Revisit the main thing: what we learned in 2017

SEARCH FOR THE TRUTH

The story of Ulyanovsk schoolgirl Diana Shurygina, who was raped at a party by a casual acquaintance, has become one of the most discussed topics of the year. The legal part of this drama seemed to have ended last December: the rapist pleaded guilty and received 8 years in prison. But then Shurygina got into the “Let them talk” program, and the situation turned upside down. Many viewers and commentators did not see the girl as an innocent victim of violence. Diana acted provocatively, entered into arguments and did not seem to be so traumatized by what had happened. In addition, it turned out that on the day of the rape she drank alcohol and, in general, was far from being a saint.

Skeptics immediately built an alternative version of what happened: a dissolute girl seduced a young man, and then made him guilty (out of harm or revenge). A large support group for the convict Sergei Semyonov has emerged on the Web. Many “fans” did not deny the fact of rape, but believed that Diana herself pushed him to this step by her behavior. And this position has already been criticized by social activists and human rights activists as a manifestation of “victimblaming”, that is, the habit of shifting part of the blame (or even all the blame) for violence onto the victim.

“In a civilized society, the subject himself, and not the one who could “provoke” them (even unwittingly), is responsible for his feelings, impulses and actions,” says psychologist Yevgeny Osin. – Whatever really happened between Diana and Sergey, one should not succumb to the temptation of the “rape culture”. It suggests that a man is a being who is not able to control his impulses and instincts, and a woman who dresses or behaves provocatively makes men attack herself.

His colleague Yulia Zakharova offers to learn a lesson for herself from history – for example, talk with a teenager about the rules of safe behavior, responsibility, the right to refuse sexual contact at any time.

SEEING THE FACE OF DEPRESSION

On July 20, Linkin Park lead singer Chester Bennington was found hanged in his home. He was only 41 years old. There were no traces of drugs in the singer’s blood – only a little alcohol. The tragedy came as a surprise to the fans: the group was at the zenith of fame, and Bennington looked like a happy man, a loving husband and father. In the latest video, he was having fun playing with the kids, eating candy, and seemed just a little tired. But the widow of the musician, who posted the video, dispelled doubts – in recent months he suffered from depression.

Bennington’s death sparked a wave of discussion on social media. Users posted photos with the hashtags #faceofdepression, #depressioninface, urging them to remember that a depressed person does not necessarily walk around with a sad face and always complains about life. On the contrary, often he tries to hide his condition, and others simply do not know what he is going through.

“I don’t mean the quirks of schoolchildren and in general all this hype around it, I’m talking about real depression,” writes one of the participants in the flash mob. − When you feel tired 24/7, when you cancel plans because you are not able to be active, cheerful and carefree with friends, playing stupid theater, when you cry every day or don’t cry for weeks, when your emotions seem to be turned off and you don’t give a damn about everything and everyone, when even simple cleaning around the house seems to you something so unreal and impossible.”

UNDERSTAND GENERATION Z

“What is happening to them? Are they all right?” – with this collective question begins the “discovery” of each new generation. In 2016, the story of the “groups of death” became a wake-up call. The brutal game allegedly responsible for hundreds of teenage suicides has seriously frightened everyone. True, the investigation showed that deaths due to the game of “blue whale” were isolated, and most players just liked to tickle their nerves. But the idea that some mysterious puppeteers on the Web control unintelligent children has firmly settled in the minds of adults.

In March 2017, these thoughts received new food: for the first time, schoolchildren were clearly noticed at opposition rallies. This time opposition politicians turned out to be manipulators. But young people and girls willingly gave interviews, communicated with sociologists, posted videos on YouTube channels. It turned out that many of them did not pray at all to specific opposition leaders, did not call for a revolution and did not prepare mass riots, but were ready to defend their rights and argue their position, including in the school class.

Sociologists and psychologists agree that for young people from generation Z (those who were born in the late 90s and early 2000s), the most valuable thing is the opportunity to choose what is right for them. In their world, information is redundant and accessible, and parents and teachers often do not keep up with new trends, but still try to play indisputable authorities. And this causes resistance.

“Anyone who tries to lay a hand on freedom of information — the government, corporations, religious organizations, educational institutions, and even parents — is suspicious,” says American philosopher Jerold Katz.

BE FRIENDS WITH THE TECHNOLOGIES OF THE FUTURE

“Money can be made, but it cannot be created.” “Machines can beat people at chess, but they are incapable of creativity.” “You can treat diseases, but you cannot change the biological nature.” All this seemed obvious until recently, but 2017 turned many of our ideas about the world that seemed unshakable.

In 2008, the emergence of electronic money that is created by users and not controlled by anyone – bitcoins – seemed like a gamble by a handful of dreamers. Since then, the value of “digital gold” has grown by about 10%, and in 000 the first bitcoin billionaires appeared. Governments are in a hurry to decide how they should relate to the new financial reality, but it seems that the rules of the game are being formed without their participation.

Neural networks — programs that can learn from lots of data and improve their performance along the way — have also been in the spotlight. Yandex employees have created a neural network that “writes” music in different styles. This program wrote several tracks in the style of the composer Alexander Scriabin, which were appreciated even by experts. And the applications of the new technology already seem endless, from image and video editing to literature, from inventing culinary recipes to finding cures for cancer and AIDS.

By the way, the latter opportunity is also opening up due to another circumstance – the emergence of a new technology for editing the genome. One example: using CRISPR / Cas9 technology, according to scientists, it will be possible to make changes to the genome of a sperm or egg cell and prevent the transmission of a mutant gene variant to children – in particular, a gene that is responsible for breast cancer.

In August 2017, the US Food and Drug Administration approved the use of gene therapy to treat cancer. While the technology is being tested (in particular, the UK has only recently given permission for experiments with human embryos), adherents of gene therapy – biohackers – are already suggesting using scientific methods to slow down and even reverse the aging of the body.

LOOK FOR THE LIMITS OF ACCEPTABLE

The world is changing faster and faster, and we do not always have time to figure out what to say and how to behave. Awkwardness happens even with experienced people. On March 4, Yevgeny Smirnov, a disabled person, who lost his leg in an accident, spoke in the Minute of Glory program. Vladimir Pozner, who was on the jury, noted that he could not objectively evaluate the performance, and considered Smirnov’s decision to perform on an equal footing with everyone “dishonest”.

Posner’s speech outraged many: the presenter voluntarily or involuntarily showed that people with disabilities are a special caste for which there should be separate rules in society.

“The performance of a dancer with a disability on the same stage with other contestants is a sign that society is changing,” says humanistic psychologist Maria Sabunayeva. − We are steadily moving towards integration into society of the most diverse people on the principles of equality and community of rights. Previously, a person with a disability was assessed separately from “normal people”.

Now the norm is expanding, it begins to include more and more layers, identities, features – as a result, we must keep many factors in our minds and operate on them all at the same time. This requires a different, new organization of thinking. I would recommend everyone to hurry up to expand their consciousness and include various new norms in it. If we do not do this, then we risk falling into the same situation that Posner found himself in: when our standards of thinking cannot embrace new norms and develop adequate ways of behaving in these situations.

EXPERIENCE CATHARSIS

But in rap battles, which many of us learned about thanks to the “historical” fight between Oksimiron and Purulent (aka Slava CPSU) in 2017, you don’t have to choose words. In “panches” (attacks towards the opponent), you can touch on the most sensitive topics if the boundaries of what is acceptable are not specified in advance. Religion, nationality, sexual orientation, and even the physical defects of an opponent – everything can become an object for malicious irony.

Of course, not everyone will bet on such clumsy tools. But in general, such an approach teaches one to think that it is possible to agree on everything – even on the use of “forbidden methods”. Social psychologist Hakob Nazaretyan believes that it’s good for us to allow ourselves to experience “inappropriate” feelings from time to time – for example, while watching aggressive verbal fights or playing video games. This is how we experience the “catharsis” that Aristotle wrote about – we release tension along with the energy of suppressed emotions.

The same thing happens, for example, in hard competitive sports. So it’s absolutely not worth being ashamed of loving rap battles – it’s even good if it helps you not take it out on other people. And find a common language with them.

CALM THOUGHTS

In the summer of 2017, the phrase “there are spinners” could be found in almost every kiosk, and Amazon calculated that “spinners” are bought more often than other toys. The last time such a general interest was caused only by the game Pokemon Go: crowds of people, led by a mark on the map, wandered through the squares, climbed onto the roofs of houses and even into basements in search of a rare specimen. But why did it turn out to be spinners in the role of the “heir” of Pokemon?

After all, they are defiantly simple: this is not a puzzle like the Rubik’s Cube and not a bilbock (a glass with a ball tied to it), which can be played out of sports interest. The spinner game does not involve any goal, skill development, or competitiveness.

Psychologist Ivan Gribov compares the rotation of a spinner with meditation: “We are distracted from the internal conversation by an external object, and it does not burden us, but simply fascinates, allows us to “stick, relax.” And this is one of the reasons why spinners have proven to be so popular among office workers. Anxiety, flickering of information, competition leave few opportunities for solitude, concentration, elementary concentration. And meditative rotation acts like hypnosis, at the same time calming and helping to collect thoughts.

“We live in a world of endless interruptions of the process, many times a minute, and here we feel the fusion,” explains Ivan Gribov. “The spinner always gives a sense of well-being, the success of a running action: every touch immediately gives a result, reproduces pleasant microvibrations, gives an experience of the harmony of what is happening.”