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The integrity of a person's values is worrying nowadays. Because of "friends", family, acquaintances, etc., they start smoking, doing drugs, all kinds of vices. Although, I won't talk about those issues right now, the more worrying aspect is the Borg-like personality.
When I'm referring to vices, I mean addictions, both being used interchangeably in the 21st century, although the word "vice" diminishing the danger.
In various episodes of Star Trek, the Borg are a cyborg hivemind that usually disrupts in evil ways the way-doings of galactic civilizations. Apart from that, they're known for not having individual personalities, only liking and doing what the others do, with small exceptions. This can be very well compared to today's social media that the society encourages to flourish, together with a plethora of destructive values.
A good example, can be the trends on the social-media
Platforms of today. Users are encouraged to act like the masses, stripping them of any individuality, if they had any left of it. This is troubling, because this can be seen in many sides of the modern culture: what we like, what we eat, how we dress, how we act. This pattern can be very well seen with jeans that are ripped apart in the knee-zone, black plastic pants that are comparable to a garbage bag, probably reflecting the wearer, dehumanizing plastic implants and other hideous
"trends".
If you're not part of "the Borg", you're cast aside and frowned upon, like you're some sort of masquerading outlier in the midst of merry folk. No longer allowed to have your own opinions, tastes or anything else. This de-individualization of the Society is accelerating by the day, which can be thoroughly seen in adolescents and younger people, where coincidentally, the usage of social media is much higher than in other age groups.
The encouragement of being the same as others comes to a great cost, that of promoting other harmful behavior, for example eating fast-food. The reasoning being no more than "everyone does it", which is a common fallacy in today's minds of the youth and elders alike. If everyone does drugs, will you do it too? The answer for the most people, is apparently yes, we can look at smoking which until now it has caused more than 100 million deaths[1] for over one century, yet it has had
A resurgence with the young people, because of the so-called "electronic" cigars, which are even more harmful than their precursors. Teenagers, who haven't been taught rational thinking now promote it to their friends because it's "hip", although this has been a prevalent problem since tobacco has appeared, it has taken a much bigger scale due to the popularity of social media and how quickly information travels.
Another addiction I want to bring attention to is gambling. Although not new, it has skyrocketed in the recent times, with the easily available online gambling websites, on which even teenagers can sign up with no restrictions whatsoever, and they make it easy to spend money, just one click and your money is gone, you don't even see it leaving your bank account. Humongous ads for gambling websites where you can "win" a house, and such, have become prevalent in all kinds of places because
Of the funds they can spend on ads now, to get even more people hooked to this horrible addiction that leaves people homeless.
The pandemic has thrown the world into an "addiction pandemic", people are turning to vices to ease the stresses of their environment, in turn getting more stressed and unsatisfied from the vices themselves. The effects are only in the beginning phase, and they'll be felt for a long time after COVID-19 has ended.
We must encourage the general populous to learn critical thinking, where it's lacking. The movement against de-individualization must be stopped. Where there are only common opinions and thoughts, there's no freedom of speech, because there'll be no one to say opposing opinions in the first place.
Avoidable global cancer deaths and total deaths from smoking