How Tech Ate The Media And Our Minds

[JSngry]

https://www.axios.com/searching-for-information-nirvana-2248588151.html

Our brains have been literally swamped and reprogrammed.

• A Microsoft study found that since 2000, our attention spans have been cut by 25 percent -- to shorter than that of a goldfish.
• Facebook and Google now own 8 of the 10 top-selling apps and control NINETY PERCENT of all growth in media ad spend. "The house always wins," Jim and Sara wrote.
• Per Gallup, "68% of people don't trust the news they see or read. Think about that: most people don't trust REAL news."

[Dmitry]

My name is Dmitry, and I am an internet addict. Seriously. 

[catesta]

I guess I'm doing better than most since I've never participated on/in Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, etc.., but I do search a lot of shit online. Still, I think I'm far from an internet addiction. Not that there is anything wrong with that.

The "fake news" thing is not surprising to me. All you have to do is listen to some of these protesters answering questions as to why they are protesting.

[JSngry]

I have also avoided social media, and feel better every day for having done so. Just not that much of me to be that much of that.

[rostasi]

Me too. I have had old friends disappear from emailing to
just doing all of their correspondence by way of social media.

Edited February 13, 2017 by rostasi

[Dmitry]

One thing that REALY alarms me about FB is that they, with their algorithms, can figure out so much about my private life without me even contemplating that they might. Like when I go on FB, up pops a list of "people that I might know". And some of them I do know, a couple I conversed with just briefly on-line [not on FB]. That doesn't sit well with me. 

[Hot Ptah]

I love Facebook and it has greatly enriched my life, with regular contacts with extended family members and old friends. Facebook has just been a great joy to me.

[Jazzmoose]

I tried Facebook for a couple of months and realized that if I'd wanted to stay in touch, I would have.  But I have to plead guilty to the internet addict thing.  Right now it's my TV, my stereo, and in this little town, my only view out into the world.  And the article rings true to me; this has definitely reduced my attention span.  I'll go watch twenty minutes of a movie, play a game for ten minutes, come here and catch up, watch another twenty minutes of a movie (maybe the same one, maybe not) and then suddenly it's time to go to bed and I haven't cracked a book or even washed the dishes.  Not good.

Edited February 15, 2017 by Jazzmoose