How does the negative media bias impact mental health?
If mainstream media is always broadcasting 'bad' news we've only been given half the story!
This was always quite obvious to me from a young age and one reason I hated watching the news (most children do) and if children can't stand it then why is it any better for me?
Where are all the positives stories because the world isn't all bad but we are taught that it is, we only taught one small part of what is going on and it's normally the most scary stuff, that someone wants to harm us individually or collectively or that other people are suffering and there's nothing we can do to stop it, we are helpless.
Further more what we are taught in schools reemphasize this and normally our history books are filled with the darker side of our humanity.
Obviously the news would filter into my life one way or another but in general I didn't have a clue about the ins and outs of political news and some of my friends laughed at me for being uninformed, maybe yes I was uninformed of the facts but I was not when it came to
the psychological warfare tool which is the engine that drives the media to broadcast 'news'
Mostly the media is set from a polarised standard method, Us against them or us separate to them. Like the two party system we are forever playing ping pong but the game doesn’t have a winner.
Facebook is now one of the most successful media tools to brainwash people
If you heard of the whistle blower Christopher Wylie who made a ‘psychological warfare tool’ for ‘Cambridge Analytica’ you will know that they collected peoples Facebook data for political campaigning and it's suggested that it had a direct affect on voters that brought trump into power and responsible for Brexit ? !
Having been a Facebook user myself since pretty much the time it was first launched, it swept through universities like wild fire, it was highly addictive social media tool and eventually I became quite disillusioned with it and stopped using it about 5 years ago. I removed all my personal data, my real name, adjusted my privacy settings, stopped uploading personal pictures and basically very rarely logged in at all.
WHY?
Because I smoked a lot of weed and was convinced I was being watched. You can call it paranoia or a heightened sense of the true nature of our reality.
Social Media is not friendly
An example of this is the film they Live 1988 American science fiction horror film written and directed by John Carpenter.
The film follows an unnamed drifter (referred to as "John Nada" in the film's credits) who discovers that the ruling class are aliens concealing their appearance and manipulating people to spend money, breed, and accept the status quo with subliminal messages in mass media. It is based on the 1963 short story "Eight O'Clock in the Morning" by Ray Nelson.
Essentially the main characters finds a pair of sunglasses that reveal a hidden reality: media and advertising hide omnipresent subliminal stimuli to obey, consume, reproduce, and conform, while everyone else only sees the advert.
I wasn’t exactly far off the mark, living in the UK at the time, you are constantly on surveillance but I had noticed creepy things, to do with ads popping up on Facebook and well I just didn’t like the whole trolling aspect of it all. What started out as a bit of fun, to connect with friends, became quite ‘depressing’ when things aren’t going too well in your life and you see other people looking happy, perfect, traveling, buying, cars, partying etc well it stops you focusing on your on life and completely distracts you from it. This when the ads pop up when you are feeling low, making you think that buying those new pair of shoes will somehow makes things all right again.
Because I distanced myself from using it, the psychological tools were never really filtered towards me but having lived in the uk at the time of the Brexit vote, I did notice many of my ‘friends’ were very vocal about their opinions, in know doubt were they being bombarded by the media and getting wrapped in discussions with their peers. But I noticed they were not informed about any facts but hear say. Instead they were irrationally over emotional, they just couldn't stop talking about, and how they spoke was so scary, it was like they had been programmed to say exactly what was already being pumped through the media. They were walking clones be it for or against Brexit, it was quite depressing to see how so many people can be used and manipulated.
Depression is complex and is contributed by many factors but it certainly does not help that hits us where we are most vulnerable and we don’t even know it is happening. The media makes us feel less in control of our own destiny, it is designed to attack us where we are most sensitive, unless we choose to remove ourselves from it. But unfortunately still many people don’t because they think that's what they should be listening and watching because we allow other people to drive our lives. Thankfully people are starting to distrust mainstream televised news and media and since recent news on Facebook and how data is being used, is bringing a lot of things to light and people are starting to reconsider what is really going on.
Lets continue to put on those magic sunglasses and be more aware of the real messages behind the media.
This was part of this weeks @ecotrain question of the week, please check out the #ecotrain to see the latest post and other responses to this question.
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Don't need that to know we are being watched haha. Great response. I was there for Brexit too. We were in Mendips so most were for stay. It was crazy.
I feel like we are wearing those sunglasses all the time. I try to make my students put them on. It's a battle.
Some time ago I read that Cambridge Analytica cleverly exaggerated their role in Trump´s success in order to gain more customers, but I guess it is almost impossible to come to a final conclusion based on facts and to really know to what extend their methods contributed.
I think it's like a domino effect, because everything goes viral now, so a small pin drop in water ripples out and eventually everyone is in someway or another touch by it. If uve ever used Facebook ads before to promote something u will know its quite easy if you have another money to put into it, to reach anyone and everyone at anytime, eventually if u keep bombarding ppl with it, even if they are skiping the ad or ignoring the information filters in one way or another. Just need to power and money and technical know how u control the minds of the ppl. But yep I agree we will never know for sure!
Great insights ! My sunglasses are ON!
The magicians are constantly distracting us so they can perform their next slight of hand.
Oh somehow I have never really been into facebook life, and I am really happy I skipped it when it was launched. I didnt create a facebook account for many years, and finally I did because my family always wanted to speak and write with me there, and complined how difficut it was to reach me. (I was living here in Austria and only used a old nokia for calls and emails for writing). I have always used social media for my passion of cooking and healthy food, and to spread awareness about it. I have always a goal in my head when I use social media, to connect with like-minded people, to get inspired and to share my passion and to grow my own business.
Somehow I cant find a reason why I should use social media for anything else. I actually only see the positive sides of it and choose what I want to focus on. I really wish everyone could use social media platforms for a way of connecting and inspiring.
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