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How Social Media, Online Dating, Web Porn Are Essentially One & Same?

“The Psychology of Social Media, Online Dating, and Web Porn” If you find the terms “Social Media, Online Dating, and Web Porn” all in one sentence controversial or offensive, think again. In fact, what is more controversial here is the very term “Psychology”, but that will have to wait for another article to unravel its mystery.Essentially, and from a mental health perspective “Social Media, Online Dating, and Web Porn” are very much one and same!!! “BY 2030, DEPRESSION IS PREDICTED TO BE THE LEADING CAUSE OF DEATH. SOCIAL MEDIA IS ALREADY CATCHING UP TO BE THE LEADING CAUSE OF DEPRESSION” — NIDAL SAKR HOW SO? Think about it!! SOCIAL MEDIA, ONLINE DATING, AND WEB PORN ARE MADE OF: PLATFORMCan be anything from Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, YouTube, Tinder, PornHub, or any of the endless platforms, dating apps, or porn sites. SOCIAL INFLUENCERCan be YouTuber, account holder, TikTok or Instagram content creator, porn performer or sex worker, and in the case of online dating it would be the profile holder. CONTENTCan be video or post content, porn act or material or sex act, profile content in the case of online dating, or even singer, singer wannabe, or lip syncing on TikTok. Just like a YouTuber and TikTok content creator very much impersonates a public persona that intends to create the highest views, likes, shares, subscribers and followers, so do porn performers offering porn act or sexual content, and the online dating account holder “making up” a profile with images and content to attract most matches, regardless to how truthful or realistic that content may be. In essence, all the three are very much actors and actresses performing certain acts and offering certain content, on some platforms that will allow them to reach largest audience. Although there may not be well known studies on the subject, it is highly likely that entertainers and actors do have mental health disorders at higher rates than the public. I say “highly likely” because even if the argument that such cases receive more attention and publicity because of notoriety of celebrity status, if we take public and celebrity mental health disorders in proportion to respective populations, that ratio will still be significantly higher among public persona celebrities. SCHIZOPHRENIA AND LIVING IN SOMEONE ELSE’S IMAGE: We all hear the term “Schizophrenia”, a psychological and psychiatrist diagnosis meaning: “a long-term mental disorder of a type involving a breakdown in the relation between thought, emotion, and behavior, leading to faulty perception, inappropriate actions and feelings, withdrawal from reality and personal relationships into fantasy and delusion, and a sense of mental fragmentation.”¹ What is alarming is that “Schizophrenia” falls not only under “mental health disorders”, but also under “clinically diagnosed diseases” as well. In other words is not merely a behavioral disorder rather a diagnosed disease that may go beyond the physical. Over the years, I have personally worked with increasing number of “Social Influencers” virtually in each and every one of the three categories I mentioned. I have closely monitored mental health and well-being of those performers over the years. I have yet to find one single performer who did not grow more damaged and damaging to themselves and others. Having very much lived in very close proximity to those individuals, I virtually lost count of the mishaps and damages to those “influencers” lives.² Every time I tried to make influencers grow aware of the damage they’re doing to themselves and to others, I found many growing defensive as if not capable of facing reality and the guilt of their “ill doing.” It is established that mental health disorders are at least as contagious as physical diseases. When you have social influencers with a host of mental health disorders you would also expect their followers to fall prey to their diseases. As influencers spiral down mentally so do their followers spreading pandemic at much faster rate. Considering that most influencers have thousands and millions of followers, one can only imagine how much damage one “unhealthy” influencer can cause. If we add other diseases spread through other web categories such as gaming or hacking, the picture looks even bleaker. Couple of years ago, the world was shocked by the gruesome murder of a journalist at the consulate of his country. The body was allegedly dismembered and disposed of in most barbaric fashion. Little did we know that the entire crime was ordered and masterminded by the victim’s country’s leader who grew up an addict to online gaming. While about one third of the population of that oil rich country are considered below poverty line, that murderer heir was wasting billions of dollars of his country’s wealth on online gaming investments. IS SOCIAL MEDIA ALL BAD? In all fairness, it would be wrong to claim all social media is bad and has no benefit. Nonetheless, it is widely predicted that “Depression” is the leading cause of death in 2030. In 202, social media is already identified as the leading cause of depression. The astronomical rise in mental health crisis and depression in social media users just goes beyond any doubt, both as influencers or their audience alike. Further, addiction to social media being legal, surpasses in terms of magnitude and degree of damage any controlled substance, illegal drug, or opioid.³ CONCLUSION: In conclusion, I must stress: Given the exceptionally high rates of suicides, bullying, mass shootings, divorces, social and familial dysfunctionalities, good part of Social Media and addiction to social media may very well be health hazards Although much of the debate over social media lingers around constitutional rights and freedom of expression, the adverse effects of social media to public health, and big social media giants manipulation of algorithms and influence over users may very well fall under threatening public safety much like big tobacco were found to be. Finally, in now way am I advocating curtailing freedoms and liberties. But we are all for responsible public discourse, and the service of humanity’s best interest, even if that came at

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HOW TO REVERSE AGE?

So we all know by now that aging is something that must happen to us all and it will eventually drive us down to meet our ends. The latter part is absolutely true, but I want to talk to you about the former. Aging can’t just be halted it can actually be reversed! Not chronologically of course. But its effects can practically be reversed to restore your youth. I am not talking about prolonging life i.e. anti-aging mind you. I am talking about something way more realistic i.e. bringing back your youth and maintaining it till the inevitable comes knocking. So here are some steps you can take: FOCUS ON YOUR DIET Eat Less People judge you for stuffing your plate with lots of food at a buffet or a wedding, and sometimes we hate it. Your “don’t Judge” argument doesn’t work here because they are right to do it. Small portion size is the key to age reversal. Excessive food intake leads to obesity that in itself is a risk factor for various diseases and induces a proinflammatory state that damages cells of the body. A damaged body is more prone to degradation of its components leading to aging. Multiple studies on rats and monkeys have basically demonstrated this. Eat healthy The single most important factor that leads to aging of your cells is the inflammation that takes place on a cellular level due to free radicals. To fight these bad boys you need to up the ante on anti-oxidant foods. ¹ Fruits and vegetables are rich in antioxidants. Include them in every meal. Supplements I cannot begin to tell you how important this is. We stuff our selves with a lot of food but most of it is just too bad for our body. To help our body in its battle against aging, we need to supplement it with the necessary vitamins, minerals and natural products that we usually skip in our day to day meals.YouthPM and YouthPLUS are wholesome supplements that focus on including all these necessities in your diet. Anyway, this is the gist of it. Dining out with friends or healthy food at home? Former is a one-time joy, and the other enables you to have extended years of youth. The choice is yours. EXERCISE I bet you guessed this one would be next. And for good reason too. Age reversal is about bringing your body back to the attaining the form it held back in your youth. Maintaining the strength of your muscles and joints is of the utmost importance. Here are some things you can focus on: . As you age your body loses lean muscle mass. To keep up your strength you need to focus on strength training. Forget the looks and the abs for a bit and you will start seeing results. Weight bearing exercises are pretty important. Cardio just won’t cut it. Your body starts losing bone density after the age of 30 years. Doctors recommend weight bearing exercises before the age of 30 to reach increase your body’s potential to attain peak bone mass. But even afterwards, these exercises do help to maintain the strength of your skeleton. Get a gym buddy. Going at it alone is usually very hard for people. Acquiring an active lifestyle takes you a long way. It can effectively boost your journey to age-reversal in no time.² My personal experience proves this. TAKE CARE OF YOUR SLEEP So sleep recharges your brain. But the long term effects of a consistent sleeping pattern that is in synchrony with your circadian rhythm are absolutely incredible! During deep sleep, the glymphatic system works to clear off all the waste from the brain tissue and keeps it healthy. ³ Certain hormones are released that are important for growth and development i.e: growth hormone. This contributes to the health of our cellular functioning. Cortisol, the stress hormone, is released during the last hour of sleep. This primes our body for the upcoming challenges that come with waking up. These are the functions of restorative sleep. So to make your sleep healthier for you you can follow these tips; Make a consistent pattern of sleeping. You should go to sleep and wake up at a specifies time and be consistent with it. Reduce screen time before sleep. This helps with sleep onset Sleep as much as you need to! 8 hours are essential. Make sure not to compromise on that. Sleeping less has been associated with earlier onset of Alzheimer’s disease in late age so beware :). EMOTIONS Your thoughts and your feelings that oscillate between your neurons are as important as the blood that runs within your veins. When we talk about age reversal, we have to understand that what we are really aiming for is the state of prime physical and mental health. Because it is an unquestionable fact that the state of your mind affects the state of your body. The basic rule of thumb is to control your perspective. And let that perspective tackle the obstacles that life throws in your way. There will always be times when you are sad or angry. Times when you just want to lie down and cry. Times when you feel betrayed. There may also come trials that we call mental illnesses. I am no medical doctor to prescribe you treatments. What I want to state are some rules that experience of thousands of years has taught mankind; Meditate. That’s it. Today’s fast paced life does not allow us the time to think about ourselves and our goals. And believe me nothing gives you the mental clarity that meditating can.⁴ Do not expose yourself to toxicity that you cannot bear. Make it so that you are not alone. The longest running trial in human history has found out after 80 years of continuous research that loneliness is as lethal as smoking or alcohol. So surround yourself with people you love. In the end all I want to say is

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TEMPLATE / DO NOT DELE

If you were around let’s say a hundred years ago, you would agree with me that the world today looks many times different from how it did then.  Many men wore California hats and women wore heavy gowns but very interestingly, our crops and livestock had to wait so long or consume so many resources to produce a moderate amount of produce. For centuries before then, things had been that way however a hundred years past, harvest and nutritional impact increased geometrically. For a phenomenon that recorded little change over the centuries, a hundred years is so short to produce such drastic changes! What happened? Welcome to a world that is embracing the possibilities of GMOs!  What are GMOs?From country to country, organization to organization, definitions differ in context and inclusions, however; I want you to have a definition that answers your curiosity and gives you a one size fits all meaning. GMOs can include anything whose gene had been altered even without human intervention but naturally.¹ Going by this definition, the scope of our discussion will become wider than what a blog post can handle. For easy understanding let us define GMOs as organisms especially crop plants and livestock that have undergone gene alterations under human manipulation.  When gene alteration is mentioned, our minds travel to more sophisticated engineering and techniques such as cloning, artificial insemination, and gene manipulation done in labs. However, the European Union goes a bit broader to include less sophisticated methods such as selective breeding.² The Food and Agriculture Organization and the World Health Organization would not allow such broad definition, they opine that for an organism to be termed “organically modified”, its history of modification must not involve any natural recombination or mating.³ To be factual, even the world’s leading research organizations are still deciding what definition to accept for GMOs and Non-GMOs however you can take these definitions you read here for it and be certain what GMOs are.  “Although GMOs have been associated with some problems such as loss of nutrition and toxicity due to unstable molecules, you will be interested to find out how our lives changed with the advent of GMOs. ” How did it all begin?Although genetic modification is a new term, it is not without a precursor. As far back as 12,000 BC, people have been seeking ways to improve on the characteristics of living things⁴; crops and livestock to be precise. Techniques such as selective breeding were employed; two or more livestock of the same species with desirable qualities were mated together till they produce offsprings that bore desirable traits from both animals. This process is time-consuming and the probability of getting offspring with desired traits was minimal.  In 1972, modern genetic modification got its first breakthrough when a man successfully performed an experiment that had never been done in recorded scientific history. The DNA of a monkey virus was merged with one from lambda virus via a DNA recombinant process and boom the world became aware of the possibility of DNAs from two species forming one molecule.⁵ The man was Paul Berg and that experiment paved way for several other genetic experiments that have shaped what we know today as GMOs. Although GMOs have been associated with some problems such as loss of nutrition and toxicity due to unstable molecules, you will be interested to find out how our lives changed with the advent of GMOs.  How GMOs affected food productionMany genetically modified organisms are crop plants and the aim revolves around three objectives; adaptability to environmental change, increased yield, and sustainability. Cash crops account for most of the genetically modified crop plants. In 2014, soybeans alone recorded half of all genetically modified crop plants planted.⁶ This is understandable because of its status as a cash crop.  Though there are some experts raising concerns about the use of GMOs, their adoption into mainstream agriculture has been quite growing. ISAA reported that between 1996 and 2013, the total area of land where genetically modified crops were planted had increased by a factor of 100⁷ with most of these lands sited American countries then little other in Asia, Europe, and Africa. If you are a farmer, there are some persistent issues you’d face such as pest and disease invasion, heavy metal uptake from pesticides and herbicides. GMO encoders have such issues in mind when they engineer new varieties. For instance, most genetic coding for plants is gotten from Bacillus thuringiensis to produce vegetative proteins that are poisonous to insects. The farmer no longer has to purchase insecticides or deal with the environmental hazard of heavy metal accumulation in the soil. Other than pest and disease resistance, resistance to herbicides like glyphosate, and increased yield, genetic engineers have also encoded some food crops to produce more amounts of specific nutrients. If you consume genetically modified golden rice, for instance, you can be sure that you are consuming quantities of Vitamin A precursor at an amount higher than what is obtainable ordinary rice meal. The golden rice has three genes that are coded to biosynthesize beta-carotene which is a Vitamin A precursor.⁸  These plant modifications are not without certain concerns. Genetic codes of microbial origin used in the modification of these crops may become sources of antibiotic resistance in the long run. If this happens, certain medications we take to become well will prove ineffective.  The livestock industry hasn’t entertained many breakthroughs in genetic modification as its crop counterpart but some genetically engineered livestock species have not only been successful but have also been introduced into the market. The numbers are understandably few because coding the genes of mammals takes time, involves drudgery, and is cost-intensive.  The process would involve implanting embryos in females with viral DNA, with the hope that the desired genetic traits would be formed within the reproductive cells of the offspring. This takes time because you would have to hold your horses till the offspring reaches the breeding stage before you can ascertain if the genetic coding was

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