Social media companies build business models
That pray upon our attention-seeking tendencies.
No wonder they do so well.

#Idea – Social Media / 11.12.20

#Idea – Freddie Quinn / 19.11.20
Social media promotes the idea
That everyone’s opinions (…on everything) must be heard.
I don’t think this is a very good idea.
Image by Thomas Ulrich from Pixabay

#Idea – Economy Vs. Ecology / 16.11.20
If we’re looking for a market-based solution
To the ecological crisis
Then
Ecology and economy must be aligned.
Currently they aren’t
And
Until they are, we’re fucked.
Is there an alternative to a market-based solution?
No idea, but I hope so.

#Idea – 3 Ways to Approach Clickbait Headlines / 04.12.20
- I notice that you’re using a clickbait headline and I’m going to try and disincentivise you from doing dishonest things by not clicking it.
- I’m not going to click to find out what ‘this one thing’ or ‘this weird thing’ (etc.) is – you should have told me in the (…fucking) headline.
- By now I don’t believe a thing you’re saying, and so I’m not going to waste my time by clicking your headline.

#Idea – AI vs. AGI / 15.10.20
An AI can create a plausible piece of writing or art
Perhaps it will eventually surpass anything that you or I could create.
But, no matter how good it gets
It will not understand what it is doing.
Currently;
Understanding separates the humans from the machines.
And when it doesn’t, that will be another matter entirely.
Image by Димитрий Бровко from Pixabay

#Idea – Automation and Scale / 17.10.20
Tech companies,
Obsessed with scale and efficiency
And too lazy to do the work themselves,
Entrust important tasks to untested algorithms,
And seem surprised
When these algorithms
Occasionally produce disastrous results.
Image by Caique Silva Fotografo from Pixabay

#Idea – Resisting Psyops / 18.10.20
Don’t take any of your affiliations seriously enough
To have them used against you.

#Idea – Yuval Noah Harari / 28.10.20
The most important button on the keyboard is ‘delete’.
Image by Free-Photos from Pixabay

#Idea – New Media / 18.11.20
More effort is expended on attracting attention
Than on imparting useful information.
Image by Prashant Gautam from Pixabay

#Idea – The End Game of the Information War / 12.04.20
In this ‘post-truth’, ‘fake news’ world
(…please pardon the cliches)
Where everyone is their own PR person
Sharing the digital highlights of their ‘best life’
And where trust in the traditional bastions of journalism is waning
Your doubt is a defensive strategy;
Don’t want to be taken in? Then simply don’t believe anything you read, see or hear online.
So, I suppose the real threat is the slide into cynicism,
When you come to doubt everything unequivocally
Perhaps that is the real existential threat of the information war.
Not that we will be credulous, believing all of the ‘alternative truths’ and nonsense that bombard us on our numerous media channels.
But that we will become callous, perhaps nihilistic,
Sick of all of the bullshit.
Apathetic, unable to trust a damn thing
And entirely devoid of faith entirely.
And, instead of acting on the wrong things,
We don’t act at all.
Even when we desperately need to do something.
Image by anokarina