Tag Archives: social-media

Absurdity Must Not Be Tolerated

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Misinformation is false or inaccurate information—getting the facts wrong. Disinformation is false information which is deliberately intended to mislead—intentionally misstating the facts.
https://www.apa.org/topics/journalism-facts/misinformation-disinformation

“According to behavioral models, exposure to misinformation increases the odds that people will believe it, which in turn increases the odds that they will spread it….Misinformation spreads differently on social media than on legacy media such as television, radio, and newspapers. Mainstream news outlets tend to have robust safeguards in place to prevent and correct false claims, but several unique features of social media encourage viral content with low oversight. Rapid publication and peer-to-peer sharing allow ordinary users to distribute information quickly to large audiences, so misinformation can be policed only after the fact (if at all).” For more information go to the American Psychological Associations website and take a look at this article:
https://www.apa.org/topics/journalism-facts/how-why-misinformation-spreads

Another great article to read about how to critically evaluate online information is located at:
https://princetonlibrary.org/guides/misinformation-disinformation-malinformation-a-guide/

I am a great believer in education and encourage discourse every chance I get. But, when I hear the crazy misinformation that is being given out to the public at our nation’s capitol (yes, it is with an o, look it up!), I have to speak up. Absurdity (or Idiocy) is not okay.

Poul Anderson wrote a series of short stories that became a compendium known as The Complete Psychotechnic League. In the story called The Troublemakers, the protagonist stated that “…politics is the art of creating an equality of dissatisfaction.” This story unfolds in a spaceship bound for Alpha Centauri that would take centuries to get there. People grew old and died enroute, and the officers were in charge. The protagonist posed that the people in command made it a point to “stir up against each other men who should have been comrades [and] break the innocent with lies…provoke mutiny by injustice and intrigue…[and] infiltrate the revolts [that] they themselves had created [to] control them….” The people in charge believed that “cultures have momentum [and] don’t change overnight.” And, finally, he stated that “Conflict was inevitable.”

Anderson wrote this series of short stories over many decades (starting after World War II or late 1940s and ending in the 1980s during his life). These stories were later compiled in a more orderly date/time fashion and tweaked a little to make them fit in his future timeline. When he first wrote The Psychotechnic League as a short story, Anderson believed that conflict could be controlled if properly directed by using psychology and involving the United Nations (U.N.) as the supreme leaders in command. However, he changed his mind in his later years and decided that the U.N. shouldn’t be the folks in charge of a world government. But he also didn’t believe that any commander (or president) should have absolute overt control. He felt that indirect control could allow events to take their natural course.

What we are seeing in this decade is a massive surge of a control by our government for their own monetary personal gain. Society is being forced to change in order to retrieve control and retain personal freedom. Society is warring with each other and not understanding our own history. Cutting funds to education, fact-check news, and especially NPR and PBS funding is an affront to all those wishing to pass on correct knowledge to our future children and grandchildren.

And we the people are rebelling, even as social media by those in power condemn us. Most of us believe in education and understand that illiteracy cannot be tolerated.

Protests throughout history haven’t always gotten what we needed or wanted at the time, but everyone must understand that we all have a right to do so without people like that guy in office and his minion, you know who, attack you online and have the insane MAGA media defame you. Protesters, teachers, and professors being attacked online is not right. We all have rights, and I may not always agree with others, but shouting misinformation online and sharing this nonsense is ridiculous.

Nothing is free in life, but if each person who believes in free speech as well as reliable and credible speech (the other 50% and hopefully more now) would give a dollar to their local TV stations, especially NPR and PBS, it would add up quickly, and reach the .1% that is being cut by that guy in office. Legal civil disobedience in action can be an amazing and uplifting strategy. Billionaires shouldn’t be in charge of our money, or our news. They shouldn’t be able to demean us with their ridiculous diatribes. We can continue to have great unbiased news and lovely shows to watch if we all just pitch in to save them.

Out here, we love our local Rocky Mountain PBS and give to them as much as we can every time they fund raise. Those people in office that don’t have the intellectual capacity to understand the shows, they try to shut it down. Those who have never watched the kid shows that my child grew up on (and became an incredible person as a result of watching and participating in the lessons) should not have a say in what programming can be on television. They should look deep into their hearts and souls to understand what that guy in office is trying to do with their support.

It’s time for everyone in these positions to take a look at who they really are and why they were voted into office. It’s time to become human beings once again that are not afraid to stand up to money and power for the greater good.

The misinformation that our government and their minions are giving out to the world is simply just WRONG. They should be in therapy if their childhood was incredibly bad. They want others to suffer for their upbringing. No other child should suffer because of their personal history bias. Just keep telling them to go to therapy and listen to their constituents. We cannot be afraid like they are. We have to Get Up! Stand up! And take a stand!
Enough said.

Love to all tonight and wish for rain!

Rewriting History-Part II

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“The significance of historical accuracy cannot be overstated, as it plays a crucial role in our ability to discern the truth, make informed decisions, and maintain the integrity of our collective memory.”

In this current administration fact-checking has become a dominant conversation piece for every citizen who is appalled by what is going on in the political scene. Historical events are being distorted and/or outright fabricated at will. This era is rapidly becoming the misinformation age.

We are forgetting about the consequences for spreading outright lies and deleting information that is critical to us. People who believe in what is going on with that guy in office haven’t suffered the consequences yet. They don’t care that we as a country are not preserving the historical truth for ourselves as well as for future generations. They don’t care that the current administration has no understanding of historical events that should be accounted for in the current decision-making process. “Accurate information helps us avoid repeating past mistakes and make informed choices about the future [emphasis mine].”—from https://medium.com/@thehistorychip

And finally, they don’t care that they are not preserving cultural heritage and identity. As a result, there is no critical thinking based on the evaluation of the past.

When misinformation rears its ugly head, the challenges are:
1.         Confirmation bias – people seek and believe information that confirms their pre-existing beliefs. They simply believe the inaccuracies being told to them because of their worldview.
2.         Misleading Narratives – When people in power interpret the past due to their confirmation bias, they skew perceptions of others.
3.         Echo Chambers – “Social media and online communities can reinforce existing beliefs and isolate individuals from diverse perspectives. In such echo chambers, misinformation can thrive unchecked.” [e.g., Fox News]
4.         Digital Manipulation – “Advancements in technology have made it easier to manipulate historical content, including photographs and documents, leading to the creation of convincing but false narratives [emphasis mine].”
Please read this blog for further information. It was an excellent source outlining the problem:
https://medium.com/@thehistorychip/facts-vs-fiction-the-importance-of-historical-accuracy-in-a-misinformation-age-f82c3475a3d9

I want to emphasize how much this bothers me. We are visiting this misinformation age once again 10 years later from the time this article was published: Political Lies: Altering Facts and Rewriting History. On 2/9/15, author Richard A. Barrett reviewed a book by Hannah Arendt, titled Truth and Politics. Arendt stated that “Freedom of opinion is a farce unless factual information is guaranteed and the facts themselves are not in dispute.”

Barrett stated, “In other words, factual truth informs political thought just as rational truth informs philosophical speculation….Such attempts by states to alter history are not the only danger of political lies. Arendt warns that “self-deception is the danger par excellence; the self-deceived deceiver loses all contact with not only his audience, but also the real world, which still will catch up with him, because he can remove his mind from it but not his body” (Lying in Politics).”

Barrett stated that Arendt brought new light to the information given in the Pentagon Papers. He stated that “in her commentary on the Pentagon Papers, Arendt details how little the Administration managed to deceive others about the reality of the Vietnam War but nevertheless managed to deceive itself into believing and basing policy on information it knew was not true. In the end, the free press, which Arendt refers to as the fourth branch of government,” performed its crucial check on government—not by alerting the public to facts hidden from it, most of which were already known but—by forcing the executive to confront those facts, facts it had previously been so successful in deceiving itself about.”

Thus Arendt informs us, “Even if we admit that every generation has the right to write its own history, we admit no more than that it has the right to rearrange the facts in accordance with its own perspective; we don’t admit the right to touch the factual matter itself.”
https://hac.bard.edu/amor-mundi/political-lies-altering-facts-and-rewriting-history-2015-02-09

For further information about our changing facts in history due to the political climate see:
https://www.journalofdemocracy.org/articles/30-years-of-world-politics-what-has-changed/

So, my point in this rather long diatribe is this:
Every day that you are on this planet and in this current realm, combat historical misinformation and uphold historical accuracy. Become a critical thinker and encourage this same thought process in others. Question sources, verify information, and seek many perspectives on any matter. Don’t believe everything. Fact check when you can, but also use your common sense. Ask yourself: “Is this really true?” Why would someone believe this?” “Why should I believe this?”

Educate yourself and others and learn how to look into the media and review the historical data. Share accurate information with others, not just something that people say over and over again. Remember this: “If you say it over and over again, it doesn’t make it true if it’s a lie!” Don’t believe everything you hear. Counteract the spread of ridiculous claims. Believe in humanity once again. We will survive!

I love you all on this windy, weeknight in Colorado! Hang in there!

Breaking Free from Smartphone Addiction

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Okay, I’m gonna go all Grandma on you for this post. Picture this caricature, shaking her fist at this new generation (including parents of this generation) for a moment and bear with me.

I am worried about us not personally connecting anymore. I see people scrolling texts and sites on their phones everywhere I go, even walking down the street. The advertisements encourage this behavior, so we’ll buy more connectivity at home. No one talks to each other at home, during meals and family time, or out in the world anymore. Instead, they are addicted to “clicks and likes.”

According to many addiction counselors, a person is addicted if they are compelled to watch their phones for “clicks and likes.” They are seeking validation and a sense of reward by constantly checking for social media interactions like likes, comments, and shares, often leading to excessive time spent on those platforms. They become overly focused on gaining digital approval through these interactions.

The negative impact on mental health is the dopamine rush associated with receiving positive feedback. The dopamine reward system (neurotransmitter associated with pleasure) can lead to tolerance, much like substance addiction. The positive feedback loop encourages further engagement to seek more likes.

The desire for social validation is a key driver of this behavior, as people may feel a sense of self-worth based on the number of likes they receive. Unfortunately, excessive focus on likes can lead to anxiety, depression, low self-esteem, and neglecting real-life relationships and responsibilities. 

The other addiction is called Nomophobia, or cell phone addiction. It is a behavioral addiction that can negatively impact your life. The signs for addiction can include:

You can’t stop checking your phone, even if it has a negative consequence; you experience anxiety, agitation, or disorientation when you can’t use your phone; and you neglect your responsibilities or relationships. The compulsion is fueled by games apps, and online worlds. Cell phone addiction can negatively impact your mental health, causing poor sleep quality, stress, anxiety, and depression. 

Young and older adults can benefit from pausing the social media cycle by taking a moment to turn it off. You can reduce your social media apps or put them in a folder away from your home screen. Or simply remove the apps from your home screen entirely.

When parents and grandparents give up and let their children do what they want to on their phones, sometimes an outside force makes the move to do it for them. As a result, here is what happened in our district last night. This was the news release from our local school district:

BOULDER, Colo. — The Boulder Valley School District Board (BVSD) of Education passed a no-cellphones policy for high schools Tuesday night. The policy said social media and technology are worsening student mental health and disrupting classroom learning. “This over-reliance on cellphones vs. interactions with peers is a troubling trend that is affecting the mental health of students that we serve,” Dr. Rob Anderson, BVSD superintendent, said.

So, I want to thank you BVSD for the ban on cellphones in high school during school hours. I’ve been writing to you for years to ban cellphones while kids are in school. There is no need for a kid to get so involved in the drama on their phone that they do not participate in learning the subjects they need to understand the world they’ll be living in after high school. Upping the game on learning is so important these days, and we adults forget about that, especially if we’ve had bad experiences in early education and high school. Teachers today are overwhelmed with trying to get information across when the kids aren’t focused. They get tired when they try to talk over inattentive kids listening to so much outside noise, and I understand their frustrations. I want to say thank you to all teachers who put up with all our children daily and put up with parents who won’t let the teachers do their jobs.

I want to encourage parents and grandparents to understand this outside noise addiction and create a downtime space for all kids and grandkids, and themselves. My personal routine is to turn my attention to writing and other creative matters when things are crazy on all the news stations and social media. I hope you will do the same. Tell all your friends about it and have that moment of Zen. Thank you for taking the next positive step to heal the world and the people in it.