I came for the fun/twisted rabbit holes such as Bashford Antiques or Tickled, but I am totally on board to stay for these opinion pieces too. It's pretty wild how few people are commenting on the b.s. Everybody is fully just on board with the insanity and it's making me feel like the insane one for calling it out.
Don't leave. We need your voice and more like it. Let's just hope that once we're all borged up (or luddited away from it all) there are enough voices of reason communicating instantly that the fucktards just wither away in the realisation that their poor brains are not up to task and they either shut up and learn (do the 'long reads') or end up siloed away in their 'Facebook' walled garden of pap and misinformation. The nerds built a good thing but naively left some of the most important facets to commercial interests and while we should forgive them it should only be after they build something which works. Or something like that. I'm off for a walk by the ocean.
You’ve said a lot of my feelings about QAnon and conspiracy in NZ so well here that I can’t add anything, except to say how you’re not alone in this. I’m consistently getting in to conversations with the converts in the oddest of places - comment sections on pictures of a mutual acquaintance’s cat etc. I’ve yet to steer someone back from the cliff edge. Can it be done? Maybe... There’s gotta be a way, maybe a video needs to emerge which is short and simple like the drinking tea consent video.
P.s Elon should start off with something much more tangible like that scene in the film videodrome with a VHS opening in our chests.
I have been battling for literal months to slowly wean my family off of social media. It's been almost impossible. I personally only have such sites on the PC, which I use for work (funnily enough, some of my work needs social media presence). My "smartphone" is actually quite dumb these days, and that's the way I like it. I've created videos in Spanish trying to educate people on both the psychological and the physical impact of social media. From depression to influencing elections. Still can't make people budge. "It doesn't affect me", they say, as if an evil thing is made less evil by not affecting you while still affecting millions.
I am currently still actively being "recruited" to their cause. I am maintaining direct communication with a member of this group. I'm doing this to learn more about their techniques. I have to say she gets top marks. She is very very convincing. She is very good at what she is doing. I don't have all the normal vulnerabilities that would make me an easy target. However, I can quite easily see myself being "turned." It concerns me that the narrative seems to be that they are going after the vulnerable, the marginalized. No, they are going after everyone and anyone. And the usual defences won't protect you. The only reason I have not been successfully recruited is that I have studied enough of their techniques to see what they are doing. Ironically these techniques are the same as I was instructed to use to save my friend from the conspiracy theorists. I will continue for a couple more days. I'd like to get a full idea of how they recruit. All her messages are voice messages. Might make an interesting podcast episode. Happy to talk to you direct about this.
David, how are you doing? Make sure you go outside too. This QAnon, influencer culture bs can be a lot. It can make one go from extreme frustration and wtf rage to bleak hopelessness for humanity and the future. It’s crazy. We all need to find ways to stay sane ourselves.
Social media is only part of the problem. It's main role is as a conduit. The rest of it is mainly caused by people's inability to think critically or analyse what they are reading with any real level of understanding. This coupled with people thinking simply typing something into Google and taking the first entries which agree with their world view at face value is where the real issues lie.
Great call on the getting outside and checking screentime stats. My daughter’s mother is a part-time vegan hippie type and getting heavily in to this stuff. Telling her not to wear the mask I supplied last lock down and that it will starve her of oxygen. Jacinda is bad and Billy TK is good. Can’t make this shit up, it would be laughable if it wasn’t so dangerous and close to home.
OMG I just skimmed through that “wait but why” essay you recommended. The whole AI agenda and then the brain/AI interface would read like the scariest conspiracy theory yet if it weren’t truly happening. The whole program is the dead end consequence of the dominance of the individualist, rational, human supremacist world view. The focus on the brain as something that can be understood and replicated as a physical thing is mind-bogglingly nuts. What is more important is how we make sense of the world. And that is done in relationship to our context. Including each other and the natural world. It is the context and our experience of it and the meaning we make of it that forms how our neurons connect with each other physically and even how our genes express themselves. I suppose you could teach an AI to understand our essence as social beings. But if we are all connected to each other and to every thing on the planet via some form of energy, call it wairua or collective consciousness or vibrational energy, or simply mutual respect for the magic of life, can we teach AI to experience that? We would have to build into them a body that can experience the world physically. And build into them some sort of social experiencing apparatus. And gee why not just go with an actual human. Except that we are flawed and not as rational as the scientific method assumes.
There was this glorious shining moment in 18/19 where I thought social media giants were finally going to get called on their bs, but it didn't happen and now it's all "they're too big to fail". I quit my social media job last year cause I just could not handle what immense amounts of harm it was doing. There's good too, but it's definitely outweighed. It's so disheartening.
A good thing to keep in mind is that YOU still get to choose who to follow on your personal social media account. Provided your account isn't tied into your work, where you might have to open it up to people you normally wouldn't engage with. you get to decide who you see on a daily basis. I don't see one bit of QAnon garbage because I only follow people who know how to employ critical thinking and don't pay it any mind. I long since abandoned Facebook to the Mommy crowd as I'm a single for life heathen and too many photos of people's sticky faced kids and sad faced spouses only feeds into my smug, single, superiority complex....that's a wee bit of sarcasm by the way, something that doesn't play well on FB. The folks I follow on Twitter and Instagram make me feel terrible about myself because they are so active in making the world a better place, they share information on protests, different ways to get involved politically (for the right candidates), how to keep oneself sane and healthy during a pandemic and where to donate to food pantries. Social media is a double edged sword that has exacerbated our best and worst aspects, if you cull yours properly, you can have an overall positive experience. You aren't obligated to follow anyone, especially not a third cousin who is super into QAnon and who you haven't seen since the nineties. If it wasn't for social media, I would have never learned what a quokka is and my life would have a lot less cuteness in it.
I came and subscribed for your research and postings about all things unusual and bizarre (and your relatable love of birds.)These in depth articles about conspiracy theory culture is certainly a plus and I love it. Thank you for your stuff, I always look forward to reading them.
Besides all the reasons you listed here, Facebook/IG both can mess with your mental health. It can cause you to compare yourself to others and the bad stuff people post can get under your skin. Seeing everyone's highlight reels on Facebook/Instagram was part of the reason I developed depression, but through counseling, I've learned to be aware of how I am feeling as I use social media. If I start to feel down or agitated by what I'm seeing in any way, I put my phone down and sometimes go a step further by removing the FB and IG apps. I've been known to take 3 month breaks and they do wonders for my mental health. To be fair, I like interacting with you because you post interesting things/cute cats.
I confess to never having had a FB or Twitter account, my family live overseas and some were annoyed that I wouldn’t do so as I’d be “missing out” on their photo’s and news etc. I didn’t budge. It has been tricky in some ways though as even my local council assumes that everyone has a FB account and posts all information to that space first, which is irksome tbh and problematic in itself because it leads people to believe they NEED it to survive.
I came for the fun/twisted rabbit holes such as Bashford Antiques or Tickled, but I am totally on board to stay for these opinion pieces too. It's pretty wild how few people are commenting on the b.s. Everybody is fully just on board with the insanity and it's making me feel like the insane one for calling it out.
has anyone told elon musk that black mirror is intended to be unsettling and not aspirational 😬
Don't leave. We need your voice and more like it. Let's just hope that once we're all borged up (or luddited away from it all) there are enough voices of reason communicating instantly that the fucktards just wither away in the realisation that their poor brains are not up to task and they either shut up and learn (do the 'long reads') or end up siloed away in their 'Facebook' walled garden of pap and misinformation. The nerds built a good thing but naively left some of the most important facets to commercial interests and while we should forgive them it should only be after they build something which works. Or something like that. I'm off for a walk by the ocean.
You’ve said a lot of my feelings about QAnon and conspiracy in NZ so well here that I can’t add anything, except to say how you’re not alone in this. I’m consistently getting in to conversations with the converts in the oddest of places - comment sections on pictures of a mutual acquaintance’s cat etc. I’ve yet to steer someone back from the cliff edge. Can it be done? Maybe... There’s gotta be a way, maybe a video needs to emerge which is short and simple like the drinking tea consent video.
P.s Elon should start off with something much more tangible like that scene in the film videodrome with a VHS opening in our chests.
I have been battling for literal months to slowly wean my family off of social media. It's been almost impossible. I personally only have such sites on the PC, which I use for work (funnily enough, some of my work needs social media presence). My "smartphone" is actually quite dumb these days, and that's the way I like it. I've created videos in Spanish trying to educate people on both the psychological and the physical impact of social media. From depression to influencing elections. Still can't make people budge. "It doesn't affect me", they say, as if an evil thing is made less evil by not affecting you while still affecting millions.
I am currently still actively being "recruited" to their cause. I am maintaining direct communication with a member of this group. I'm doing this to learn more about their techniques. I have to say she gets top marks. She is very very convincing. She is very good at what she is doing. I don't have all the normal vulnerabilities that would make me an easy target. However, I can quite easily see myself being "turned." It concerns me that the narrative seems to be that they are going after the vulnerable, the marginalized. No, they are going after everyone and anyone. And the usual defences won't protect you. The only reason I have not been successfully recruited is that I have studied enough of their techniques to see what they are doing. Ironically these techniques are the same as I was instructed to use to save my friend from the conspiracy theorists. I will continue for a couple more days. I'd like to get a full idea of how they recruit. All her messages are voice messages. Might make an interesting podcast episode. Happy to talk to you direct about this.
David, how are you doing? Make sure you go outside too. This QAnon, influencer culture bs can be a lot. It can make one go from extreme frustration and wtf rage to bleak hopelessness for humanity and the future. It’s crazy. We all need to find ways to stay sane ourselves.
Social media is only part of the problem. It's main role is as a conduit. The rest of it is mainly caused by people's inability to think critically or analyse what they are reading with any real level of understanding. This coupled with people thinking simply typing something into Google and taking the first entries which agree with their world view at face value is where the real issues lie.
this science stuff is a rabbit hole waiting to be googled.
lots of fun to be hads:
"There is a large body of evidence that atomic nuclei can undergo octupole distortion and assume the shape of a pear." https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-019-10494-5
thank goodness im not neurolinked to all of that type of info...
Great call on the getting outside and checking screentime stats. My daughter’s mother is a part-time vegan hippie type and getting heavily in to this stuff. Telling her not to wear the mask I supplied last lock down and that it will starve her of oxygen. Jacinda is bad and Billy TK is good. Can’t make this shit up, it would be laughable if it wasn’t so dangerous and close to home.
OMG I just skimmed through that “wait but why” essay you recommended. The whole AI agenda and then the brain/AI interface would read like the scariest conspiracy theory yet if it weren’t truly happening. The whole program is the dead end consequence of the dominance of the individualist, rational, human supremacist world view. The focus on the brain as something that can be understood and replicated as a physical thing is mind-bogglingly nuts. What is more important is how we make sense of the world. And that is done in relationship to our context. Including each other and the natural world. It is the context and our experience of it and the meaning we make of it that forms how our neurons connect with each other physically and even how our genes express themselves. I suppose you could teach an AI to understand our essence as social beings. But if we are all connected to each other and to every thing on the planet via some form of energy, call it wairua or collective consciousness or vibrational energy, or simply mutual respect for the magic of life, can we teach AI to experience that? We would have to build into them a body that can experience the world physically. And build into them some sort of social experiencing apparatus. And gee why not just go with an actual human. Except that we are flawed and not as rational as the scientific method assumes.
There was this glorious shining moment in 18/19 where I thought social media giants were finally going to get called on their bs, but it didn't happen and now it's all "they're too big to fail". I quit my social media job last year cause I just could not handle what immense amounts of harm it was doing. There's good too, but it's definitely outweighed. It's so disheartening.
A good thing to keep in mind is that YOU still get to choose who to follow on your personal social media account. Provided your account isn't tied into your work, where you might have to open it up to people you normally wouldn't engage with. you get to decide who you see on a daily basis. I don't see one bit of QAnon garbage because I only follow people who know how to employ critical thinking and don't pay it any mind. I long since abandoned Facebook to the Mommy crowd as I'm a single for life heathen and too many photos of people's sticky faced kids and sad faced spouses only feeds into my smug, single, superiority complex....that's a wee bit of sarcasm by the way, something that doesn't play well on FB. The folks I follow on Twitter and Instagram make me feel terrible about myself because they are so active in making the world a better place, they share information on protests, different ways to get involved politically (for the right candidates), how to keep oneself sane and healthy during a pandemic and where to donate to food pantries. Social media is a double edged sword that has exacerbated our best and worst aspects, if you cull yours properly, you can have an overall positive experience. You aren't obligated to follow anyone, especially not a third cousin who is super into QAnon and who you haven't seen since the nineties. If it wasn't for social media, I would have never learned what a quokka is and my life would have a lot less cuteness in it.
I came and subscribed for your research and postings about all things unusual and bizarre (and your relatable love of birds.)These in depth articles about conspiracy theory culture is certainly a plus and I love it. Thank you for your stuff, I always look forward to reading them.
Besides all the reasons you listed here, Facebook/IG both can mess with your mental health. It can cause you to compare yourself to others and the bad stuff people post can get under your skin. Seeing everyone's highlight reels on Facebook/Instagram was part of the reason I developed depression, but through counseling, I've learned to be aware of how I am feeling as I use social media. If I start to feel down or agitated by what I'm seeing in any way, I put my phone down and sometimes go a step further by removing the FB and IG apps. I've been known to take 3 month breaks and they do wonders for my mental health. To be fair, I like interacting with you because you post interesting things/cute cats.
I confess to never having had a FB or Twitter account, my family live overseas and some were annoyed that I wouldn’t do so as I’d be “missing out” on their photo’s and news etc. I didn’t budge. It has been tricky in some ways though as even my local council assumes that everyone has a FB account and posts all information to that space first, which is irksome tbh and problematic in itself because it leads people to believe they NEED it to survive.