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The rest of the Internet didn't disappear. If anything, Facebook and Google are tools to drive traffic to your own corner of the Internet. I don't really belie

The rest of the Internet didn't disappear. If anything, Facebook and Google are tools to drive traffic to your own corner of the Internet. I don't really believe social media filter bubbles exist, relative to the bubbles of the past. Even the most isolated Facebook user is more enlightened than my parents were during their childhoods in India. Emotional manipulation was probably worse when the United States only had 3 TV networks. Before that, "yellow journalism" helped lead the US into the Spanish-American war. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yellow_journalism#Spanish.E2.80.93American_War https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yellow_journalism#Spanish.E2.8... Of course, we should still work to do better than the status quo, but I enjoy being able to develop a following on social media and/or purchase ads for whatever distributed Internet ideal I want to create.

intended 9y ago
Lordy no. I've been watching emotional manipulation in India and around the world for decades now. Its always been among my top concerns, and its definitively become worse. I'd argue its a lot worse on all axes, but if you want a singular reasons - targeting has now all encompassing. Its on all the time, it knows where you are, who you know, what you like, in a dramatic way. Also - you have a third confounding variable in your data. Parents in India from that era were not as educated as counterparts in the west. The west went through its periods of darkness, where the average person was not educated, and when religious institutions dominated the scene. They had decades to over come this, generally following the Enlightenment. India too will hopefully struggle with these same issues. But the new medium for ideas is more dangerous than the one which came before - for ideas themselves. In a slower news cycle there is also time to reflect. The lack of being always connected, meant that the transfer of memetic force was always broken up. Emotion is the lever by which most of the world is moved. Whatsapp forwards come at any time, can contain any content and will be accepted by the receiver often without reflection. The world has iterated, and for the worse.

intended 9y ago

Lordy no. I've been watching emotional manipulation in India and around the world for decades now. Its always been among my top concerns, and its definitively become worse. I'd argue its a lot worse on all axes, but if you want a singular reasons - targeting has now all encompassing. Its on all the time, it knows where you are, who you know, what you like, in a dramatic way. Also - you have a third confounding variable in your data. Parents in India from that era were not as educated as counterparts in the west. The west went through its periods of darkness, where the average person was not educated, and when religious institutions dominated the scene. They had decades to over come this, generally following the Enlightenment. India too will hopefully struggle with these same issues. But the new medium for ideas is more dangerous than the one which came before - for ideas themselves. In a slower news cycle there is also time to reflect. The lack of being always connected, meant that the transfer of memetic force was always broken up. Emotion is the lever by which most of the world is moved. Whatsapp forwards come at any time, can contain any content and will be accepted by the receiver often without reflection. The world has iterated, and for the worse.