I think the Social Dilemma should be mandatory watching. Especially to younger people.
Lots of stuff to unpack, but here is a quote: If you are not paying for the product, YOU are the product.
My thoughts below: Meaning my opinion, not something to view as wholly factual.
Algorithms that are designed to keep us online are what is running the show now. Not intentionally bad, just people making money, but how it is being used is terrible.
Short version: They can grow to predict what you will do. Not people like you, but YOU. What they know about us is insane. The evil mind control people out there is not (necessarily) the government, but technology companies who are built to drive us to click on advertisements. If they can predict that, then ask yourself this: What else can they do?
Basically we are driven to stay online because it (social media platforms) throw lots of interesting stuff for us to check out. This can and does affect and alter how we behave in the real world as well.
We are really living in the Matrix. What we think is free thought is not.
Quick Thought: The quickest and most effective way to destroy a modern day powerful democracy (Like the USA) is not militarily, but to get the people of that country to distrust its institutions. Once its institutions are distrusted, then bad actors can come in and really take power. Then we think we will have obtained freedom, but instead will have truly given up our power to people who tell us what we want to hear and believe. (Please re-read that last line, I am speaking to right wing and left wing, conservative and liberal). Accordingly, this allows them them the latitude to serve themselves and not us. As long as they are singing our song…we will follow and applaud them for the music.
This is not theory, this has already happened in less developed nations and literally thousands of people (maybe more) were killed.
After you watch the Social Dilemma, then watch Agents of Chaos (If you have HBO). THEN you will see how the tools we have in our hands every day can be used against us by foreign actors and enhance the divisions we already have.
After watching them both, I don’t think Russia “hacked” the election, what happened is that they used the tools created by technology to influence us. What is slick is this: They did not just pull the strings of hard right leaning people, they ALSO pulled the strings of hard left leaning people.
It is important for me to repeat: They do not create divisions, they expose them and use them to their advantage.
They they created and set up people to join groups full of people who shared their views. My guess is that even though neither documentary actually said this, but I think that the extreme right wing and left wing groups were/are run by the same people.
Then they can post extreme videos to otherwise rational people and because that video we like got shared a million times, we think it is the truth, so we share it to “enlighten” others.
The best way to control a person is to help them define their enemies. Once they have defined our enemies, THEN they own us!
They can literally get people to fight and perhaps even harm each other.
This is how a person goes from being our best or a good friend to a mortal enemy. This is how that go from someone we like so someone who must be destroyed.
This is why we are no longer attentive to what others think and feel and are quickly growing incapable of having constructive dialog.
Should we all disconnect from Social Media? I personally don’t think so, it is very useful, but knowing how it is used and how it acts to influence you is key.
Quiet Thunder 
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