Welcome to the Feedback Loop From Hell
There I was, doing research on the Kennedy assassination and I was doing it in brand new laptop. My old laptop had given up the ghost and I didn’t even had the time to enter my details in the new computed, so I never logged in to Facebook, YouTube..etc
It was like navigating the web on a clean slate. I didn’t do it on purpose - I just didn’t have the chance to login into social media yet - but sometimes the best discoveries are the ones that happen by pure accident.
Here’s where it gets interesting (or creepy)
While I was busy researching some strange and usual facts to write a short comedy and make you guys laugh, the Orwellian band were busy profiling me while trying to find a pigeonhole to box me into.
Luckily, they profiled and pushed me into the wrong box.
They must have thought something in the lines of “Oh, this guy likes conspiracy theories, he must be a right-winger” because inexplicably they tossed me in that category.
And before you know it, I was being bombarded full blast all all sorts of video suggestions of right-wing content.
The problem is, I am not a winger.
Where I stand politically is neither left, right nor center.
When it comes to politics, I stand on another planet entirely. Preferably one where politics are made obsolete.
Which makes the whole thing more amusing.
As the time passed, they just kept bombarding me with stuff like “Bill O’Reilly DESTROYS leftist professor”, “Sean Hannity OBLITERATES clueless leftists"... So on and so forth.
In case you were wondering why there is so much division in the recent years.
Although I'm sure I would've seen the exact same thing take place, had they profiled me as a left winger instead
From an outsider point of view, it boggles the mind to see so much hatred and tribalism taking place.
Why so much need for destruction? And all that for what? For disagreeing on a topic?
A little hysteric don’t you think?
Though it’s funny to notice that the word “destroy” always appear in caps, but I’m digressing.
I never really understood that phenomenon. Probably because at the end of the day, hormonal politics far from sparking my mind, they actually bore me.
Needless to say, those repeated suggestions didn’t get to me.
I really don’t give a shit about any of these people nor their ideologies. So why would I want anyone to be “destroyed” because of their opinion on some wedding cake or whatever crap people keep blowing out of proportion?
I think it was the lack of emotional attachment that helped me escape from that hellish feedback loop. A feedback loop that is devised to mousetrap you inside a spiral of hate and anger, while antagonizing everyone who thinks differently.
Being an outsider gave me an insight into the nature of the cage. But also made me understand that even with a brand new laptop and fresh accounts, you can't really escape the flood of ensnaring content that was meant to bait me, isolate me, and then proceed to inject me with their venom: The Single Narrative.
The Dangers of the Single Story
It was not even a couple of days and they already tried to push me inside one of those echo-chambers.
Imagine those who have been stuck in that feedback loop for years, without access to any other narrative other than the single story that they were boxed into.
Maybe that explains why people are getting so upset these days whenever someone disagrees with them.
The Era of Digital Imprisonment
What’s the most common thing that cults are known for?
Isolating the mark from everyone they know, so their discourse becomes the only type of narrative they have access to.
If they remove you from the outside world, then they become your whole world. And anything new or different you will be trained to resist, oppose and eventually hate.
What’s the second most common thing that cults are known for?
Us vs Them, anyone who thinks differently must be the enemy.
When they got you in that stage, all they have to do is to keep feeding that hate, little by little, day after day until such point where you become a true believer.
It’s then that you realize that the brainwashing has been successful.
Now, here’s a crazy question.
What happens when the most powerful social media companies in the world start to operate in the exact same fashion than your run-of-the-mill cult leader?
And where the hell do they recruit those social engineers of theirs? From Saint John’s hospital of the criminally insane?
It’s not only about tracking you, profiling you, or selling your data. It’s about shaping your personality as well.
That’s how all they make their money, because the true believers are the best kind of customers.
The problem however is that they're also the best kind of human stock.
Hmmm....cool stuff....:)...
Thank you! :)
That's an amazing post you shared really interesting aspects you touched
Thanks a lot @blazing! I'm glad you liked it :)
Hope you're doing well and thanks for being awesome!
I feel you, what you are saying.
I have seen it many times, my feed full of content that can make me sad, angry, or even venemous!
But every time I feel something like that, I just take a second and think,"How does this affect me, if I have not seen this content?".
Most of the times, it solves my problem and anger.
You have a great point actually. We are in control of how we feel.
Such an insightful comment btw!
Thank you @looftee!
Well, without an insightful post, there would not be an insightful comment.
So, thank you!
Haha well then thanks to us both.
Cheers!
Yepp, have a good day!
You too!
This raises so many more questions! Are they doing this to push their own agenda? Are they doing it to make the most advertising dollars? If we've progressed this much into the feedback loop rabbit hole in the last 5-10 years, what will it look like in another 10 years? Would peoples' opinions be so polarized if we didn't have this technology?
That's a good question. It's seems like when it comes to social engineering they're operating like some sort of digital soviet union, where they were no competing points of view available.
There had only two newspapers, one called Pravda which means the "truth", and the other one was called Izvestyia which means "the news". But no one trusted neither.
People used to joke: There is no news in the Truth, and there is no truth in the news.
Now we have access to a lot of information, but Youtube and Facebook's algorithms make it very hard for you to access other points of view, if you don't look for it, it wont appear.
They're pushing the single story instead.
So my guess is people would be far more polarized in the next 10 years yes. But if other platforms managed to compete with them, it will be a different story.
Also I don't think that people would be so polarized if it weren't for this new social engineering taking place in the past years. It would probably be just like the 1990s or beginning of the 2000s. There was not nearly as much polarization as we have now.
You just gave the biggest reason for blockchain based social media to arise and take over that industry...
I am also tired of google feeding me ads according to things I google the day before, I was recently researching a new blockchain platform for gaming, and out of a sudden, I saw an ad about that platform...
Its really annoying
I just hope we can make people see that, and that a blockchain social media is a much better alternative.
No spying on you, nor trying to censor and manipulate the type of contents that you see... So many aspects.
P.S: I was just reading you post about Chimera - haven't got the chance to check them out yet - but you've got a great point there. Not only gamers can earn virtual goods but also rewards they can benefit in "real life".
It sucks that google was feeding you ads though.. I hope there's some way to stop that tracking.
Thanks for the awesome comment btw!
Yeah man, Chimaera looks awesome :D.
I installed adblock but I had it disabled don't remember why. Its enabled now haha
Pretty good bringing this to light for all to see; more should be so aware...
Thanks @wales, yeah I try to spread the word for just in case. :)
No doubt, division sells, and the more divided we are the more people in possession of the media profit, takeover and feed you a canned narrative that only barely resembles the truth. Divisiveness is ruining America.
Absolutely! And you're right they do it because they profit from division but they ruin it for everyone else in the process sadly.
Yup! According to my profiling I should hate you and all other non-vegans and wash my mouth whenever I kissed one ;) Glad that I'm wearing to permanent nonsense-helmet
Hahaha! Thank god you're wearing one of those! I wonder where I can get myself one too ;)
Great post! guess this is part of what happens when our algorithms find out that outrage and DESTRUCTION are the best ways to maximize clickage.
Ok, so bear with me here, because this comment is going to be so far off the planet of this post, it's not even funny.
However, as I was reading it, I had an epiphany. (Don't ya just love it when that happens?!?!)
Anyway, what you described with all the political propaganda and BS is exactly how abusive men (and women) gain control over their victims. Separating them from friends and family so all they know is their abuser.
Not to mention, the exact same thing can be said for victims who end up with Stockholm Syndrome, protecting their captor.
All of it is just in the shaping of someone's personality. It's just breaking down another's will until there is so little of themselves they are merely a shadow of what they once were and incapable of formulating their own throughts. They are all just...owned.
Cults of conformity, even if the victim is alone.
Scary.
BTW - right there with you on politics. Someone asks me my affiliation and I get a deer in the headlights look and change the subject. Or start ranting they should all be fired and we should just start over. Depends on my mood. 😏