I feel you, Nancy. As you can imagine, living in one of the deepest red of "red states" (Oklahoma), I am surrounded by Trumpers. For the most part, my attitude is, "Bless their ignorant little hearts," while I roll my eyes. You can't have a discussion with them about issues because — thanks in large part to Fox News and social media — they can't tell fact from fiction and spend zero time trying to discern which is which.
But it's also severely damaged a close relationship I had with friend. I *thought* we shared core values. I *thought* she would be as appalled as I am about the SCOTUS decision in July, nevermind rolling back Roe v. Wade. For God's sake, we've lost one of the fundamental tenets upon which this country was founded — that no one is above the law!
She finds that less abhorent than 'Lyin' Kamala' being our next president. Less a problem than our 'shitty economy under Biden/Harris'. Less repugnant than the Cheeto Felon spreading lies about neighborhood pets being eaten by immigrants and Democrats directing the path of hurricanes to hit only red states — all of which endangered innocent people. WTactualF??!!!
When I said I had a problem with his reaction to losing the election in 2020, she said, "But did he, really?" When I pointed out no evidence of election fraud was found in any case brought before a court in any jurisdiction, she said, "So they say."
When I refuted each point with documented facts, she told me I was being condescending!!
No...that was incredulousness, not condescension. Incredulousness with a healthy dose of sorrow.
We will give them the benefit of doubts. If there's too much funny things happening, then it's not just a coincidence. Sometimes we just have to cut them off for peace of mind
It is difficult to navigate the world when there are no shared ‘facts’, when actually your personal devices are only feeding what you already have a tendency to believe. A logarithm is very efficient at determining your belief system, and then giving you your daily dose of ‘confirmation bias’.
We have always assumed that search engines are unbiased. Chris Palmer of the Electronic Frontier Foundation writes, “You’re given a free service and the cost is information about you. And Google and Facebook translate that directly into money. On Gmail we pour the most intimate details of our lives.”
As a business strategy, the Internet giants formula is simple. The more personally relevant their info offerings are, the more ads they can sell, and the more likely you are to buy products advertisers are offering. Amazon sells billions of dollars in merchandise by predicting what each customer is interested in and by putting it in front of the virtual store.
However, the ‘filter bubble’ phenomena does much more than simply sell you on material goods as Politically motivated special interest groups pay Facebook and other Internet Giants to spread ‘fake news’ and propaganda to influence the way people think and ultimately vote. Democracy requires citizens to see things from one another’s point of view, but instead we are more and more insulated; enclosed in our own egocentric filter bubbles. Healthy democracy needs reliance on shared facts (remember those!); instead we’re being offered parallel but separate universes.’ Eli Pariser
Our culture encourages us to get ahead at any cost and grab what we can while without any concern for fundamental values. And yet we consume, we use our credit cards, our house mortgages to consume. Seriously, we don’t know that we want something until someone makes it, shows it to us, and then convinces us that we need it.
And once something is out there on the market, there is no better determinant than who will buy it, than algorithms. A computer is much better than a human at triggering Pavlov’s dog syndrome; far exceeding the wildest dreams of ad executives and marketing departments. In fact, the whole economic model is not to find out what people need and/or want, but to create something totally new and then convince them that they have to have it.
Not only are we told what we need to have in terms of material goods, but also what our belief systems are: who we need to fear, to hate, which political party to support, and which God we need to believe in.
A MENTAL HEALTH EMERGENCY
The self-reported average social media among adolescents is 4.8 hours a day! Most would call that an addiction. Kids are spending five hours a day staring at a screen rather than riding a bike, reading a book, or talking to another person.
Well now The U.S. Surgeon General Dr. Vivek Murthy is calling for warning labels for social media apps, believing they are the most powerful tool available to combat what he calls a health crisis. In an opinion piece in The New York Times, Dr. Murthy urged Congress to develop health and safety measures for social media platforms .He believes that the mental health crises among young Americans is an ‘emergency’ and social media is a big reason why. He is calling for warning labels which first appeared on cigarettes in 1965. ‘There is no seat-belt for parents to snap in place, no assurance from trusted experts that these platforms have been investigated and deemed safe for our kids. There are just parents and their children trying to figure it out on their own, pitted against some of the best product engineers and most well-resourced companies in the world. Social media addiction is no accident. It is the direct result of complex algorithms, designed to keep you and your children scrolling.’
Add to that a toxic mix of anonymous bullying, unscrupulous trolls and disinformation and it is no wonder the risk of anxiety and depression and suicidal ideation increases by some studies as high as 50 percent among young people. GEN Z gets their news from social media. The BBC found that in a recent election in the UK ,young voters were targeted on social media with fake AI -generated videos replete with misinformation.
So with the American election looming on the horizon every Tom, Dick, Harry, Vladimir, Musk, and Chat GPT will be kept busy feeding you misinformation. Make no mistake about that!
Almost one in four middle and high school students have experienced cyberbullying in a 30 day period. Cyberbullying victims of middle school age are twice as likely to attempt suicide as non-victims. Eighty percent of Americans think that social media companies don’t do a good job addressing cyberbullying and want more laws and safeguards to deal with the problem.
Social media has also become a dark place for young children, causing them to worry about body image. It’s a huge issue for young and developing minds. Poor body image can lead to eating disorders, which are serious illnesses. Congress would have to approve warning labels and more likely than the next president may be the biggest cyberbully of all time.
Courtesy of Dan Rather and Team Steady/ Thank-you so much.
I feel you, Nancy. As you can imagine, living in one of the deepest red of "red states" (Oklahoma), I am surrounded by Trumpers. For the most part, my attitude is, "Bless their ignorant little hearts," while I roll my eyes. You can't have a discussion with them about issues because — thanks in large part to Fox News and social media — they can't tell fact from fiction and spend zero time trying to discern which is which.
But it's also severely damaged a close relationship I had with friend. I *thought* we shared core values. I *thought* she would be as appalled as I am about the SCOTUS decision in July, nevermind rolling back Roe v. Wade. For God's sake, we've lost one of the fundamental tenets upon which this country was founded — that no one is above the law!
She finds that less abhorent than 'Lyin' Kamala' being our next president. Less a problem than our 'shitty economy under Biden/Harris'. Less repugnant than the Cheeto Felon spreading lies about neighborhood pets being eaten by immigrants and Democrats directing the path of hurricanes to hit only red states — all of which endangered innocent people. WTactualF??!!!
When I said I had a problem with his reaction to losing the election in 2020, she said, "But did he, really?" When I pointed out no evidence of election fraud was found in any case brought before a court in any jurisdiction, she said, "So they say."
When I refuted each point with documented facts, she told me I was being condescending!!
No...that was incredulousness, not condescension. Incredulousness with a healthy dose of sorrow.
Yep, you know exactly what I’m talking about. Sounds like you went to the same rodeo. Sad times.
We will give them the benefit of doubts. If there's too much funny things happening, then it's not just a coincidence. Sometimes we just have to cut them off for peace of mind
Absolutely 👍
It is difficult to navigate the world when there are no shared ‘facts’, when actually your personal devices are only feeding what you already have a tendency to believe. A logarithm is very efficient at determining your belief system, and then giving you your daily dose of ‘confirmation bias’.
=========================================================================
We have always assumed that search engines are unbiased. Chris Palmer of the Electronic Frontier Foundation writes, “You’re given a free service and the cost is information about you. And Google and Facebook translate that directly into money. On Gmail we pour the most intimate details of our lives.”
==============================================================================
As a business strategy, the Internet giants formula is simple. The more personally relevant their info offerings are, the more ads they can sell, and the more likely you are to buy products advertisers are offering. Amazon sells billions of dollars in merchandise by predicting what each customer is interested in and by putting it in front of the virtual store.
============================================================================
However, the ‘filter bubble’ phenomena does much more than simply sell you on material goods as Politically motivated special interest groups pay Facebook and other Internet Giants to spread ‘fake news’ and propaganda to influence the way people think and ultimately vote. Democracy requires citizens to see things from one another’s point of view, but instead we are more and more insulated; enclosed in our own egocentric filter bubbles. Healthy democracy needs reliance on shared facts (remember those!); instead we’re being offered parallel but separate universes.’ Eli Pariser
Our culture encourages us to get ahead at any cost and grab what we can while without any concern for fundamental values. And yet we consume, we use our credit cards, our house mortgages to consume. Seriously, we don’t know that we want something until someone makes it, shows it to us, and then convinces us that we need it.
And once something is out there on the market, there is no better determinant than who will buy it, than algorithms. A computer is much better than a human at triggering Pavlov’s dog syndrome; far exceeding the wildest dreams of ad executives and marketing departments. In fact, the whole economic model is not to find out what people need and/or want, but to create something totally new and then convince them that they have to have it.
Not only are we told what we need to have in terms of material goods, but also what our belief systems are: who we need to fear, to hate, which political party to support, and which God we need to believe in.
A MENTAL HEALTH EMERGENCY
The self-reported average social media among adolescents is 4.8 hours a day! Most would call that an addiction. Kids are spending five hours a day staring at a screen rather than riding a bike, reading a book, or talking to another person.
Well now The U.S. Surgeon General Dr. Vivek Murthy is calling for warning labels for social media apps, believing they are the most powerful tool available to combat what he calls a health crisis. In an opinion piece in The New York Times, Dr. Murthy urged Congress to develop health and safety measures for social media platforms .He believes that the mental health crises among young Americans is an ‘emergency’ and social media is a big reason why. He is calling for warning labels which first appeared on cigarettes in 1965. ‘There is no seat-belt for parents to snap in place, no assurance from trusted experts that these platforms have been investigated and deemed safe for our kids. There are just parents and their children trying to figure it out on their own, pitted against some of the best product engineers and most well-resourced companies in the world. Social media addiction is no accident. It is the direct result of complex algorithms, designed to keep you and your children scrolling.’
Add to that a toxic mix of anonymous bullying, unscrupulous trolls and disinformation and it is no wonder the risk of anxiety and depression and suicidal ideation increases by some studies as high as 50 percent among young people. GEN Z gets their news from social media. The BBC found that in a recent election in the UK ,young voters were targeted on social media with fake AI -generated videos replete with misinformation.
So with the American election looming on the horizon every Tom, Dick, Harry, Vladimir, Musk, and Chat GPT will be kept busy feeding you misinformation. Make no mistake about that!
Almost one in four middle and high school students have experienced cyberbullying in a 30 day period. Cyberbullying victims of middle school age are twice as likely to attempt suicide as non-victims. Eighty percent of Americans think that social media companies don’t do a good job addressing cyberbullying and want more laws and safeguards to deal with the problem.
Social media has also become a dark place for young children, causing them to worry about body image. It’s a huge issue for young and developing minds. Poor body image can lead to eating disorders, which are serious illnesses. Congress would have to approve warning labels and more likely than the next president may be the biggest cyberbully of all time.
Courtesy of Dan Rather and Team Steady/ Thank-you so much.