Is social addiction hampering our chances for a change ?

Photo by Mike Corbett/CC BY-2.0 taken from the climate institute

If you haven’t seen it yet I recommend you to exit this page and go watch the social dilemma.

As far as documentaries go this was very well made , a mix of documentary and film which captures you . At the same time, it was fairly scary . 
So maybe don’t do the same mistake I did and don’t watch it before bed. Oh and watch it with someone and be prepared for some intense discussion to follow. 

My first feeling after watching it was to go retire in the most isolated place in company of just a few trusted people , and watch the world collapse from afar. Maybe help restart things afterwards. Just maybe . Personal parenthesis closed. 
Today’s thoughts are obviously inspired by watching the film. And please, pardon the rambling and feel free to join in in the discussion... 
I already discussed the fake news issue , the ease with how they spread and the bigger issue of personalised recommendations which lead to conspiracies black holes . 
The thing is that social medias somehow amplify this. Apparently fake news travel 7 times faster than their corresponding real news. 

And there is worse, with increased targetisation we will end up having a distorted view of what is real (and we are already at the the point in which some people were found in the middle of the sea between Italy and Africa looking for the end of the Earth - since it’s flat - everyone knows that!). 
Believing in a conspiracy may make you more prone to believe in others, so that those believing that climate change is a hoax may also believe that covid-19 is just a simple flu . Of course , you are thinking, the extent of this pandemic and the causes of it are likely linked with climate change and the destruction of nature. And , again, those who don’t want to believe in climate change are the polluters which of course don’t want the slow down in economy... but it’s not that simple. No. Because it’s also normal people who are dragged into this distorted views. Maybe you start watching something and puff - you are transported into the parallel universe of the deniers. 

It’s thought to be more likely for more ‘educated’ people not to fall into the trap. But that’s not necessarily true. To avoid falling in the trap one has to constantly think about what one is reading and try to verify the source . It’s tiring. And we are getting information overload. And living a tiring life, always on the run. Simply put. We feel we don't have the time to check.. 
Also, I think I am still part of the ‘lucky’ generation where we had to rely on newspapers and main television to get news. Perhaps they weren’t the best news either and you still had polarisation but we all received the same informations. And since habits are hard to scroll , I still prefer to read the news from main papers (both national and international) or listen to a radio channel. I think newer generations will struggle with this , as they have grown up with socials from a younger age and may not be able to recognise the issues with the non-fact-checked news. I hope in school they are still teaching critical thinking- and now more than ever this is important. 

Anyway . The issue with over-targetisation is that  if realities are different actions will be different. And while the biggest scariest output of this will be a civil war between two parties fully convinced of their ideas and with plenty of ‘’’’facts’’’’ to support them , the more imminent and perhaps as scary thing is that we are not gonna move very far in terms of avoiding climate catastrophe , or even getting out of this pandemic fast .

If it’s true that being United makes us stronger , then surely having multiple visions of reality will make us much weaker.


So after these maybe depressive thoughts, here some suggestions to avoid these negative effects 

1. don’t let media rule your life. Put limits to their use. Most phones have the option for it. Endless scrolling is a waste of time anyway.. 
2. follow accounts from different political viewpoints . Yes it may make you vomit but at least you get to see what the other side is seeing 
3. Watch out for these signs of conspiracy theories : excessive use of capital letters , sentences made to incentivate an anger response , sentences that really don’t make complete sense. ‘Facts’ that are not backed by examples . Videos with excessive shouting . 
4. Turn off excessive personalisations. Don’t allow apps to always know where you are, navigate in incognito, don’t use the ‘login with Facebook’ or ‘login with google’ but make a new account if you must , but if you can choose to go ahead without one ; better 
5. Click the unsubscribe button on those  million emails. It may leave you more time to deal with what really is worth in life  and it will be a useful move to stop you from picking up the phone when the notification arrives 
6. On the same note - remove notifications from socials (okay you can leave WhatsApp since it’s now primary communication but you can silence specific chats so maybe you will only get notifications from close family)
7. Share these tips . Because it’s not just a question of personal privacy and personal interest , but a question of societal interest. It seems that we have to take manners in our own hands, so let act responsibly, for the sake of intelligence and the whole planet!