Advertising is a form of mind control. Click-bait ads are as well. Outrage news articles and change campaigns definitely are. A lot of tweets and social media posts utilize mind control techniques.
We went from this brave new world of the 1950's and 60's where the science of psychology was supposed to make us a better and happier society to this freely weaponized form of hybrid social control that came from the world of advertising and politics and it infests every form of online communication that we use every day.
I struggle to equate psychology as being a good science anymore. It feels like we have entered a sinister age where the science does more harm than good.
I feel we live in a dark time where a science we do not fully understand or control has been let out of Pandora's Box and it is now everywhere. There is a difference between presenting facts and twisting them to predetermine an outcome. A word changed here, a phrase changed there, and all of a sudden something neutral and factual becomes a weapon one side uses to bash another.
Nothing is factual anymore. Even science feels biased.
You see this on Youtube these days with rolling outrage. Pick a group, gamers or social warriors, Star Wars fans or Star Wars haters, and you can count the current rolling outrage campaigns where everyone jumps on a bandwagon and makes money off of something that years ago would have just passed us right by as a "so what?"
Games and movies that haven't even been released yet are the "worst ever" and the negative coverage is wall to wall and it won't stop.
Rage and outrage have become monetized.
You watch these things and sit there and feel, "I am angry too!"
You hear the phrase "today the Internet is outraged by..." and you get online to check what it is this time, and you pick a side.
You have been baited in.
You have been hooked.
You add your voice to the crowd.
How different is that from classic mind control techniques? You know, the Boris Karloff swinging a shiny pocket watch in front of someone's dazed eyes and saying, "You must do exactly as I say..."
You did. You fell for it. I do all of this as well and then I realize the shit I stepped into and hate myself for it again. A lot of the times companies do this deliberately just for free advertising, and a dozen people fall for it, and then someone who smells outrage and cash senses this may be a hot topic to monetize, picks it up, and retweets, makes a video, writes a click bait article, and picks up a bullhorn to spread bullshit "I am so mad that" far and wide.
Other people pile on, suckered in.
And the Internet is outraged again like water is wet.
Years ago it would have been, "Who cares there are stupid people and stupid ideas in this world, learn to think for yourself." We would have respected other people's rights, their freedom to speak, and let them be. Now? I wonder.
I wonder.
A domino has been pushed over. A glass window broken. No longer can we live with others and let them be. Pissed off people who were banned for one thing will select outrages that target opposing sides and retaliate.
You seen this recently with silly Twitter wars and deplatforming campaigns. Accounts shall be sanitized. Lines will be drawn. Accounts will be thrown in the memory hole. Sides will be taken.
Erotica is low on the totem pole for outrage. Writers are easy targets in a uncivil war like this. I worry. I really do. But a part of me does not give one fuck.
There are stupid people in this world after all, and I let them be. My life comes first.
But I do worry free expression will open you up to attacks from rabid online mobs looking to inflict virtual damage in some war of words that nobody knows what it started for and when it will stop. You won't be able to say "I don't pick sides" because somewhere someone will put you on one, make a Youtube video about it, pile others on, and monetize the outrage for a couple weeks.
Your life will be ruined, but hey, at least someone got some views out of it and some ad money. Tech and entertainment news sites will have another controversy to pull readers in with. It's all good as long as we get a check!
Who do I blame?
When I think about it, the same ad networks that "big Internet" built to profit off of clicks and eyeballs are the ones throwing coal into the fire. The media and their advertisers too, they make money off all this hate as well. They are making this social media war profitable for everyone to join in and fight, to grab a piece of the pie and make a living off of virtual conflict money.
Back when I was growing up, there was this big stink about "war toys" and how they glamorized something that is tragic, worthy of preventing, and sad - war. I get the same feeling with big Internet companies and news organizations these days, glamorizing and profiting off of war again - this time, an online war they feed into and profit from each and every day.
If you fall for this you are being used.
Think about your actions. Think before you click or post. Are you making the world a better place? Are you spreading love and understanding or hate and division? Are people coming together or are you driving them apart?
And if you feed into this online social media war I feel you are lacking in soul and compassion for something greater and worthy of having.
Peace.
We went from this brave new world of the 1950's and 60's where the science of psychology was supposed to make us a better and happier society to this freely weaponized form of hybrid social control that came from the world of advertising and politics and it infests every form of online communication that we use every day.
I struggle to equate psychology as being a good science anymore. It feels like we have entered a sinister age where the science does more harm than good.
I feel we live in a dark time where a science we do not fully understand or control has been let out of Pandora's Box and it is now everywhere. There is a difference between presenting facts and twisting them to predetermine an outcome. A word changed here, a phrase changed there, and all of a sudden something neutral and factual becomes a weapon one side uses to bash another.
Nothing is factual anymore. Even science feels biased.
You see this on Youtube these days with rolling outrage. Pick a group, gamers or social warriors, Star Wars fans or Star Wars haters, and you can count the current rolling outrage campaigns where everyone jumps on a bandwagon and makes money off of something that years ago would have just passed us right by as a "so what?"
Games and movies that haven't even been released yet are the "worst ever" and the negative coverage is wall to wall and it won't stop.
Rage and outrage have become monetized.
You watch these things and sit there and feel, "I am angry too!"
You hear the phrase "today the Internet is outraged by..." and you get online to check what it is this time, and you pick a side.
You have been baited in.
You have been hooked.
You add your voice to the crowd.
How different is that from classic mind control techniques? You know, the Boris Karloff swinging a shiny pocket watch in front of someone's dazed eyes and saying, "You must do exactly as I say..."
You did. You fell for it. I do all of this as well and then I realize the shit I stepped into and hate myself for it again. A lot of the times companies do this deliberately just for free advertising, and a dozen people fall for it, and then someone who smells outrage and cash senses this may be a hot topic to monetize, picks it up, and retweets, makes a video, writes a click bait article, and picks up a bullhorn to spread bullshit "I am so mad that" far and wide.
Other people pile on, suckered in.
And the Internet is outraged again like water is wet.
Years ago it would have been, "Who cares there are stupid people and stupid ideas in this world, learn to think for yourself." We would have respected other people's rights, their freedom to speak, and let them be. Now? I wonder.
I wonder.
A domino has been pushed over. A glass window broken. No longer can we live with others and let them be. Pissed off people who were banned for one thing will select outrages that target opposing sides and retaliate.
You seen this recently with silly Twitter wars and deplatforming campaigns. Accounts shall be sanitized. Lines will be drawn. Accounts will be thrown in the memory hole. Sides will be taken.
Erotica is low on the totem pole for outrage. Writers are easy targets in a uncivil war like this. I worry. I really do. But a part of me does not give one fuck.
There are stupid people in this world after all, and I let them be. My life comes first.
But I do worry free expression will open you up to attacks from rabid online mobs looking to inflict virtual damage in some war of words that nobody knows what it started for and when it will stop. You won't be able to say "I don't pick sides" because somewhere someone will put you on one, make a Youtube video about it, pile others on, and monetize the outrage for a couple weeks.
Your life will be ruined, but hey, at least someone got some views out of it and some ad money. Tech and entertainment news sites will have another controversy to pull readers in with. It's all good as long as we get a check!
Who do I blame?
When I think about it, the same ad networks that "big Internet" built to profit off of clicks and eyeballs are the ones throwing coal into the fire. The media and their advertisers too, they make money off all this hate as well. They are making this social media war profitable for everyone to join in and fight, to grab a piece of the pie and make a living off of virtual conflict money.
Back when I was growing up, there was this big stink about "war toys" and how they glamorized something that is tragic, worthy of preventing, and sad - war. I get the same feeling with big Internet companies and news organizations these days, glamorizing and profiting off of war again - this time, an online war they feed into and profit from each and every day.
If you fall for this you are being used.
Think about your actions. Think before you click or post. Are you making the world a better place? Are you spreading love and understanding or hate and division? Are people coming together or are you driving them apart?
And if you feed into this online social media war I feel you are lacking in soul and compassion for something greater and worthy of having.
Peace.
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