On the influence of social networks And a few reading suggestions
This week, everyone was talking about the collapse of Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp, and about the hours they went dark.
In my view, this was a wonderful opportunity for many to realize how much distraction, and consumption of time and mental resources the social networks create.
The human addiction to the endless stream of information the social networks bring creates constant background noise, and mental and emotional overflow that leaves no space for intimate communication of the person and themself or with their close environment.
These hours when the social networks went dark, and it was not possible to access them, were hours of silence. This silence could have been intimidating, exposing the loneliness and emptiness, or alternatively, create a pause that brings forth clarity and accentuates, for a moment, what is really important.
The silence of the social networks allowed us to get a taste of something else, a breaking of the addictive habit and the ability to create different choices, and discover new possibilities that exist beyond the immediate and automatic need for fulfillment, which the social networks provide.
Interestingly, the collapse happened after the exposure of Facebook’s conduct regarding the bad influence of Instagram and Facebook on the social and political fabric, their disregard of the consequences of their policy, and the constant preference of financial gains over values and responsibility.
Here is a story published a day before the collapse:
“Facebook whistleblower revealed on ’60 Minutes,’ says the company prioritized profit over public good. Frances Haugen, The 37-year-old former Facebook product manager who worked on civic integrity issues at the company says the documents show that Facebook knows its platforms are used to spread hate, violence, and misinformation, and that the company has tried to hide that evidence.
“The thing I saw at Facebook over and over again was there were conflicts of interest between what was good for the public and what was good for Facebook, and Facebook over and over again chose to optimize for its own interests, like making more money,” Haugen told “60 Minutes…” (the link to the full article can be found in the comments)
In the consciousness packet “Technology and Evolution in the transition to the twenty-first century” (which will be published in English in the near future), I wrote that the “social networks opened a door for a new dialog between different and diverse individuals around the globe, creating an opportunity for each one to make their voice heard, share information and influence.
These changes gave into the hands of technology giants and end-users around the world, technological tools that represent the consciousness of the fifth dimension (tight connectivity, the immediacy of data sharing, shortening time, discarding geographical distances, and more), when in fact humanity has not created maturity for this, and the technology conglomerates did not uphold the values and consciousness threshold which ensures that this technology will not be misused.
The technology giants took over technological developments and created monopolies that misuse the new reality environment (of the digital world), in a manner that completely contradicts the values and consciousness this environment was meant to represent…”
The Paradoxical reality of the plundering of resources
We live in a paradoxical reality in which corporations and organizations cynically, blatantly, arbitrarily and cruelly, exploit both the earth’s natural resources, and the resources of the psyche and human consciousness, generating enormous financial gains, (which give them more power and influence), and causing enormous damage whose consequences for the future are catastrophic.
I ask myself, when economic profitability will not be measured by the financial bottom line, but by the amount of harm or benefit for society and the environment?
When will the public understand that organizations and companies that harm people and Earth and that are bad for the environment and consciousness have no right to exist?
The sequence of events that took place, the collapse of the social networks alongside the growing publicity of the negative impact created through them is like an open window of opportunity that can help people wake up and break free from the dependency on this media, and the illusion it creates.
What do I mean?
Your consciousness, your mind, your time – are invaluable resources, which are subject to constant exploitation by the technology giants.
Entering the virtual world requires attention and recognition that you are endangering your personal resources and may “contaminate” your consciousness, undermine your psyche and of course waste your time.
When I get into social networks I usually experience an unpleasant sensation of an illusionary and distorted world. A world whose whole purpose is to draw the end-user in, as deep as possible.
It is a virtual world, which apart from being an important space for information sharing, is not really “real” and does not represent the prevailing life. This world sweeps the mind and senses and encourages a constant feeling of fear of missing out, smallness, comparison, and addiction to a constant stream of thrills and images.
Instagram is like an endless “Lifestyle” magazine that dictates narratives and standards that often distance people from themselves and evokes in them an experience that they are not good enough or meet the standards (false and illusory).
I do not rule out the sharing of information and the presentation of the personal lifestyle, but in my opinion, it is appropriate when it represents values, essence, and meaning, and brings alternatives to a lifestyle that supports people, and strengthens our chances, as a human society, to awaken from everything that consumes us as a society while also destroying the planet.
What is most amazing is that the end-users, those who are using Instagram, are the ones that are maintaining this distorted environment by feeding it with more and more information and more and more visual images, just to get sympathy, approval, attention, and more followers and influence.
Why?
For some of us, this grants a sense of worth and meaning, and for others, it is purely an economic interest…
Many of the social network’s influencers are salespeople in the big store of social networks. Many of these influencers are sellers of products and services, shopkeepers who become opinion leaders, who dictate a hollow culture of consumption and falsified values, which between them and any essence and meaning the distance is far.
The culture of influencers, opinion leaders and talents, creates a deep distortion in which those who lead and show the way, are not those who are created with the material of proper leadership connected to developed consciousness and values, but people who are usually focused on self-promotion, limited consciousness and whose psyche is immature.
It is important to understand that the need for a sense of value and meaning is in the common interest of both network users and those who are considered ‘content producers’, ‘presenters’, or network influencers.
This is a distorted relationship, in which content producers and influencers often use the desire to belong, in order to encourage followers’ identification with them and the image they cultivate and market to the public. This, in order to gain sympathy, sell products to their followers and promote the interests of commercial entities which are linked with their own personal interests (More about this in the consciousness package “About Free Choice – Belonging, Worthiness, and Mind Control” – Link in the comments).
Social networks as a swamp
I see social media as a kind of swamp, a quagmire of images and interests that is easy to get into but hard to get out of.
In a quagmire, there is no real life.
In a quagmire, the water stands and there is no movement in them, and everyone who enters, sinks and sinks until they cease to exist.
So how do you create a sense of living in a space where there is really no life and movement? By creating artificial “life”, and thereby the illusion of movement.
On Instagram and Facebook, a new “storm” that creates conflict, discussion, and also heated emotions are created every day. This is a trend that creates in a proactive, and even cynical manner, an illusion of life and movement.
These are just more ways to encourage “traffic”, create dialog and involvement, and pull people more and more in. Some influencers know how to ride the waves these storms create, thus use them to stay in the consciousness of people and maintain a sense of movement and relevance.
As mentioned, this is an exploitation of other people’s consciousness, plundering them of their cognitive and emotional resources, by creating a constant distraction.
So what can you do?
The first question which I recommend that you ask yourselves is:
Am I using social media or is it using and manipulating me, without me controlling this?
I approach social networks as a tool for the distribution of awareness and consciousness that are meant to assist people to be aware, conscious, and connected to themselves while holding tools to conduct themselves in an environment that is full of influences.
I approach social networks as a swamp to which I enter very carefully into, with the understanding that it might be deceptive, and I use this media to manifest within it an alternative.
Like me, there are many who understand the power of this media, and therefore they are in it to influence from within, because for many of its users “if you are not there – you do not exist”.
What else can you do?
● Learn to define what and who you follow
● Learn to identify where you are being empowered and where you are being used
● Learn to limit your time on social media and shift your weight to your life outside of it – to friends, hobbies, human relations, activities in and for the community, and more…
● Learn to identify when the use of social media creates an unpleasant sensation and when it does – stop immediately
● And last suggestion – learn to maintain the state which I call “Active Awareness”. For this purpose, I wrote a four parts guide that you can also find in the comments.
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