Namaste, Welcome to SAM-VAD (Together In Conversation). A few weeks back I shared an excerpt titled – ‘Polarized Behaviour’ from an article titled ‘The Conditioning Machines in Our Back Pockets’ by John Zada. This article highlights amongst many other things that we are all at risk of becoming more biased and blinkered than we think we are. And, People are conditioned not only by deliberate indoctrination, but also by systems whose proponents themselves are ignorant of the need for safeguards to prevent conditioning.

Now, SAM-VAD (Together In Conversation) to the ones paying heed, this is where we try to draw your attention to things that matter and the importance of your attention, and that is because, ‘Our life’s experience would ultimately amount to whatever we had paid attention to.

Attention: is as fundamental as food; and we go blundering about, seeking ways to assuage the craving, instead of learning how to provide ourselves with what we need, sensibly and calmly. Once our attention is drawn to the mechanism of why and what we give attention to, it is as if a veil has been stripped off and we become freer in our action and choices. And that is our endavour.

This week I bring to your attention an excerpt titled – ‘Social Media and its impact’ from a book titled ‘LikeWar – The Weaponization of Social Media’ by Peter Singer and Emerson Brooking. These two defense experts explore in this book amongst many other things the collision of war, politics, and social media, where the most important battles are now only a click away.

Social media and its Impact

Imagine … a system of communications in which each person has unlimited power of individual design. If some people want to watch news all the time, they would be entirely free to do exactly that. If they dislike news, and want to watch football in the morning and situation comedies at night, that would be fine too … If people want to restrict themselves to certain points of view, by limiting themselves to conservatives, moderates, liberals, vegetarians that would be entirely feasible with a simple point-and-click. If people want to isolate themselves, and speak only with like-minded others, that is feasible too … The implication is that groups of people, especially if they are like-minded, will end up thinking the same thing that they thought before – but in more extreme form.

In an age when shared information is the bedrock of shared experience, the filter bubble is the centrifugal force, pulling us apart.

Most people don’t ponder deeply when they click “share.” They are just passing on things that they find notable or that might sway others. Yet is shapes them all the same. As users respond positively to certain types of content, the algorithms that drive social media’s newsfeeds, ensure that they see more of it. As they see more, they share more, affecting all others in their extended network. Like ripples in a pond, each of these small decisions expands outward, altering the flow of information across the entire system.

Social media algorithms work by drawing attention to content that trends on their networks, even (and especially) when people are outraged by it. The result is the virtual equivalent of a grease fire, where widespread condemnation of something ensures that new groups of users see it and condemn it in return. Because virality is incompatible with complexity, as content trends, any context and details are quickly stripped away. All that remains is the controversy itself, spread unwittingly by people who feel the need to “weigh in” on how fake or nonsensical it sounds. Even as they complain about how big it has gotten, they make it bigger.

Excerpt from ‘LikeWar – The Weaponization of Social Media’ by Peter Singer and Emerson Brooking.

I am sure that you will find this book thought provoking; to read a preview and buy your copy you can click on the following link:

https://humanjourney.us/books/likewar-the-weaponization-of-social-media

Namaste!