From The Ramparts

Social Media Sets Us Up for Manipulation

Social Media Sets Us Up For Manipulation

Junious Ricardo Stanton

Since its inception right after WWII, psychologists have known television watching has deleterious impact on our brains. “Broadcast television in the United States has a particular frequency of flicker that cannot be seen, but which has an effect on brain function. A number of studies that have measured brain wave activity in people while they watch television noticed that the brain waves were similar to being in a trance-like state, which is associated with a decreased function of the cerebral cortex—the critical thinking part of the brain. When in this state for several hours per day, it becomes more difficult to focus attention and control impulses.  The American Academy of Pediatrics recommends that children watch no more than two hours of television per day and even more beneficial if reduced even further. Many health experts now encourage parents to completely eliminate television for children under age seven, by which time their brains have had the chance to develop a bit more.”  Tele-Tubbies and Your Health Dr. Kevin O’Hara D.C. https://oharachiro.com/effects-of-watching-too-much-television.html

 This known fact is suppressed by the telecommunications industry and the government because they use this technology to brainwash and program us into: wanton consumerism, accepting their version of reality and uncritically internalize messaging designed to entrain and control us. Media manipulation and social engineering have increased with the proliferation of digitized social media. In fact it has made the situation far worse. “It has been more than a decade since ‘persuasive technologies’ and ‘nudging’ were first advanced as benign forms of social control. The U.S. and UK governments established ‘Nudge Units’ that applied behavioral sciences in diverse contexts to influence behavior at scale. At the same time, companies such as Google and Facebook were exploring nearly identical ideas in search of profit through attention capture and behavior modification, all in pursuit of advertisement revenues. The alchemical wedding between psychology and digital technology has resulted in a new kind of social reality in which advanced techniques of coercion are a common part of everyday life…’Undue influence’ is a legal term used to describe situations more commonly referred to as ‘mind control’ or ‘brainwashing’. When individuals are under the spell of truly coercive communication, they are not freely choosing their actions and beliefs. We argue here that according to technical legal definitions provided by psychologists, so-called ‘persuasive technologies’—especially social media—have crossed the threshold from persuasion to coercion. Large segments of the population are subjected to undue influence over their minds and behaviors.” Social Media Enables Undo Influence https://consilienceproject.org/social-media-enables-undue-influence/ 

The miscreants who want to control our thinking have moved far beyond the flickering lines of the television screen to induce a trance state; they now know and employ technologies that actually rewire our brains. “Heavy social media users perform worse on cognitive tests, especially those that examine their attention and ability to multitask. Compared to moderate to light social media users, heavy users need to exert more effort to remain focused in the face of distraction. Researchers hypothesize that since social media is easily accessible and competes for your attention with the promise of perpetual new content, heavy social media users become less able to ignore distraction in general. Not only does this lead to poorer cognitive performance, but it shrinks parts of the brain associated with maintaining attention. This ability of the brain to change is called neuroplasticity, and it has a big effect on your attention and cognitive function. Beyond lowering your ability to maintain your attention on any one selected topic, social media makes you addicted to your screens. It provides immediate rewards in the form of a dopamine release (the happy hormone) every time you post or get a notification from the app. This constant barrage of shallow rewards rewires your brain to want more of what caused that dopamine release, which leads to social media addiction. Studies show that the brain scans of heavy social media users look very similar to those addicted to drugs or gambling.” https://neurogrow.com/what-social-media-does-to-your-brain/

 Also, “The effects of screen time can have a substantial negative impact on your kid’s brain. A recent study by the National Institutes of Health showed that kids who spend more than two hours a day on screen time activities score lower on language and thinking tests. And kids who spend more than seven hours a day on screens show a thinning of the brain’s cortex, which manages critical thinking and reasoning. Research shows what the adverse effects of too much screen time look like. Brain scans show that internet-addicted teens have shrunken gray matter, dictating critical processes like planning, empathy, and impulse control. And those teens also show disconnected white matter, which integrates different parts of the brain.” Brain Power How Screen Time Effects Kids’ Brains

The Silicon Valley creators and programmers of digital social media (who were funded and financed by In-Q-Tel the CIA’s proprietary venture capital arm) knew this would happen but they did it anyway! https://www.successpodcast.com/show-notes/2018/2/28/the-secret-that-silicon-valley-giants-dont-want-you-to-know-with-dr-adam. They did it because these are tools they use to control and manipulate us! We need to become aware and resist these technological Trojan Horses.

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posted by Junious Ricardo Stanton @ 7:43 AM