You know social media is funny, it connects us, we can share things about our lives, we can support political objectives more easily, we can sign online petitions, we can promote our music or other creative and artistic endeavors… we can even do business through social media channels, pages, etc… but it comes with a price, the news we see may not be real, the algorithms may not be in our favour, and showing us what “it” figures we want to see or would be interested in… based on previous likes or reactions that we’ve made to whatever post or article. The algorithm can be manipulated too, people buying ads or posting articles specifically to swing elections in one way or another. Is this dangerous? It can be… especially because we can get lost in these echo chambers where we are only hearing one side of the story… or our emotions and feelings are being reinforced in a negative way because the algorithm is only showing us what we want to see or “it” figures what we want to see. The other question is, does the internet or social media have enough information on our psychology to know, what exactly will keep us connected to these services… do they know if they keep feeding us certain posts, or articles, or whatever, we will keep coming back to it, like an addiction? I do think that may be a possibility… and there are people who have started to speak out who are saying that this is very true… There is an information war going on, any data we upload to social media, or even the internet can be used against us and manipulated, the CEO’s of social media platforms know this… they are not intentionally trying to do this to us, but it is what has naturally occurred with the evolution of social media and the internet. We build these things to help people to make a better world, and we sometimes don’t think about the repercussions of how this technology will affect us negatively… or we didn’t have the foresight that what is occurring today, would be a serious threat and issue. Now that we are seeing these things happening, social media is trying to mitigate the damage, and changing things so that these things can’t happen again, at least politically speaking, but is the ultimate issue that we need to unplug, to step away from our screens and actually go out and talk to people, to have discussions… to really get to know someone? Understandably, some people are anti-social, or are introverts… or even have severe social anxiety and use the internet and social media as a tool to communicate with others, cause they have no other options when connecting with people, and taking tiny steps to actually meeting someone they feel safe enough with. The question is, do we need the technology, or does the CEO need to make sure, we are still at our screens so that they can sell targeted ads from companies, so they can fill their pockets when we look at them on Social? Is the social not really social anymore? I’m sure someone on one of the social media platforms I post this to will flag it, and the message will disappear, or be pulled… or maybe I’m wrong and they are thinking the same thing I am… have we gone too far? Is it really in all seriousness time to step away from our screens and actually go out and meet people and have discussions? Don’t get me wrong, I use Facebook primarily for promoting my music and artistic endeavors (and occasionally chime in to discussions [whether political or not] here and there), but there really is a problem with social algorithms showing us things we like, and then only showing us what we like… without the other side of the story, how are we supposed to make informed decisions. This speaks to the fake news side of things as well... nowadays it is so easy to say something or make up a story that is not real, to mislead the public and sway things in their (politicians) favour… The internet has been a really noisy place this last year or two, and what I mean by noise is, we really have to sift through data to find the real. Fact check your shit everyday... every article you read, politicians disseminating half-truths or blatant lies… just to a) get a reaction out of people that works in their favor, or b) to mislead others. I’ve always felt lawmakers are always behind on technology, it’s usually a case of, “well… we didn’t see that coming… and now we have a leader (President/Prime Minister/Premier/etc) that we didn’t want, and it’s all because someone in another country decided to use an exploit in targeted ads to confuse people and swing an election…It’s too late to change things, but next time we’ll be prepared and we’ll put some laws in place, so this shit won’t happen again…” Maybe we truly can’t see the repercussions until it’s too late… when we don’t fully understand something, or the technology evolves to a point that, people start doing things that we unintended with it, or they find exploits and start “hacking” it to affect things politically… maybe that’s the way things work though, we’ll never truly know how things will affect us in the long-term until something happens and we have to do damage control and learn our lessons… course there’s been a many great science-fiction authors who have predicted shit like this… or have predicted other technological advances, and how they will be used and exploited and hacked to gain some kind of power or influence. Take any cyberpunk fiction and it’s almost like reading a playbook to current technological and maybe even political trends… sure, we don’t have the advanced cybernetics or bionics, or the immersive matrix or whatever, but I do not doubt that those things are coming. I mean, if I’m not mistaken they have created a mind to machine “jack” where an individual can control their computer with just a thought… The whole idea of cyberpunk was that, this shit was meant as a warning, dystopia is not a good thing! I mean, people are saying that we are currently living in one, with what’s happening worldwide. **BEGIN RANT** I certainly don’t want to live in a world like that… corporations run the show, government is just lip-service and have basically given up any kind of actual control, and people are caught in the middle… just tryin to survive and maybe end the corruption and bullshit. I mean… I don’t want to have to pick up a gun just to feel safe…Sorry folks, I like peace too much! And, as far as I recall, most humans are generally decent people... I think what we are seeing here with the political trends as of late is these youth or young adults who think there is no possible way to change the system, because the current system seems to not work, and the process is repeated over and over, it’s either this party or the other party, and they both are shit… we’ve been seeing this trend for how many years, the last 40 or more years… maybe even longer… why vote? Nothing is going to change. And there you have it, shitty voter turnout. And also the reason why jokes become Presidents, or Prime Ministers (to be), or what-have-you. You also don’t see massive protests here in North America… like sure there have been large protests, but I haven’t seen in my lifetime protests so huge that, it shut down fucking industries, or government, sure I’ve seen the riots that happened after Rodney King was beaten… can’t remember how long that lasted… but I haven’t seen a mass of people walking out of their jobs, and protesting for the long haul (at least in North America)… like were talking government/law changing shit… I think if enough people fucking walked out on their jobs, and were in it for the long haul (do it as long as it fucking takes), and there were enough people (that it affected industries, or government function), then you would see a change in the way things are done and will be done in the future! It’s not enough to protest for just a day, or a couple of hours… people need to make the government feel it… and I mean… they can’t function properly and do the things they are doing anymore because people refuse to have it!! As an example, abortion and pro-choice. If you fuckers want to see a massive shift in governmental changes, walk the fuck out and stay out until it fucking changes… if that means you fucking do a hunger strike on parliament hill, you do it until the government is forced to feed you and change the fucking law! I don’t think the government wants someone’s life on their hands… and if they don’t care, then maybe it’s time to rethink the strategy! I’m not gonna tell you what to do, but I think maybe you get the idea… Rodney King is an example, the recent Yellow Vest’s in France is also an example (not the stupid racist bullshit that happened here in Canada)… You have to interrupt the system, not do it for a day and say “well, my work is done here”… You have to do it until the government is forced to change! The world is not gonna get better unless you force those in power to listen, you interrupt their system, their industries... cause ultimately if you want the system to work for you, you have to be willing to do what it takes to change that system! Being an armchair activist and signing online petitions is not going to change the system… what makes you think that the government is going to listen..? They obviously haven’t in recent times… so maybe it’s time to change the strategy! I do apologize, this has definitely turned into a rant here, I was trying to make a point about social media and the news, but it’s turned into a little bit of a rant about what is currently going on in the world, how social media plays into it, and what is the reality of the situation… and essentially what needs to be done… don’t get me wrong, I think it’s great we can organize this shit online and on social media channels… makes it easier to get the word out, but you have to be willing to go out there and put your life on the line until the world see’s that what is going on is bullshit! Maybe it’s a few people, maybe it’s just you, maybe it’s a million people… the point is, you shouldn’t be afraid, you have to believe so firmly in your cause, and believe in humanity, and that the world can be a better place… and that you are willing to do anything for it… to get the message across, to change laws, to change the system.
A note: I will say one more thing here, there are those of us who aren’t capable to go out and protest, and I understand that and we inevitably have to fight for those who can’t. I will also say, doing small things is good too, like donating time (or money) to a cause (ie: mental health awareness, or supporting elderly who can’t, or giving children in third world countries a better education, or whatever), but to look at current politics, take Mr. Ford in Ontario, or the US President, they will do whatever the fuck they want… they certainly aren’t listening, and for the people who can (go out and protest), just know that the only way things are gonna change, is you have to be in it for the long-term.
Also, note: Violence should be the last resort.
**END RANT**
What do you folks think?
EDIT: To clarify what I meant about "...the CEO’s of social media platforms know this… they are not intentionally trying to do this to us, but it is what has naturally occurred with the evolution of social media and the internet." Initially when social media platforms were becoming a thing, the intention was that this technology was meant to help us, to connect people, and communities (Facebook was initially created to connect college students, and help them communicate... there were no ads on Facebook at this point). When the platforms became popular, in order to grow the platforms (Facebook is a prime example) they went commercial and started selling ad space. Yes, now CEO's of social media platforms know that people can be manipulated and used against us, as a prime example: the Russia exploit during the recent U.S. election; although, that wasn't CEO's of social media platforms using the platform to manipulate us, it was political espionage on Russia's part, as they found a way to buy ads and target people on opposite sides to confuse and manipulate U.S. voters, and influence an election. After it was discovered that that was indeed what happened, Facebook specifically has now been mitigating the damage and changing the way things are being done when purchasing/making ads (although, I don't think it's perfect, as there is already people talking about the coming Canadian election, and warnings that this might happen here in Canada)... but I think you get the idea... Just wanted to clarify what I was saying there.
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