How to Stay Human When the Internet Wants to Own Your Mind

A Case for Conscious Consumption and the Birth of Self-Media

What if the most valuable thing you ever gave away was your attention–and you did it willingly, day after day?

We don’t often ask where our minds go when we scroll. We ask what we’re watching, who we’re following, what’s trending…but not: Who is watching the scroll? Or: Where did my awareness just drift to? And: Am I really in control here? The answers to those questions may hold the key to understanding what it means to be human in a posthuman world.

I found a clip of Robert Greene’s analogy on the art of being in control in the technological arena of our devices. Check it out here:

https://www.tiktok.com/t/ZTjSMdhKT/

What Is the Posthuman Age?

So, what is the posthuman age, and are we living in it? We live in a time where the boundaries between human and machine, self and system, consciousness and code are dissolving. Posthumanism is a philosophical lens that questions the centrality of the human being. It asks: what happens when we are no longer the dominant force? When artificial intelligence, automation, and networks take the reins? When humans are no longer the primary focus of our world.

But the more pressing question I want to pose is: What happens to our soul in the process?

Consciousness, Fractured

Consciousness is not just awareness. It is the capacity to witness your own experience–an inner presence that can notice thought, feeling, and sensation without becoming consumed by them. But when we scroll–endlessly, reactively, we hand over the reins of that awareness.

According to a study by the University of Washington, the average person touches their phone over 2,617 times a day. In those moments, your conscious mind is pulled from the embodied now into an external feed of stimuli curated not for depth, but for engagement.

So, where does your mind go when you doomscroll?

It splinters. It dissociates. It feeds on shadows.

Your phone is a mirror for your shadows. Here are a few below:

The Shadows of Technology

• The illusion of connection, while deepening isolation
  

• Constant comparison that fuels inadequacy
  

• The addiction to outrage and the reward of dopamine
  

• The slow erosion of attention span
  

• The rise of identity performance over authenticity
  

• The numbing of the body as the mind lives online
  

• The self-curated for the algorithm, not the soul

Reflect here: What shadow aspects of yourself are currently being projected onto your feed? How can you take more conscious control over the digital environments you inhabit?

In The Book of Shadow Work, I wrote:

“Technology and online spaces are like the shared parks of our society’s consciousness. Each time we engage, we leave something behind– our thoughts, our words, our energy. And just as with littering, what we leave behind can either contribute to the cleanliness and clarity of these shared spaces or clutter them with negativity and projected shadows.”

This is the tension I explore in Chapter 7, The Technological Shadow. Are we shaping ourselves to the rhythm of something ancient and soulful– or are we simply mirroring what machines feed back to us? (You can read that chapter in The Book of Shadow Work here.)

The Fragmentation of the Self

Psychologist Glen Slater writes in Jung vs. the Borg that one of the central risks of technological immersion is the disconnect between mind and body. Jung taught that wholeness is found not in perfection but in integration: the conscious embrace of all our parts.

But how can we integrate when we are always elsewhere? When we spend most of our time floating around in a flux and void of never-ending information?

“We may see much and think a great deal, but insight into the way we see and how we think is harder to come by. Self-knowledge is lost…Absent the sense of an inner life, many are becoming lost in a sea of virtuality, the manipulative exploitative possibilities of which suggest a new era of mind control.” – Glen Slater, Jung vs. Borg

Every alert, every ping, every dopamine hit fragments us further. We lose the thread of who we are.

Finding the Human in You in a Posthuman Age

There is hope. We are not powerless. In fact, the same tools that fracture us can be reclaimed as instruments of integration, but only if we use them with intention. What could that look like?

The vision of this possibility we have to offer is the vision behind the Zenfulnote App: not just another wellness or meditation app, but a space for digital mindfulness. A tool for remembering your Self. A place to check in, track your inner landscape, and reconnect with what’s real and human within you. We’re introducing a new concept: “Self-media”, one that replaces performative sharing with conscious expression. A space where you aren’t unconsciously tracking how others see you, but you are consciously tracking and cultivating how you see you.

Zenfulnote is our answer to the chaos of unconscious consumption.

Because what you consume... eventually consumes you. So why not let your evolution be inward, into the deepest, most honest version of you?

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Coming Up Next

In our next Substack post, Dr. Connie and I will explore spiritual shadow work and the holy longing. Within each of us is a spiritual yearning that prompts us to unite with something greater than ourselves, to awaken to our unity with all of life. Before we explore this topic here, take some time to ponder: what do you yearn for? God? Transcendence? Home? Love? Belonging?

And mark your calendar! The Zenfulnote App relaunches May 12th, introducing our Self-media platform. We are so excited for you to tap in. The human in you is waiting.