get a bigger sum in their pockets. And they aren't the ones trying to now privatise the NHS, and when that's gone, well, just look at America to see the horrific outcomes of a private healthcare system.

And yet, while we argue among ourselves, trade insults on social media, flick through reels, and forget to read, the powerful get stronger. The cycle tightens.

Smartphones and social media aren’t just neutral tools anymore. They’ve become a cancer, eating away at thought, reason, community. And unless we break the cycle, we’ll keep stumbling further into tribalism, distraction, and decay.

So please, Read more. Think more. Play more. Create more. Stop trading your life for digital dopamine. Imagine what you could do with that time and a little effort. I removed myself from almost all social media platforms at the end of 2024. I have rejoined Instagram but with strict controls (a 20 minute timer then it's off) It has been a revolution in my life. I am easily addicted to things, so a cheap dopamine hit on me was too easy for the algorithms.

The decline of thought is not inevitable. But it will take intention to fight it. And fight it we must.