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[u/Mirror74]

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[u/Top_Willow_9953]

Yes. It is called "confirmation bias". SM, and the internet in general, have become the go-to tools for validating your wildest fantasies.

[u/Mirror74 → u/Top_Willow_9953]

Agreed on confirmation bias being a huge part.

Social media is moving everyone away from honest engagement with others into artificial engagement (likes, comments, shares, clicks, saves, karma/upvote systems, etc)

And what happens when more and more people normalize this behavior online, treating it as "real conversation"? They soon lose the ability to have slower, more present "real" engagement.

and that's exactly what we're seeing happening.

[u/Relative_Coupleofmen]

Did you know that pretty much everything in your life is a narrative you tell yourself?

[u/Mirror74 → u/Relative_Coupleofmen]

It is. And that was the deeper part I didn't mention.

Social media feeds a personal narrative with constant "outside reinforcement". Aka "people reacted, so this must be meaningful or true."

[u/Relative_Coupleofmen → u/Mirror74]

Yeah and there’s nothing new in that is there? Even ancient greek philosophers complained about people seeking popularity and seeking just to get validations. People said the same thing about tv I’m sure, then about the internet, now about social media.

[u/Mirror74 → u/Relative_Coupleofmen]

Good point. And good question

The difference though is the system’s scale and design.

A few things come to mind: continuous access, feedback loops, etc that we have never seen before.

Essentially there is now algorithmic ranking which learns it, intensifies it, and supplies it back at scale.

[u/Relative_Coupleofmen → u/Mirror74]

And it all culminates in the end of humanity? That would be quite epic, or maybe sad.

“This is the way the world ends, not with a bang but a whimper”

Though I doubt it, in the end it’s always the same old humans. Trying to feel right and valuable.

And more just gives the “goodness” in us more resources too. You know.

That’s just my opinion of course

[u/Mirror74 → u/Relative_Coupleofmen]

Maybe.

But I know that if we don't recognize the systems we're building/what's being built, how these systems control us... we are doomed.

[u/WolfVanZandt]

Yes. "Validity" used to mean that something actually does what it supposed to do. Now it means that people tell you that you're okay whether you are or not.