In the early 2010s, teens traded in their flip phones for smartphones and the phone-based childhood began: their social lives moved on to social media. Jonathan Haidt, “How screens stole childhood — and how to get it back” (“TED Talk”, April 2026) Jonathan Haidt and his colleagues have been on a long-standing concerted campaign to… Continue reading Let’s Kill “Social Media”
Tag: manipulation
Economics of Information 2.0: Censorship
Just to remind you, last week I started off with: Traditionally, the field known as the “Economics of Information” has mainly been focused on how market prices happen (in the “supply and demand” scheme of things). “Economics of Information 2.0: Advertising“ And then I talked a bunch about how (predominantly online) advertising today has changed… Continue reading Economics of Information 2.0: Censorship
bruh-space: faces + names vs. words + ideas
Are you familiar with this face? You might be — if you are of a particular generation, if you have somewhat of an artistic bent, if you pay attention to popular media, and so on. [1] This is an image of a musician performing on stage as part of a duo that created a bunch… Continue reading bruh-space: faces + names vs. words + ideas
Indigena Revisited
I hope I didn’t give anyone too much of “Great Expectations” last week, when I suggested for you to tune in again this week for more enlightenment. Enlightenment is not something that happens at the drop of a hat … it crystallizes slowly. And just as trustworthy information is fertile ground for growth in enlightenment,… Continue reading Indigena Revisited
Irrational Media’s Business Model is Propaganda
I am amazed that I apparently need to say this. I feel it ought to be as plain as saying “day-time is when it is not night-time”. I was chatting yesterday with a friend and I asked him what he thought of my approach — namely of the way I do not pay attention to… Continue reading Irrational Media’s Business Model is Propaganda
Dovetailing Boundaries with Moving Targets
I am travelling today, and I’ve just decided to combine two pretty much completely different discussions into one combinatorial confrontation. These days I find I am incessantly concerned about the “shifting sands” of propaganda, manipulation and all that jazz. I think of this sort of like investigating quicksand while I am drowning in it. In… Continue reading Dovetailing Boundaries with Moving Targets
Kleinanzeigen (a German term for “classified ads” [in English] ) as “Consumer Platform”
Irrational media are usually (simply) consumer platforms, as the content shared via irrational media cannot be rationally contextualized. [1] Since there is no agreed-upon (and shared) meaningful context available, content is normally simply consumed without being interpreted as appropriate (or inappropriate), simply because irrational media do not provide any context for such kinds of evaluations.… Continue reading Kleinanzeigen (a German term for “classified ads” [in English] ) as “Consumer Platform”
Mainstream Ignorance
There is something I want to write about related to this topic, but it’s a different topic that hasn’t completely crystalized into a coherent concept yet (at least not in my brain). So I will write about something similar — simply because it is more accessible (to my brain) right now. The other day I… Continue reading Mainstream Ignorance
Submission to Popular Publicity (and the “Mainstream” Sinkhole)
This week, an account that apparently reflects J.K. Rowling quasi-published something. The company that actually did publish something apparently “belongs” to someone named Elon Musk — though I highly doubt that no-one on Earth “owns” him (or her or it or whatever). Here’s the last sentence of the so-called “tweet” or “X” or so-called “factual”… Continue reading Submission to Popular Publicity (and the “Mainstream” Sinkhole)
15 Minutes (of Fame or Failure)
One significant difference between humans and machines is that whereas machines need not cope with the “real” world (e.g. “bugs”), humans indeed do need to cope with whatever happens. I experienced this recently when a “bug” in one of my healthcare providers’ system (of machines) caused a failure in the information I received, leading to… Continue reading 15 Minutes (of Fame or Failure)
Socio Business blog 