Centralized Social Media: Making People Ignorant
It is becoming evident there is a problem with the present social media platforms. While many point to censorship, which is certainly an issue, it goes much deeper than that.
For decades, information was managed. What this means is that the information purveyors were in completely control. They chose the stories they wanted to cover. Thus, people such as Walter Cronkite wielded a great deal of power. In the United States, the nightly news had a huge following.
The same was true for newspapers. After all, this is where people got their "news" from. Whatever was printed was taken as truth simply because people had little choice. There was no way to counter what was put out there. Sure, a few might be able to go to the library and read the actual research but this was rarely done.
When the Internet came into being, we saw a completely new medium. Here, anyone could post their thoughts or ideas. Suddenly, information was not controlled by simply a few entities. Anyone could be an information purveyor, putting those companies that specialized in it in deep jeopardy.
It is safe to say the Internet, for a while, lowered the collective ignorance of the global population (at least those who were online). Now, there were ways to check what was being told to us on television or written in the newspapers. The best part about it was that all of this was free.
Source
:no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_image/image/54784853/GettyImages_587169617.0.jpg){kind=link}
Social media entered the picture and changed the game once again. Over the last decade, these platforms becomes so powerful that they are now similar to the nightly news casts of years ago. What is on there is "tailored" in a way to promote agendas. This became really evident when the election cycle kicked off in the United States.
Having only one side to any story is grounds for total ignorance. It is also the basis for complete manipulation. We see this in Google searches and how their "algorithm is completely biased in its results. This is by design.
Here is where we see decentralized social media entering the picture. The reason why this initiative is going to be successful is the fact that the centralized model is totally unsustainable. Just like the nightly news and newspapers across the world fell as the popularity of the Internet grew, the existing social media companies are going to follow the same path.
Information yearns to be free. At the same time, people want to express themselves. This opens up the possibility for a very powerful network effect whereby people are seeking to get their views out. Couple this with the fact that most people want to have options when it comes to information as opposed to being programmed, and we can see how fast this move can take place.
Nobody likes to be ignorant. This really takes on meaning when that is spread across a population. One of the reasons the Catholic Church became so powerful is it controlled the message. Most were not able to read the written word and the masses were held in a language few spoke. Thus, the Church was able to control the flow of information which dominated an era we call "the Dark Ages".
With the Renaissance, information became widely available. There suddenly were these things called books as a result of the printing press. No longer was the Church the main purveyor of information. Over the next few decades, humanity saw progress like it had never seen before.
Source
Today is no different. Those entities that are seeking to control the information on their centralized platforms will ultimately fail. Most people want to be knowledgeable about different matters. This is likely part of the human curiosity.
Intelligence comes from skepticism. This was always the basis for science. Remember Copernicus? In the 1500s, he challenged the common view that the Earth was the center of the universe. Instead, he offered up that "fake news" about the Earth actually orbiting the sun. He was an "Earth at the center of the universe" denier.
Fortunately, he died before his works were published. If he didn't, he might have been condemned for heresy. Of course, by the 1800s, his view was accepted as factual.
History might not repeat itself but it rhymes is the old saying. We an see how we are in an era where the control of information is setting people up for the same programming. What is the difference between what the Church did and the views that are espoused all over Facebook, Twitter, and through Google searches?
When people are programmed, they are ignorant. Most have the ability to make up their own minds and judge what is believable. For this to happen, one must have access to all the information. Presently, this is not the world we live in.
Decentralization is a place for those who yearn to be free from ignorance. When you have a platform like Hive, where any text that is posted is immutable, this helps to decentralize information. Couple this with the fact that nobody can have their account closed down and we see how powerful this concept it. This moves in the opposite direction of where the present social media companies stand.
Of course, there can be a lot of rubbish posted. That is the price we pay for giving people the freedom to post as they wish. Also, there might be a lot of outlandish stuff proposed. Again, this is what freedom is all about.
However, to fully appreciate this requires a skill that humanity is losing: the ability to decipher. When one is programmed, nothing more than sucking in the existing mantra and parroting it is required. No matter how foolish, accept it and repeat.
Source
True intelligence starts with the ability to decipher all the information presented. After all the "crazies" might actually be right, or they could just be crazy. Either way, deciphering the validity of their point is a skill that opens the door to even more inquiry.
This is not present today. When entities label things as "fake news" for us and tell us that it is bogus, why should we believe them? What makes them qualified to make that call?
Of course, an interesting thing can happen. The Catholic Church still have roughly 1 billion followers around the world. Even though people have access to a lot more information, they still opt to place their faith with that institutions. The services are in a language that people can understand as is the Bible. While one could make the case of upbringing and societal pressures, from an information standpoint, it is out there for people to choose.
Comparing an entity that lasted thousands of years versus ones that are only a couple decades old means that the staying power of the later is not as solid as the former. This is why the social media companies will find themselves in a tough situation. Their actions are showing people who the information is controlled. For many, even those who support the point of view promoted, it is creating a very uncomfortable situation.
Considering this is how their entire business model is built, losing even a part of their userbase has a serious financial impact.
Keeping people in the dark is a very profitable endeavor. History has already proven that.
If you found this article informative, please give an upvote and rehive.
gif by @doze
Posted Using LeoFinance Beta
Your current Rank (29) in the battle Arena of Holybread has granted you an Upvote of 19%
View or trade
BEER.Hey @taskmaster4450, here is a little bit of
BEERfrom @pixresteemer for you. Enjoy it!Learn how to earn FREE BEER each day by staking your
BEER.Stunning write, my word! You've said it all, recently the Nigerian government tried to cover up the killing of her own citizens and they successfully failed because of the internet, they tried to cover the narrative using radio stations and newspapers but then the internet is a separate entity and the truth is hardly hidden however it could even be better if the internet is decentralised even further. Places like hive allows people see the narrative the way it actually is and that's why I feel people are becoming blinder by refusing the concept of decentralisation and how it represents true freedom
Posted Using LeoFinance Beta
I will tell you something interesting.
The internet allows people in the US to find out what was going on in countries such as Nigeria. These were things that were not covered by the mainstream media (because much of the time the US government was financing the atrocities that were taking place).
With the internet we learned what people in other countries were experiencing. Here is where technology changes things. The next iteration, VR, will allow people to "feel" what others are experiencing.
Chew on that for a while and tell me if you want YouTube or Facebook controlling that?
Posted Using LeoFinance Beta
I guess even decentralising the internet further will make these informations seemingly spread further than expected and people can get to experience it first hand what it Means to have information at one's beck and call. I'm imagining countries like China will try to silence it
Posted Using LeoFinance Beta
All countries or entities that sees their power threatened by the free flow of information will resist it.
This is why it is imperative that we start the process of decentralizing as many layers of the Internet as we can. At every level, we see centralization which means a gatekeeper or a middle man controlling things.
Posted Using LeoFinance Beta
I don't really know why many people are still in love with those censorship platform most especially their social media platforms quite pathetic
I would say a lot of it is habit. Also, those who they run with are located there. Herd mentality is a powerful mechanism.
The old saying is likely true: few care about censorship until they are the ones being censored.
Posted Using LeoFinance Beta
Hmmmm. I love that last part.
few care about censorship until they are the ones being censored.
Great analogy with social media and churches. Humans seem to somehow be cursed to fall for leaders and always be tempted to follow leaders. Considering the media, whether online or ofline, as the fourth power in state it's clear that whoever controls it decides who the leaders are. So easily manipulable people have become. Decentralized social medias might be a good change, but they have to have demand and for now facebook and tweeter seem more appealing for the majority.
Posted Using LeoFinance Beta
It allows for states or other powerful entities to assume control. Yet it goes much deeper. When information is controlled, ignorance of the population follows. It is easy to hide nefarious actions by the powerful. Also, things such as science become meaningless since only the mainstream agenda is promoted.
Posted Using LeoFinance Beta
As Osho once said: the society does not want us to be smart.
Posted Using LeoFinance Beta
Oh yeah. The problem here lies with the huge techno-giants. They are controlling the media and the overall narrative of the society. The society is not there in its true sense where you were able to listen to counter arguments. I would prefer that traditional society versus this controlled, narrative flow of information. Osho would be shocked to see what Social Media did to us :P
Posted Using LeoFinance Beta
Osho was not a saint for sure but he was right on some things.
Posted Using LeoFinance Beta
I read a lot of Osho. I think the fundamental understanding of life in terms of individualism is something I like to understand in his speeches.
Posted Using LeoFinance Beta
He had a private life at those ashrams a bit strange though and what people living there were telling was also a bit freaky.
Posted Using LeoFinance Beta
I don't approve his lifestyle and the way he handled himself. But, the concept of self-actualization in a way he describes is fun/educating to listen to.
Posted Using LeoFinance Beta
Have a look at Nisargdatta Maharaj's books. Mind blasting.
Posted Using LeoFinance Beta
I will. Thanks for the suggestion. Non-duality is a concept that excites me.😇
I read three of his books three times in a row.
Posted Using LeoFinance Beta
The problem with "traditional" society is that the same control mechanisms were in place. For the most part, people were not aware of them.
Today, at least some of us are aware what these tech giants are doing. That is the first step. Now we can go and do something about it.
Posted Using LeoFinance Beta
I always advocate for education and raising awareness. The more individuals are aware the more potent this evolution will be. It is pretty scary to think that these handful of tech-giants are writing our narrative.
Posted Using LeoFinance Beta
This is epic :D
Ok, on a serious note, making people believe blindly has always been a powerful tool, that's why the church has been so powerful over the years. (there's a religious saying happy is the one who believes and can't see)
The ability to decipher. Yes, that is something many are lacking and these people need guidance. These masses are easy to manipulate, not only on centralized social media sites, but here on Hive as well, even though not many want to admit it. Just because you're free to do what you want, it doesn't mean you know what to do, or what you want. Just look at the herd mentality communities. No offense.
Posted Using LeoFinance Beta
Group think is certainly a cancer. It is the death of innovation and creativity. Look at guys like Musk and Bezos. They bucked the trend and went against conventional wisdom in their associated industries.
Posted Using LeoFinance Beta
Just remembered a post made by someone a while back on the old chain. He was asking why people chose to still use these centralized social media platforms when there is Steem (back then). His explanation was that it's easier to blame someone for your failure, than to blame yourself. When you don't have a say in how things are done, how easy it is to blame others and complain about it. On Hive you can't do that as you're in charge of your content, your wallet and your finances. Who to blame then?
Posted Using LeoFinance Beta
I think there is some validity to this. Those on blockchain right now tend to be more accepting of their plight in life. They take some responsibility for where they are.
A site like Facebook is a cesspool because people just bitch and moan about their ills in life. Of course, like that poster mentioned, they have a list of who is responsible and they are not on it.
Posted Using LeoFinance Beta
Thank you for this informative post.
I also find the algorithm those social media channels use to be troublesome; I don't want to see the same kind of content all the time and that's why it's very important to do your own research and search for the content you want or need
This is what they seek to stop. They do not want people to be able to consider both sides of a debate and draw their own conclusions. If this happens, people might stray from the agenda that is being programmed in.
Posted Using LeoFinance Beta
THE INTERNET has made us all connected, that there is no limit, neither of time nor space. There is a lot of information in my country that wants to hide it with a finger, when the government says that everything is fine. The world knows that Venezuela's inhabitants are starving, that there is no good health system or education. That the rise in the dollar here is unstoppable.
Posted Using LeoFinance Beta
Absolutely. Those are all well known factors that the rest of the world is aware of. Hopefully, more in your country lean about the benefits of cryptocurrency as a means to get around some of the horrific conditions. We are seeing a new financial model developing that will first benefit those in your situation.
Hopefully Leofinance produces a pathway to a much better life for yourself and others in your country.
Posted Using LeoFinance Beta
Now, with the rise of social media sites like Parler, the situation is getting even worse.
Posted Using LeoFinance Beta
Very true. Just the same animal with a different political slant.
Same situation. I am sure that is not a beacon of free flow of information either.
Posted Using LeoFinance Beta
This issue is something that is guiding the evolution of humanity at this point in time. It does not seem important but we are changing without even realizing how these platforms and the unilateral flow information pattern they control has changed us. It is always healthy to listen to and understand counterarguments. It is not at all healthy to not balance arguments and cease the natural evolution of society. Censorless media might atleast recalibrate that balance.
Posted Using LeoFinance Beta
Yep this is :)
Posted Using LeoFinance Beta
It is certainly a step in the process. We need to have the ability to see information flow freely so people can access it and decide for themselves.
To have the situation any other way is unhealthy. We are seeing this start to take over the world right now.
People do not realize how serious this all is.
Posted Using LeoFinance Beta
Trusted person at leo.
Thanks for the sharing this.
Last one thing that is you have huge traffic at your post.
Posted Using LeoFinance Beta
For me it was only this year, just months in fact, that I came to distrust legacy media (CNN, FOX, MSNBC, NYT, Twitter, Facebook, Youtube, etc.). Now I view everything skeptically including google search results.
Posted Using LeoFinance Beta
Thanks for the comment. Yes it is hard to break the stranglehold the MSM has on people. It is a real shock when people realize these entities were agenda driven all the time.
As for Google, year just search some non agenda topics and see what comes up. It will be results blasting that particular topic.
For that reason, I use Dsearch...it a search engine that rewards searches using tokenization. Over time, their results are getting better.
Posted Using LeoFinance Beta
social media, news and newspapers ... the truth told is relative and changes according to the information body.
People follow centralized social media that manipulate users and owe them the objective truth.
Money is the only truth that social media follows
Posted Using LeoFinance Beta
Without a doubt. It is also why I predict they will have a difficult time fending off all the decentralized social media that is about to be thrown at them. Their existing business model will not allow for an altering which means they will have to keep pushing in the same direction as they are.
Posted Using LeoFinance Beta
Oh man this whole "closing the accounts just because" is like a plague nowadays. You can get banned for saying just a simple word that others deem "bad". Don't let me start about the whole flagging thing. You can post something, another person usually a sjw can consider it fascist,toxic,patriarchy oriented or whatever, gather up some friends and bad the account. The platform turns a blind eye, they don't care about the truth and give power to ignorant people for the sake of money ofc! (even though i believe longterm they actually losing)
We are at a point that a whole bunch of people are actually afraid to post anything especially anything that may go against the sjw beliefs while a bunch of others post whatever nonsense or fakes news they find out there!
For about 7 years now i don't comment or post anything in the mainstream social media, as i see no point doing it there while in steemit then hive and leo i may have made over 150+ articles and i can't even count the comments :P
This in a way is an issue but i agree that's what freedom is about. Although, in my opinion the majority of people that use these platforms tend to be more openminded, open to criticism and don't care that much to open up fights, cause problems but instead want to succeed!
Sure we got a lot of rubbish posted but it's exactly as you said rubbish. Copy/paste posts, no meaning ones, not like what's happening in traditional social media in which mostly every posts is like a huge fight scene! (it has to do with the number of active people as well)
Finally, man what an awesome post i have to admit it! I really enjoy the part that you right lengthy posts and have the creativity and consistency to do it a every day!
Posted Using LeoFinance Beta
Thanks for the vote of confidence. It provides the motivation to keep going.
Yeah the traditional social media is nothing but a cesspool of negativity and infighting. Politics has penetrated most aspects of our society these days and, unfortunately, it is all toxic. From science to sports to business, it is all politically based and toxic. There is no debate just bomb throwing back and forth.
That is until the banning bot gets going. Then the dissenting voices are silenced.
Posted Using LeoFinance Beta
Not that I'm recommending anyone use fakebook, but here is a tip to make the site work a lot better - mainly by making the site feed chronological and turning off all the bullshit - use Facebook Purity:
https://www.fbpurity.com/
Install it directly from their website - fakebook have blocked all links to it for obvious reasons, and even the browser apps stores don't show it
you will find that diversified content has also been fueling the same results, imagine that tho😂 grave lack of critical thinking capabilities
Thinking is tough when you do not practice it.
Posted Using LeoFinance Beta
Agree with with your point of view. I'm glad you pointed out most people should be able to deal with the changes in information flows. What you think about those who can't? Should they become victim of the new system? And what about all the extra time required to understand if whatever someone says, can be considered the truth, or reality? You think many people take that time? I'm constantly struggling with this group that will be left out; How we can prevent that from happening. As I'm struggling with the fact we see a growing number of people believe things without questioning. We certainly need to become sceptics again, except for the fact we also need to believe in the good of people. If we don't believe in the later, decentralised communities are at risk.
BTW, Galileo repeated what Copernicus claimed; He was given house arrest for the rest of his life.
Thats the short story, a bit summarised and not 100% representing the truth :) Galileo was not sentenced for long life imprisonment when he repeated what Copernicus said, but only after another two decades or so when he repeated the words again in a book that became quite popular in these days.
Posted Using LeoFinance Beta
people need their bubble on the Internet. Sad but the truth is not what people want to hear. It's not that pink that alternative facts :D
Posted Using LeoFinance Beta
Censorship is a huge issue for these centralized sites, and almost everybody stays in their algorithmic echo chambers for information.
Yes this is a real tough one. I really wanted to approach this philosophically and i discovered many things. First i envisioned a world where everyone is allowed to say anything and have the ability to do it. I don't think we'll ever have such a world like that. If we do i think people will then still find a way to shun or exclude the people they deem to be antisocial or detrimental to society.
What i mean by that is let's just say for example: I use a platform to endorse a medical practice or a drug that kills like 90% of the people who do it and use it.. Let's say we happen to be in an idiocracy. So people keep lining up. I think it's going to always be people thinking and going well this is not what's best for society. So the concept of i'm free to say what i like and i shouldn't be censored works better in idea than it works in reality.
The other issue with especially nations in the west. Generally in the west when we think of censorship at the level of the basis of many of your ideas that make some crypto projects the best option. The issue is people just don't connect censorship of any form in the west like maybe you'd have in an oppressive regime or with an autocrat who tries to either discredit the media or stop them altogether. So it's not recognizable so much in the west. When we do have the banned and blocked accounts on mainstream social media. In many cases these networks have done a good job whether it be deceptive or otherwise by providing a cover as to say oh well they violated some local law or racial hatred.. homophobia.. harrassment..they are able to sync up many of their terms of service with state and federal laws so then alot of those things are already acceptable in society as not okay.
So often times the people who do get banned or blocked or so.. they seemingly appear to be someone who would be unacceptable by society. Now i'm not saying through deceptive means they can't create such a situation. I'm simply saying that some acts or rights even to the point of speech in the form of certain ideologies that are viewed as harmful to a degree by society are probably going to be met with a certain acceptance of bans or violations. This is important because if most people don't like it. Then their response to it may be in the range of this is unacceptable.
Now the difficult part really becomes who makes that call? Does facebook and twitter get to make that call? Again i know some people just wanna go no just let them say whatever. I just think thats very oversimplified. So in topic like this i just get the feeling its one of those topics where everyone is right. The thing is nobody wants to be censored until they are the people that are offended, in which case then they want to censor or ban. It's amazing to me in crypto this on discord its a common occurence then the same people from the crypto communities go well they don't believe in censorship. So why does their actions show otherwise lol. Until someone is able to promote the wrong type of ideas on social media to bring harm to someone. Everyone is fine with the idea of say what you want until they are the victims of that. So i think thats why we're always going to have somewhat a divided view on this. Simply because western countries are very good at downplaying many of the recognizable tactics of suppression and control. So it's going to always be hard for people to agree with who makes the call because yes we do still live in a society of people who don't wanna be responsible. They wanna elect leaders to do things they should be doing.. They want people to hold their hands if they lose their banking password and recover their funds.. etc., so we still have this society of people who would rather place responsibility on someone else and i'm not sure when that goes away.
I'd only suggest that a simpler approach be taken in a more democratic sense. As to say if democracy is the key idea in decentralization. we want to democratize. I would say its probably going to work better with token integration into projects and ownership into them much lke how btc gets used on twittter etc., and reddit will soon be using ethereum based tokens. I feel like we have to move to a place where everyone can just democratize their experiences on social media with voting on the chain or tokenization or selling tokens when you don't agree to say here's my voice.
I don't think its as simple as going just let everyone say what they want and whatever harm they do we should be okay with that. I feel we should be able to vote them out in a democratic way on the chain.
Posted Using LeoFinance Beta
Centralized social media and legacy news publications are both working together in these shenanigans.New Your Times is already subtly attacking the first amendment in long articles they write such as this one: https://www.nytimes.com/2020/10/13/magazine/free-speech.html
Many news publications have become hostile to left wing authors too. If you are not a far left person, you are treated as a conservative that needs to be put down. I wrote about one of these incidents few months ago: https://ecency.com/post/@vimukthi/new-york-times-writer-editor-confess-in-her-resignation-letter-the-true-nature-of-how-thing-tick-within-the-company
Posted Using LeoFinance Beta
Giant social media companies think that they will dominate information by censoring. on the other side, people need information. This will gap. When the cases accumulate like twitter censoring Trump's tweet, there will be distrust. The accumulation of distrust causes people search for alternatives. That is the decentralized social media platform to answer this issue
Posted Using LeoFinance Beta
Decentralization brings freedom as you have said. This makes it why people needs to migrate to Hive.
At this present moment, the Nigerian government is on the move to censoring social media in the country reason is because there have been a lot of secrets in which the politicians and those in power have been doing and they are being exposed to us in the internet. If their plan successfully happens maybe more people might just find their way to Hive.
Posted Using LeoFinance Beta
Excellent article. Sharing on Twitter and reblogged. I wish to add that wisdom comes from God and we don't believe everything we are told. We are warned to "Beloved, believe not every spirit, but try the spirits whether they are of God: because many false prophets are gone out into the world.
1 John 4:1 KJV