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my text𓂃🖊on the notion of online schizophrenia ⤵    
https://substack.com/@orczi96/note/p-153120881?utm_source=notes-share-action&r=2ibb6d     

I’ve been online for more than half of my life. What I witness was the slowly developing global psychosis or in different words–internet schizophrenia. I can’t help but think of cyberspace as embodying such phenomena. Psychosis is a disconnection from reality—a state where people may hold false beliefs or experience things that aren’t real. Psychosis isn’t a condition itself but a term used to describe a collection of symptoms. Similarly, the internet isn’t necessarily a symptom, but it is a shared space that fosters collective experiences of detachment from reality.

Intensity1 becomes both the condition of possibility and the limit of what is sensible. As the intensity and fragmentation of internet micro-realities grow seemingly infinite, we are increasingly exposed to sensory detachment. This is caused by living in a state of “intensive order”—a chaotic yet hyper-connected existence. This is not a clinical argument about schizophrenia but rather an ethical-philosophical and socio-political perspective.The internet is a realm of the unknown, the intangible, the immaterial. To exist in such a space is to detach oneself from the material world. We create multiple personalities with one consciousness, living parallel lives while confined to a single body. Computer fibers have become extensions of our nervous system. Memories, dislocated and fragmented, disrupt our sense of self. At the same time, the internet expands the possibilities of knowledge gathering—although through selective access, mediated by passwords and filters.

How often do people seem confused, disoriented, detached? How often do you feel this way? I do, quite often. I feel like my brain is displaced, like I’m losing my sense of ground. Some people say the internet is indescribable. Perhaps this is because it is performable. Post-truth performative actions grow out of individual mythologies, where micro- and viral-trends connect groups of people in a web of rapidly changing, shared delusions.

From the shallow engagement of easily digestible content—like cooking reels or harmless, funny, and trendy videos—we are lured into deeper, more complex layers of media consumption. These levels go beyond simple amusement and into the aestheticization of attention2. Internet aesthetics and digital folklore, steeped in an obsession with the recent cultural past, transport our emotions into an insensible space. By playing with a sense of familiarity, they simultaneously comfort and alienate, pulling us toward dissociation. These carefully constructed edits—centered on nostalgia, anemoia (the longing for a time one has never experienced), and confusion—create an uncanny mix of recognition and estrangement. The result is often a profound sense of dissociation, derealization, or depersonalization, where reality feels distant, unreal, or fragmented. We are invited, even encouraged, to project ourselves onto these aesthetics, blurring the lines between our true selves and the personas shaped by these visual movements. In a world where meaning is constructed through pixels, we choose one to base our personality on.

The word “aesthetic” historically has been used as a noun, referring to a branch of philosophy concerned with the study or appreciation of beauty. However, online, the word is mostly used as an adjective to describe things like images or spaces. But why is the term “aesthetic” even used in the first place? It’s clearly meant to be a stand-in for “beautiful” or “pretty.” However, something that is “aesthetic” feels different from something that is merely beautiful. On the internet, the term “aesthetic” is inextricably liked to the concept of a vibe. An aesthetic is not just something you can see, it is above all something you have to feel: it is a search for an atmosphere, a state of mind, or even a way to express your vision of the world.3One of the most common types of aesthetics is the “core aesthetic,” which includes categories like Dreamcore and Weirdcore. These are just a few of the most popular ones—there are plenty of other “core” aesthetics that take everyday objects, add “core” to the end, and create a whole new aesthetic. But is that all an internet aesthetic is? I don’t think so. What an aesthetic truly is, in my opinion, is something that suspends reality. It could be a regular photo with filters that make it feel otherworldly, or something completely bizarre and out of context. In a way, aesthetics are an escape from reality. Derealization and depersonalization are central themes in certain internet aesthetics. These can also make these aesthetics relatable to an audience experiencing these conditions—whether due to trauma or overexposure to the internet. These aesthetics externalize feelings experienced internally, providing a visual language for the fragmented, disoriented state of my mind.

Detachment leads us inward. Existence is increasingly based on vibes, magical thinking, and an esoteric, spiritually infused relationship with the digital. For many, the only way to feel free is to escape. Constant vibe creation becomes the only way to feel something. The aestheticization of attention and vibes exemplifies what I call “internet schizophrenia” and global psychosis. Shared delusions, constructed to solidify feelings of detachment, are designed to help us exit reality. These experiences aren’t limited to aesthetics but extend to the broader condition of information itself. This immersion exists in a broader environment already clouded by alternative facts, misinformation, and disinformation, where competing narratives battle for legitimacy. Truth itself has become slippery, a “truth decay” that spreads freely across the internet. As algorithms feed us highly personalized content and expose us selectively to perspectives that reinforce what we already believe, the radicalization of attention accelerates. This process doesn’t just separate individuals from one another; it also fractures their connection to themselves. Identity is increasingly formed through fragmented encounters with curated realities—both online and in real life—where we relate to images and symbols more than to tangible experiences. In this hyper-mediated world, we create inner universes based on a shared, unspoken belief: that an image inherently conveys meaning–a truth constructed from pixels, truths we chose to believe.

Cyberpsychosis can be described as a psychological state or phenomenon where prolonged immersionn in the digital realm disrupts ones perception of reality, leading to cognitive, emotional, and existential fragmentation. A profound disconnection between the physical and digital self. The boundaries between what is “real” and what is “virtual” blur. Users may create multiple online personas, dividing their consciousness between different platforms and communities, leading to a loss of coherence in their sense of self. The endless influx of information, notifications, and stimuli from the internet overwhelms the brain’s capacity to process, resulting in anxiety, confusion, and mental exhaustion. The overstimulation from vivid, immersive, and chaotic digital environments (social media, gaming, VR) can result in sensory detachment, making the offline world feel dull, unreal, or disconnected. A sense of being “out of place” in one’s own life due to the constant projection of consciousness into the digital. This can manifest as a feeling of living “in the cloud” rather than in one’s body. A state of repetitive engagement with curated content (echo chambers, filter bubbles) that narrows one’s worldview and creates the illusion of understanding while fostering delusion or paranoia. Schizophrenic Repetitiveness – patterns of compulsive scrolling, posting, or engagement in fragmented loops, akin to a form of mental stasis where progress and growth are replaced by the recycling of the same digital inputs. An inability to distinguish between real and simulated experiences, as digital life becomes more vivid or meaningful than physical existence. A societal condition, ethical and philosophical challenges of digital living. Post-reality world. The need for conscious practices to ground ourselves in reality while engaging with the possibilities and dangers of cyberspace.

Saturated to the maximum there’s no ground for belief. A sense of distrust is a +1 to every information consumed online. Widespread documentation of, and concern about, disputes over public truth claims in the 21st century. Post-truth is not related to politics only, it rules our lives also in private lives. Forming beliefs and building identity based on screenshoted and distorted images brings the possibility of floating away from the essence of self, therefore makes a foundation for extremism. Hyperreality of the internet amplifies the constant detachment. Constant feeling of separation of the digital and afk worlds, where both seems to exist separate and in a manner of unintentional neglect of the interconnectedness of them both.