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The whole Chinese way of doing things makes me think that most people live in enormous Skinner boxes. It makes me reflect on my own media consumption. What me

The whole Chinese way of doing things makes me think that most people live in enormous Skinner boxes. It makes me reflect on my own media consumption. What messages am I receiving? How are processing those messages affecting my view of the world? What experiences or opportunities am I missing out on because of the messages I am receiving and processing and how they are affecting my internal model of the world? Look at people who get addicted to MMOs like World of Warcraft for example. They voluntarily limit themselves to the messages they receive from the game and this influences their behavior significantly. The proof that control of these messages and what message are received by people is an extremely valuable commodity is that advertising is a multi-trillion dollar industry. Even if everything was perfectly truthful, there is only a small amount of time for people to digest and absorb the world with their limited perception. Thus, the control of which limited set of messages that people receive is also a huge source of power and why a commercial in the super bowl is worth more than a random banner ad on some no-name website. Reddit, Twitter and most social media are attempts to optimize this messaging problem.

c1sc0 12y ago
Agreed 100%. The media you (choose to?) consume has a profound influence on how you think / feel / react. The only way to win this game is not to participate. But that makes you a loner, "anti-social" etc ...
- jkaunisv1 12y ago
  Well, we do have subcultures/countercultures. You can live a pretty comfortable life consuming non-mainstream media that is just as good and entertaining/informative as the Big stuff.
- narrator 12y ago
  I've found that "hyper-nicheing" via twitter is a good way to go. I basically follow specific niche interests that I have and unfollow anyone who mentions any mainstream news. I just don't need those messages to achieve any of my goals. I dig deep into the message areas I'm interested in.
pnathan 12y ago
You mean optimize the messages to more perfectly craft a filter? :)
sholanozie 12y ago
You might be interested in Walter Lippman's 'Public Opinion' from 1922. It basically lays the groundwork for manipulating and influencing a population's collective mindset by exploiting our inherent cognitive limitations and biases [1]. It has strongly influenced Western governments over the past century. You can read it for free, courtesy of the American Studies department at the University of Virginia [2]. [1]: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Public_Opinion_%28book%29 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Public_Opinion_%28book%29 [2]: http://xroads.virginia.edu/~hyper/Lippman/cover.html http://xroads.virginia.edu/~hyper/Lippman/cover.html
- nosuchthing 12y ago
  See also: • Edward Bernays, "Public Relations" (1945) [1] • "Century of the Self", BBC documentary by Adam Curtis [2]. [1] https://archive.org/details/publicrelationse00bernrich https://archive.org/details/publicrelationse00bernrich [2] https://vimeo.com/85948693 https://vimeo.com/85948693
  - sholanozie 12y ago
    Great - thanks a lot for that link to 'Public Relations'. I'll add it to my reading list.
Htsthbjig 12y ago
Your media is your eyes and ears. They can manipulate your actions just manipulating what you people see. When you travel around the world, this is the first thing you learn: all the people, in all countries are manipulated by the media, controlled by the power structures. "If you prick us, do we not bleed? If you tickle us, do we not laugh? If you poison us, do we not die?" The Merchant of Venice There is an almost automatic response from an stimulus you perceive. Being real or artificially created does not matter for the brain. In the supposedly "free countries", they just control the media that most people watch. Most people just does not care. For example, most Americans have a SouthPark puppet idea of Saddam Hussein, but he was a very smart person. As this person spoke a different language, you could portray the idea that is convenient for helping the interest of the people in power, basically invading a foreign country for stealing their oil. Most Americans believe that they invaded Iraq because extending democracy, weapons of mass destruction or whatever. But it only takes an hour of talking with real Iraqis(or traveling to Iraq) to know better. Just one thing, how many films have you seen about Hitler and Nazism, and how many about Stalin that killed more than Hitler. It was not convenient to portray Stalin as he was when he was alive. Have you seen the image of Putin in the Western media today. Again, just understanding Russian makes a huge difference in how they could manipulate you. Putin also manipulates their people, but he is not the only one.
- lurcio 12y ago
  Really really o/t but... Im going through this now, having just returned to the UK after a number of years away. Last time I felt this way was when i left a village bubble for the bubble of London village. That said - I'm amazed at how 'broken' everything is - schools, doctors, police, roads. And so much of London is still 'up and coming', i.e. a dump. However, it can't have changed that much. Friends are still comfortably numb and tolerant of the entropy and propaganda. As I was before - indeed, I maintained a rosy view of Blighty all my time outside and it served as my benchmark for other countries. Im sure the change is more with me - I see this place with new eyes and feel like a foreigner tbh. It's an interesting position. Travel (not tourism) perhaps doesn't broaden the mind as much as create a cognitive dissonance. We deal with it by either denial and retreating into our set patterns or adapting. The former is a living death. Embrace change or be consumed by it. wrt UK - gov here is stealthily setting up their own great wall. Given the well established corporate news filters, speech censorship and language planning, its no longer in anyones interest to speak openly in public. What a system we have created for ourselves! Still as Kierkegaard reminded us: people lay so much store by freedom of expression, but not so much for freedom of thought. They can't take that away from us (yet)
jnbiche 12y ago
>It makes me reflect on my own media consumption. What messages am I receiving? How are processing those messages affecting my view of the world? One day about 5 years ago, I swore in disgust that I would henceforth watch or listen to no more news media. Up to that point, I was a regular listener to NPR and also watched various news shows. Other than occasional (and usually tech related) news articles on HN, I've kept my promise. And I've been stunned at how my politics and perceptions of the world have changed in just 5 years.

c1sc0 12y ago

Agreed 100%. The media you (choose to?) consume has a profound influence on how you think / feel / react. The only way to win this game is not to participate. But that makes you a loner, "anti-social" etc ...

jkaunisv1 12y ago
Well, we do have subcultures/countercultures. You can live a pretty comfortable life consuming non-mainstream media that is just as good and entertaining/informative as the Big stuff.
narrator 12y ago
I've found that "hyper-nicheing" via twitter is a good way to go. I basically follow specific niche interests that I have and unfollow anyone who mentions any mainstream news. I just don't need those messages to achieve any of my goals. I dig deep into the message areas I'm interested in.

pnathan 12y ago

You mean optimize the messages to more perfectly craft a filter? :)

sholanozie 12y ago

You might be interested in Walter Lippman's 'Public Opinion' from 1922. It basically lays the groundwork for manipulating and influencing a population's collective mindset by exploiting our inherent cognitive limitations and biases [1]. It has strongly influenced Western governments over the past century. You can read it for free, courtesy of the American Studies department at the University of Virginia [2]. [1]: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Public_Opinion_%28book%29 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Public_Opinion_%28book%29 [2]: http://xroads.virginia.edu/~hyper/Lippman/cover.html http://xroads.virginia.edu/~hyper/Lippman/cover.html

nosuchthing 12y ago
See also: • Edward Bernays, "Public Relations" (1945) [1] • "Century of the Self", BBC documentary by Adam Curtis [2]. [1] https://archive.org/details/publicrelationse00bernrich https://archive.org/details/publicrelationse00bernrich [2] https://vimeo.com/85948693 https://vimeo.com/85948693
- sholanozie 12y ago
  Great - thanks a lot for that link to 'Public Relations'. I'll add it to my reading list.

Htsthbjig 12y ago

Your media is your eyes and ears. They can manipulate your actions just manipulating what you people see. When you travel around the world, this is the first thing you learn: all the people, in all countries are manipulated by the media, controlled by the power structures. "If you prick us, do we not bleed? If you tickle us, do we not laugh? If you poison us, do we not die?" The Merchant of Venice There is an almost automatic response from an stimulus you perceive. Being real or artificially created does not matter for the brain. In the supposedly "free countries", they just control the media that most people watch. Most people just does not care. For example, most Americans have a SouthPark puppet idea of Saddam Hussein, but he was a very smart person. As this person spoke a different language, you could portray the idea that is convenient for helping the interest of the people in power, basically invading a foreign country for stealing their oil. Most Americans believe that they invaded Iraq because extending democracy, weapons of mass destruction or whatever. But it only takes an hour of talking with real Iraqis(or traveling to Iraq) to know better. Just one thing, how many films have you seen about Hitler and Nazism, and how many about Stalin that killed more than Hitler. It was not convenient to portray Stalin as he was when he was alive. Have you seen the image of Putin in the Western media today. Again, just understanding Russian makes a huge difference in how they could manipulate you. Putin also manipulates their people, but he is not the only one.

lurcio 12y ago
Really really o/t but... Im going through this now, having just returned to the UK after a number of years away. Last time I felt this way was when i left a village bubble for the bubble of London village. That said - I'm amazed at how 'broken' everything is - schools, doctors, police, roads. And so much of London is still 'up and coming', i.e. a dump. However, it can't have changed that much. Friends are still comfortably numb and tolerant of the entropy and propaganda. As I was before - indeed, I maintained a rosy view of Blighty all my time outside and it served as my benchmark for other countries. Im sure the change is more with me - I see this place with new eyes and feel like a foreigner tbh. It's an interesting position. Travel (not tourism) perhaps doesn't broaden the mind as much as create a cognitive dissonance. We deal with it by either denial and retreating into our set patterns or adapting. The former is a living death. Embrace change or be consumed by it. wrt UK - gov here is stealthily setting up their own great wall. Given the well established corporate news filters, speech censorship and language planning, its no longer in anyones interest to speak openly in public. What a system we have created for ourselves! Still as Kierkegaard reminded us: people lay so much store by freedom of expression, but not so much for freedom of thought. They can't take that away from us (yet)

jnbiche 12y ago

>It makes me reflect on my own media consumption. What messages am I receiving? How are processing those messages affecting my view of the world? One day about 5 years ago, I swore in disgust that I would henceforth watch or listen to no more news media. Up to that point, I was a regular listener to NPR and also watched various news shows. Other than occasional (and usually tech related) news articles on HN, I've kept my promise. And I've been stunned at how my politics and perceptions of the world have changed in just 5 years.