Most of the human race who aren't journalists, OSINTers, or citizens living under authoritarian governments need to get the hell off of social media, so I rejoice after every social media site comes apart. I hope that TikTok is next. The shit this stuff is doing to our brains--especially the brains of young people--is making this technology more harmful than helpful. Go check Jonathan Haidt's research on social media and what it's doing to our brains and tell me this stuff should stick around:
"The shit this stuff is doing to our brains--especially the brains of young people--is making this technology more harmful than helpful."
I dunno. Socrates (well, Plato, but it's whatever) said exactly the same thing about writing. Nobody has to remember anything when they can write it down, so they don't.
As Sam Harris often says (and he's a big fan and frequent interviewer of Haidt), we're running a massive psychological experiment on ourselves, and it's not going well.
What strikes me is the absolute addiction that people, especially the young'uns, have developed for this stuff. Watching them leave the classroom and immediately pull out devices -- when they aren't using them already during the class -- reminds me of a time not so long ago, when people at the airport took their cigarettes out for a needed smoke as soon as they deplaned. Neither is healthy, but the narcissism and mindlessness of social media in particular is creating a circumstance in which everybody's lifestyle is boiling down to their own little chosen bubble, and factual information and knowledge are taking a back seat to amusement, an intellectually lazy approach in which reality is whatever one chooses to consume, in as short of bursts as possible. As you note, the long-term consequences will not be good as we reduce brain function and critical thinking capability to the level of the machine rather than embrace its ability to help us raise our game in those areas. For too many people it has become to the mind what a can of Coke is to our daily diet.
Yes, I agree, this addiction to the social media snd interactions online with narrow bubble communities sending short messages reinforcing their prejudices is really terrible and IтАЩm going to cut it off. Yes sir, tomorrow. As soon as I read all the new Bulwark content and listen to all the Bulwark podcasts and respond to all the contents and recheck to make sure now new pods have dropped. Tomorrow, for absolute sure. ,
It's that feeling that comes over you when, in the middle of complaining about the foolishness being perpetrated by idiots, it dawns on you you are complaining about yourself.
We didn't evolve for factual intelligence, we evolved for social intelligence--this is why we are rationalizing beings rather than rational ones... and why we so easily become absorbed in things like social media.
One might argue (on the basis of SBH--and some (probable) oversimplification) that the problems that we are currently experiencing are, in part, a result of our group size exceeding the limits of social cognition--understanding that it is the various large scale media complexes that have acted to expand group size.
I couldn't agree with what you wrote here anymore if I tried. And when it comes to the "devices" and the 'tech' that has created and continuously enables this situation, some words from 6+ decades ago concerning another then fairly new tech medium come to mind, and I think are still relevant today - even more so now than then, considering the much more pervasive nature of the medium involved:
"This instrument can teach, it can illuminate; yes, and even it can inspire. But it can do so only to the extent that humans are determined to use it to those ends. Otherwise, it's nothing but wires and lights in a box. There is a great and perhaps decisive battle to be fought against ignorance, intolerance and indifference. This weapon of television could be useful."
The medium, both then and now, isn't the real problem. We are. Or rather our lack of determination to pursue much of significance beyond the all-mighty buck and self-gratification is the problem, at both the level of us as a culture and society and, sadly, as individuals. And though I don't own a smartphone or use social media or seek significant amounts of gratification from either, I don't exclude myself completely from being part of that problem, which of course I have no answer for, though answers clearly exist, if only we'd choose them. Perhaps Murrow was a bit over-dramatic in his proffering of one of them in the closing lines that followed the above and could well apply to the 'wires and lights in a box' of our present time. But then again maybe he wasn't.
"Stonewall Jackson, who is generally believed to have known something about weapons, is reported to have said, "When war comes, you must draw the sword and throw away the scabbard." The trouble with television is that it is rusting in the scabbard during a battle for survival."
Matt Levine is the best. Been reading him since he started the newsletter. He is at his absolute best when it comes to business shenanigans. His columns on WeWork are the stuff of legend.
And Jonathan Haidt is incomparible. His book, THE RIGHTEOUS MIND, is still one of the best explainers of how we've become so polarized.
Yup. A combination of our self-sorting via class/education, helicopter parenting with kids, and the spread of social media got us to where we are today regarding Dunning-Kruger Populism and political polarization. The Righteous Mind is an excellent read, but "The Coddling of the American Mind" is even more eye-opening and revealing of society's social weaknesses. So is Bill Bishop's "The Big Sort" and Matthew Stewart's "The 9.9%."
Most of the human race who aren't journalists, OSINTers, or citizens living under authoritarian governments need to get the hell off of social media, so I rejoice after every social media site comes apart. I hope that TikTok is next. The shit this stuff is doing to our brains--especially the brains of young people--is making this technology more harmful than helpful. Go check Jonathan Haidt's research on social media and what it's doing to our brains and tell me this stuff should stick around:
https://jonathanhaidt.com/social-media/
"The shit this stuff is doing to our brains--especially the brains of young people--is making this technology more harmful than helpful."
I dunno. Socrates (well, Plato, but it's whatever) said exactly the same thing about writing. Nobody has to remember anything when they can write it down, so they don't.
As Sam Harris often says (and he's a big fan and frequent interviewer of Haidt), we're running a massive psychological experiment on ourselves, and it's not going well.
What strikes me is the absolute addiction that people, especially the young'uns, have developed for this stuff. Watching them leave the classroom and immediately pull out devices -- when they aren't using them already during the class -- reminds me of a time not so long ago, when people at the airport took their cigarettes out for a needed smoke as soon as they deplaned. Neither is healthy, but the narcissism and mindlessness of social media in particular is creating a circumstance in which everybody's lifestyle is boiling down to their own little chosen bubble, and factual information and knowledge are taking a back seat to amusement, an intellectually lazy approach in which reality is whatever one chooses to consume, in as short of bursts as possible. As you note, the long-term consequences will not be good as we reduce brain function and critical thinking capability to the level of the machine rather than embrace its ability to help us raise our game in those areas. For too many people it has become to the mind what a can of Coke is to our daily diet.
Have you ever noticed the dowagerтАЩs humps on young people from all that bending over the phone?
Yes, I agree, this addiction to the social media snd interactions online with narrow bubble communities sending short messages reinforcing their prejudices is really terrible and IтАЩm going to cut it off. Yes sir, tomorrow. As soon as I read all the new Bulwark content and listen to all the Bulwark podcasts and respond to all the contents and recheck to make sure now new pods have dropped. Tomorrow, for absolute sure. ,
It's that our can of Coke has less sugar, I tell ya, and more nutrients! Let no one tell you otherwise.
!!!!!!!!!
Please remind me to do the same, since I will be similarly engaged and may forget.
It's that feeling that comes over you when, in the middle of complaining about the foolishness being perpetrated by idiots, it dawns on you you are complaining about yourself.
Yeah, not a warm and fuzzy feeling. But on the plus side, I like to think it's indicative of a characteristic many idiots lack...self-awareness. ;-/
These things are designed to be addictive, just as games are designed to be addictive.
I am an adherent of the Social Brain hypothesis:
https://oxfordre.com/psychology/view/10.1093/acrefore/9780190236557.001.0001/acrefore-9780190236557-e-44
We didn't evolve for factual intelligence, we evolved for social intelligence--this is why we are rationalizing beings rather than rational ones... and why we so easily become absorbed in things like social media.
One might argue (on the basis of SBH--and some (probable) oversimplification) that the problems that we are currently experiencing are, in part, a result of our group size exceeding the limits of social cognition--understanding that it is the various large scale media complexes that have acted to expand group size.
Well, unlike most of what can be found on social media, that more or less makes sense.
I couldn't agree with what you wrote here anymore if I tried. And when it comes to the "devices" and the 'tech' that has created and continuously enables this situation, some words from 6+ decades ago concerning another then fairly new tech medium come to mind, and I think are still relevant today - even more so now than then, considering the much more pervasive nature of the medium involved:
"This instrument can teach, it can illuminate; yes, and even it can inspire. But it can do so only to the extent that humans are determined to use it to those ends. Otherwise, it's nothing but wires and lights in a box. There is a great and perhaps decisive battle to be fought against ignorance, intolerance and indifference. This weapon of television could be useful."
For those lucky enough to be young enough to be unfamiliar: https://www.rtdna.org/content/edward_r_murrow_s_1958_wires_lights_in_a_box_speech
The medium, both then and now, isn't the real problem. We are. Or rather our lack of determination to pursue much of significance beyond the all-mighty buck and self-gratification is the problem, at both the level of us as a culture and society and, sadly, as individuals. And though I don't own a smartphone or use social media or seek significant amounts of gratification from either, I don't exclude myself completely from being part of that problem, which of course I have no answer for, though answers clearly exist, if only we'd choose them. Perhaps Murrow was a bit over-dramatic in his proffering of one of them in the closing lines that followed the above and could well apply to the 'wires and lights in a box' of our present time. But then again maybe he wasn't.
"Stonewall Jackson, who is generally believed to have known something about weapons, is reported to have said, "When war comes, you must draw the sword and throw away the scabbard." The trouble with television is that it is rusting in the scabbard during a battle for survival."
I have watched social media and the internet wreak havoc in the education system over the last few decades. It's scary.
Hard agree.
Matt Levine is the best. Been reading him since he started the newsletter. He is at his absolute best when it comes to business shenanigans. His columns on WeWork are the stuff of legend.
And Jonathan Haidt is incomparible. His book, THE RIGHTEOUS MIND, is still one of the best explainers of how we've become so polarized.
Yup. A combination of our self-sorting via class/education, helicopter parenting with kids, and the spread of social media got us to where we are today regarding Dunning-Kruger Populism and political polarization. The Righteous Mind is an excellent read, but "The Coddling of the American Mind" is even more eye-opening and revealing of society's social weaknesses. So is Bill Bishop's "The Big Sort" and Matthew Stewart's "The 9.9%."
Agree
I would add "I-gen" by Dr. Twenge to round out your list.
On top of everything else, TikTok is a national security risk. Everyone needs to get off ASAP.