Anything that seems to make the body’s job of meeting basic needs easier is going to be addictive to the mind.

Essentially it convinces the nervous system its a “need” to use the easier route even at the expense of other skills that long term allow for more effective need meeting.

Survival instincts are hardwired into our bodies which includes a basic mode of “the quickest to gather the most supplies lives longest” as that would reduce exposure to predators. A survival technique required as we needed community (which lead to tools/ weapons) to shield our much weaker bodies against such threats.

Things like social media might seem to create protective community fastest to the nervous system, but the lack of physical touch removes the security connection creates and replaces it with “over” stimulation of the “higher thinking brain”. An increase in anxiety with a decrease in empathy and even the ability to communicate through conflict successfully enough for long term connection to develop.

Health requires a balance of basic needs met and advancement: that is physical and mental or even primal and civil. The point being that meeting merely a piece of the need creates a depravity that trains the body to think one way and do another; like empty calories that cause weight gain but deprive the body of the nutrients needed to function, maintain, or grow. Still, if the body receives a short term supply of energy/ connection/ seemingly needs met, it will absolutely return to that automatically instead of spending more energy to create/find long term/ more dependable/ nutrient dense sources.

Our bodies’ survival function is addiction. So when people go without needs met and no way to find them it is natural for them to seek to numb/ temporarily meet the need. Even “empty” calories grant short term energy.

The solution is not to shame the core survival strategy developed over centuries of biological evolution of the species; its to provide the basic needs to allow civil thought processes to occur in the individual which builds society in a way that progresses further for all involved.

That means protecting the earth for needs over short term entertainment or even comfort’s value. Space is not a viable solution if we must sacrifice the earth to get there.