Somebody needs to invent a ground-breaking tool or technique to undo the desensitization we’re all experiencing.

I am not sure what you can do but I do agree we need to connect more as people and get back that sense of wonder of discovering new things. 

The Sages invented meditation, it can go really deep (all the way to the source of it all) if done enough so it's already been invented what we need to do is teach it in school and provide resources in society

Honestly, turn your phone off for a day or two, maybe on weekends, and join a club or something, I wish I could recommend specific ones but just try looking up some of your interests and search for people doing similar things in your area that you have to meet up for, tabletop gaming is what I gravitated towards, but bands, makerspaces, and sports are all good places to start too. Oh maybe let people know when you won’t be available maybe even explain why.

Reading books helps me with all that. Attention span, critical thinking, and it helps me empathize with other people because I get to hear their stories.

I think this ground-breaking technique is called “touch grass”?

Ground-breaking tool is the off switch on the phone.

Not sure what you are doing but I am closely connected to my community. I volunteer at a community centre every week handling huge amountsof donated food that we make into free food hampers for the community. I know all my neighbours, I share my home grown vegies with them, we chat in the street, and help each other out. My house is the hang out spot for my teenage and young adult kids and all their friends. I am a member of local gardening groups. I teach people in my community how to sew and cook for free. If you want connection you need to actively create it through involvement in your community

The Amish got it right to a degree, they don't disown all technology, just the stuff they feel threatens the community. Of course that depends on which group we're talking about. I'm desensitized AF and I'll admit I have no desire to change that. it just means I'm sparing with who and what I spend time on instead of letting the world overwhelm me with trying to care about things and people that are not my problem or I have no realistic chance of helping. It's not disengagement entirely, it's calling my shots and not wasting them on a long one. There is a distinct difference there. Your not wrong, one person can't do shit on a large scale, but they can make a difference to the people they know. If you have a actual chance to change the world take it, but other wise don't kill yourself with worry and consequently impact what change you can make to peoples lives at a individual scale. The world isn't your community, dave across the street is.

watching 2 hour-long essays about worthwhile subjects, reading gigantic ebooks, producing collective essays then spread them all over the WWW. The internet already has been giving solutions for years and years, but people ignore them constantly because they show no willpower over shallowness. Humans always ruin technology, never the opposite

I uninstalled Instagram from my phone, so I couldn't watch any more reels It's been great

I mean I think everything is playing out according to plan and all of this is by design. I look out into the world and the issue is so fundamental that you can't even go back anymore. I hear stories that break my heart and I mean its just down right awful. I go to my grandparents house in the woods to escape the reality for a bit and feel the true connection to the earth, people and god. Nowhere else gives me that feeling and they funny thing is my phone doesn't get service out there.

"faculties of attention and critical thinking are diminishing rapidly" Mine aren't. A lot of people's aren't. I said it was bullshit in 1993 when my teacher said "You kids today have no attention span" and I'll say it's bullshit now. There's always going to be idiots. It's just reality. The only thing we've done is amplify the idiots. We do our best to educate as many as we can and spark the curiosity of as many as we can. Step one stop doomsaying every time a wild moron pops up.

Go talk to your neighbors and members in your community. Support each other and be there for each other. That's the lesson to take from Minnesota. 

Communism is the answer. Part of its whole critique of modern society is the alienation forced upon each other by making everyone a source of competition and neoliberalism actively devalues and defunds community programs and spaces like parks as they are seen as a waste of money :/

Personally? I just made my peace with the fact I'll leave my country. Not much point in staying if feel like talking to anyone here drives me up walls, or will inevitably do so. If I am to be alone, at least let me be alone in a place where it's freely chosen and where I can be at peace doing so. Plus, lot of the solutions I see peddled on this website straight up are non-applicable in many areas. Interest clubs - nonexistent. Nightclubs - not my thing. Libraries - about as irrelevant culturally as it gets.

Since the early days of Facebook, I've called it the connection paradox: the more connected we become online, the less connected we are to real human beings. And here I am on the Internet replying to a post on Listnook.

Like with so many large scale causes, I always try to focus on what I can do in my immediate life and with those around us. I do believe that our brains weren't wired for this kind of exposure. I know there's a lot about the pop psychology part of evo psych that isn't true or at least is very much up in the air, but I do believe that for thousands of years we evolved by only knowing a small number of people in life...and not knowing all of the others even existed. And then, over the last 100 years or so, a very small amount of time, the technology increased dramatically. To where now we know about all of these large scale problems from all over hte planet and hear about it instantly and constantly. So I zoom in and focus on what's in my control and how it affects my own life and the people around me. I try to focus on those connections and still having real conversations and do real activities together. It can still be tough since everyone is addicted to our phones to some degree. But you can at least work against it some on the individual level.

It's just proof of the problem that you think the solution is to have someone else make a tool to do it, when the truth is that you need to get off your phone if you want to defend your attention.

Real talk, spend less time online and do community service. Our brains are not designed to be globally connected; we're wired for local community and face to face connection. I'm not saying global connection is bad, but it takes a huge amount of mental energy to maintain. Take breaks from it and refocus.

You have the world's information at the palm of your hand, just look up how to improve these skills, you even have app-blocking apps now.