130. The Architecture of Modern Anxiety: Reclaiming the Hunter-Gatherer Mind

The Curious Case of Reverse Correlation

We are living in an interesting juncture in human history. Penetration rates for mental health resources like therapy, journals, meditation apps etc. are higher than ever. And yet, the world today is more emotionally volatile than it has ever been in the history of mankind. We hear cases of road rage, domestic violence, depression, anxiety and even suicides more frequently than we ever have. 

The correlation, at the face of it at least, between all these mental health resources & emotional stability should be positive. But it appears to be negative instead. According to an article published by World Health Organisation in September 2025, Over a billion people in the world today are living with mental health conditions. Evidently, there is something in this whole ordeal that needs our attention, and conscious effort to improve this facet of life.

“We live in a world where there is more and more information, and less and less meaning.”

— Jean Baudrillard, Philosopher and Cultural Theorist

Why are we emotionally unstable?

I have a few theories for why we are emotionally unstable today.

Mobile Internet Access and Usage

When the smartphone revolution took place initially, it happened with a good intention for humankind. However, somewhere in this journey to enable ease and comfort, this technological revolution took a turn that the primal human brain was not really ready for.

Social media companies hijacked the 6-inch assistants to become around the clock entertainers. We are all different from one another, and hence are not entertained by the same kind of content. Consequently, multiple types of content started appearing on multiple types of channels. This led to us going through a roller coaster of emotions in the span of a few minutes. This was further exacerbated by the advent of short form content, which led to the emotional roller coaster becoming shorter, but with more twirls and curls. 

So you see how the content economy is adding to our being more emotionally challenged? But that’s not all.

Lower Physical Movement

Human civilisation, as we know it, has evolved from a hunter and gatherer persona; one that had to move around all day long to find, collect and provide food for oneself and one’s entire tribe. However, necessity eventually became the mother of invention. This morphed the hunter and gatherer into orderer and eater. 

The lack of constant pursuit left us with an enormous amount of unoccupied time, which honestly, most of us still don’t know how to fill. Sometimes, I feel we are all hardwired to follow the path of least resistance, especially when making instantaneous decisions. Therefore, more often than not, to fill this void, we resort to energy consuming activities (read: Mobile Internet Access and usage) rather than engaging in enriching activities. 

Lower energy levels usually correlate with lower emotional regulation, and hence, we end up being more emotionally volatile. It isn’t just me saying this. A study conducted by the National Library of Medicine, mental fatigue significantly impairs executive functioning, which leads to a drastically lowered ability to regulate our emotions. 

Information Overload

Now, there could be an argument made that this is also a result of internet access being rampant, but in my opinion, information overload deserves its own place in the list. However, stats differ from us. According to a study conducted by Market.biz in 2026, Mobile usage is primarily for entertainment. About 68% of smartphone users play games, making it the most popular mobile activity.

I want to discuss one source of information availability for us, which is news. Before I get into the details of it, it is important that we level set on how we define news. News is supposed to be an unbiased stating of facts from around the world, for the audience to listen to, contemplate and form their own opinions about important subjects to society. News consumption was at one point a necessary component of being a responsible citizen and society member. 

However, the way information is presented to us now is considerably different from what it used to be. I feel we get digested information these days, served to us just for our reactions, ideally online. We don’t even know why we are mad these days, we just are, because we saw something on a 30-second video, triggering enough to elicit a strong reaction. With the advent of Generative AI, the pre-consumed information has had a big influx, ready to serve the attention economy. 

So now we have more emotionally charging information, and not enough time or energy to process it. I’ll sight my final study for this article, one from the Academy of Marketing Studies Journal, which states that emotional fatigue can be caused by information overload.

Now what to do?

Now how can one practice emotional regulation in a world which is forcing the manifestation of the opposite? Like most solutions, this one lies in the problem itself. We are just too close to it most of the times to see it. Here are three things we can do to be well-adjusted, emotionally regulated humans.

1. Put the damn phone down: Our moms are right. It really is that damn phone. Our emotional disorientation is directly proportional to the time we spend on our phones. Here’s three things we can do to get away from these constant entertainers under our assistant’s skins.
   • Set no phone zones at home.
   • Keep the phone in a different room/far from us with the ringer on to counter phantom vibration or ringxiety.
   • Go for a walk without the phone.
2. Move our butts: I am not talking about twerking. As we discussed in the lower physical movement section, we are meant to spend our days moving around a lot more than we do. The average working professional today walks fewer than 5000 steps a day, which is to even hold the amount of steps our hunting and gathering predecessors had to take. Apart from the physical benefits, a moving body is less likely to bottle up emotions, and also has the ability to process them. Aim for 8000-10000 steps a day, and see a massive difference in your emotional state.
3. Turn the news off: We all know that any news which is important enough has more than 10000 ways to reach us today. So let’s stop seeking out information that isn’t necessary, under the guise of staying informed. One, the information we consume through short form content isn’t accurate, or complete most of the time. Tw, most of this news is less worthy of our time and attention than our own emotional well being.

To sum it up

We talked about the increased emotional volatility prevalent in the world today, why we are more volatile, and what we can do about it.

The billion-person mental health crisis will not be solved by downloading another application or reading another digested headline. It is solved when you intentionally alter your immediate geography. Put down the device, step outside, let your feet hit the pavement, and allow those fatigued retinas to adjust to natural light.

True emotional regulation is the physical decision to disconnect from the machine, not an intellectual pursuit.