Facebook: the new social control paradigm

by Global Intel Hub (JoeGelet), 2016

http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2016-01-19/facebook-new-social-control-paradigm

Facebook has been cited as the prime reason for the recent American recession. Facebook has spread faster than the ebola virus infecting even users without computers. Children grow up in a world defined by Facebook. This aggressive strain F1B1 is reprogramming human beings down to the last strand in their DNA. As the previous generation had television programming, now we have Facebook programming.

Facebook has become the #1 tool for developing compelte psycho-social profiles of US Citizens and foreign nationals alike. Facebook has been used to topple governments (The Arab Spring) by spreading propaganda and thus social revolution. It has been used as a tool to solve crimes. It is a growing method of advertising, spamvertising, and hacking personal accounts. But most importantly, it’s redefining who we are as a species. We are becoming Facebook users, where we once were human beings or “Humans.”

The ME generation embraced Facebook. Because Facebook is all about ME! In any network of Facebook friends, probably 1 or 2 people is doing something really cool. The car salesman who worked his whole life to save for an African Safari with his family, just dropped 25k per person on an exotic excursion into the jungle, all the while snapping photos for Facebook. Oh – how cool! Lions and Tigers and Monkeys! Wish I was there.. back to work..

Facebook has become polluted with prostitutes and the most offensive vulgar culture. Illegal content, porn and so on, is not allowed. So users and spammers push the limits of how offensive they can be. Advertising has gone to a new level on Facebook, called “Spamvertising,” which has become endemic on Facebook. That’s because it’s impossible to stop these junk feeds completely, because they come from a number of sources:

1) A friend’s account is hacked

2) An account is created with your friend’s name, but it’s not your friend

3) Facebook advertising

4) Friends of Friends who somehow are allowed to contact you

5) Fake accounts setup by spammers for the sole purpose of spamming their message on your wall or directly

Ok, Facebook had it’s time. When Facebook was launched, this was a period when users still didn’t actively use the internet. Encouraging use of the internet in any way was seen as a net positive for society. But this was the wrong way to encourage it. They tapped into the lowest part of the brain: the reptilian brain.

The reptilian brain is stronger than all other parts of the brain. In order to control it, buddhist monks stare at pictures of bloodied, dismembered bodies in order to understand the reality; our bodies are just rotting pieces of meat. We are much more than our bodies, how we look, what we do – we are human beings!

We ARE what we THINK – not what we look at, or what we look like, or what we think we look like. In fact, the visual cortex can be highly deceptive when it comes to the functioning of the brain. Optical illusions exploit this brain trick.

Most practically, overloading of the visual cortex reduces higher brain function to nearly zero. It’s a very subtle process, not understood by many TV watchers. TV makes you stupid by overloading your visual cortex, at a certain Hz frequency, which affects your reptilian brain. This is why you get the munchies when you watch TV, or laugh without reason. Facebook is a lot more effective at this because the associations are stronger (i.e. your friends) and it’s interactive – making the users feel as if they are controlling their reality.

The fact is that users are not controlling Facebook – Facebook is controlling you. They have set the stage which is limited, and allow users few useful tools to manage this barrage on your mind. The only way to really stop this invasive virus from spreading: turn it off!

Reasons to delete your Facebook:

Stop sharing personal details with the US government and a host of other interested groups
Enjoy more time in your life, which can be used to pursue a hobby, write a book, or learn a foreign language
Fill your brain with something wholesome! Plant a tree!
Lose weight
Increase your IQ
Increase the speed of your computer
Increase the speed of your internet
Discover the thousands of other more interesting sites on the internet – such as Wikipedia! Learn about Quantum Physics! Did you know that major universities now publish their complete course videos online? Users can literally get a full college education by attending Stanford (but without the degree of course) compeltely for free, online. A good start – the Khan Academy www.khanacademy.org

No one can argue that Facebook has provided families with means of keeping in touch at long distances. Many grandparents wouldn’t otherwise see photos of their growing grandchildren. But there are hundreds of other social networks, private networks, and other methods, of doing the same thing – without all the ‘crap’ that comes with Facebook. Remember the days when we would email photos to each other? We’d spend time even cropping photos and choosing the best one. Now, users on Facebook will even snap away photos of their daily dinner, or inform the world that they forgot to wash their socks. Facebook users who engage in the practice of ‘wall scanning’ have little room in their brains for anything else.

Children are also a consideration with Facebook. Web Filters actually block facebook the same way they block other illicit sites. Parents can probably relate to this article more than the average user. Average users have accepted spam crap as part of life. It’s in our mailboxes, it’s on billboards on our highways, it’s everywhere. But really – it’s not!

Facebook has been banned in corporate networks, government offices, schools, universities, and other institutions. Workers at times would literally spend all day posting and reading Facebook. It’s as useless as TV – but much more addicting. From Psychology Today:

Below we review some research suggesting 7 ways that Facebook may be hurting you.

It can make you feel like your life isn’t as cool as everyone else’s. Social psychologist Leon Festinger observed that people are naturally inclined to engage in social comparison. To answer a question like “Am I doing better or worse than average?” you need to check out other people like you. Facebook is a quick, effortless way to engage in social comparison, but with even one glance through your News Feed you might see pictures of your friends enjoying a mouth-watering dinner at Chez Panisse, or perhaps winning the Professor of the Year award at Yale University. Indeed, a study by Chou and Edge (2012) found that chronic Facebook users tend to think that other people lead happier lives than their own, leading them to feel that life is less fair.

It can lead you to envy your friends’ successes. Did cousin Annabelle announce a nice new promotion last month, a new car last week, and send a photo from her cruise vacation to Aruba this morning? Not only can Facebook make you feel like you aren’t sharing in your friends’ happiness, but it can also make you feel envious of their happy lives. Buxmann and Krasnova (2013) have found that seeing others’ highlights on your News Feed can make you envious of friends’ travels, successes, and appearances. Additional findings suggest that the negative psychological impact of passively following others on Facebook is driven by the feelings of envy that stem from passively skimming your News Feed.

It can lead to a sense of false consensus. Sit next to a friend while you each search for the same thing on Google. Eli Pariser, author of The Filter Bubble (2012), can promise you won’t see the same search results. Not only have your Internet searches grown more personalized, so have social networking sites. Facebook’s sorting function places posts higher in your News Feed if they’re from like-minded friends—which may distort your view of the world (Constine, 2012). This can lead you to believe that your favorite political candidate is a shoe-in for the upcoming election, even though many of your friends are saying otherwise…you just won’t hear them.

It can keep you in touch with people you’d really rather forget.  Want to know what your ex is up to? You can…and that might not be a good thing.Facebook stalking has made it harder to let go of past relationships. Does she seem as miserable as I am? Is that ambiguous post directed at me? Has she started datingthat guy from trivia night? These questions might better remain unanswered; indeed, Marshall (2012) found that Facebook users who reported visiting their former partner’s page experienced disrupted post-breakup emotional recovery and higher levels of distress. Even if you still run into your ex in daily life, the effects of online surveillance were significantly worse than those of offline contact.

It can make you jealous of your current partner.  Facebook stalking doesn’t only apply to your ex. Who is this Stacy LaRue, and why is she constantly “liking” my husband’s Facebook posts? Krafsky and Krafsky, authors of Facebook and YourMarriage (2010), address many common concerns in relationships that stem from Facebook use. “Checking up on” your partner’s page can often lead to jealousy and even unwarranted suspicion, particularly if your husband’s exes frequently come into the picture. Krafsky and Krafsky recommend talking with your partner about behaviors that you both consider safe and trustworthy on Facebook, and setting boundaries where you don’t feel comfortable.

It can reveal information you might not want to share with potential employers.  Do you really want a potential employer to know about how drunk you got at last week’s kegger…or the interesting wild night that followed with the girl in the blue bikini? Peluchette and Karl (2010) found that 40% of users mention alcoholuse on their Facebook page, and 20% mention sexual activities. We often think these posts are safe from prying eyes, but that might not be the case. While 89% of jobseekers use social networking sites, 37% of potential employers do, as well—and are actively looking into their potential hires (Smith, 2013). If you’re on the job market, make sure to check your privacy settings and restrict any risqué content to “Friends Only”, if you don’t wish to delete it entirely.

It can become addictive.  Think society’s most common addictive substances are coffee, cigarettes, and alcohol? Think again. The DSM-V (Diagnostic and Statistical Manual) includes a new diagnosis that has stirred controversy: a series of items gauging Internet Addiction. Since then, Facebook addiction has gathered attention from both popular media and empirical journals, leading to the creation of a Facebook addiction scale (Paddock, 2012; see below for items). To explore the seriousness of this addiction, Hofmann and colleagues (2012) randomly texted participants over the course of a week to ask what they most desired at that particular moment. They found that among their participants, social media use was craved even more than tobacco and alcohol.

Poke Me: How Social Networks Can Both Help and Harm Our Kids

The highlights of a Facebook study via endgadget article:

In a presentation titled “Poke Me: How Social Networks Can Both Help and Harm Our Kids” at the 119th Annual Convention of the American Psychological Association, Rosen presented his findings based on a number of computer-based surveys distributed to 1,000 urban adolescents and his 15-minute observations of 300 teens in the act of studying.

Some of the negative side effects of Facebook use for teens that Rosen cited include:

Development of narcissism in teens who often use Facebook;

Presence of other psychological disorders, including antisocial behaviors, mania and aggressive tendencies, in teens who have a strong Facebook presence;

Increased absence from school and likelihood of developing stomach aches, sleeping problems, anxiety and depression, in teens who “overdose” in technology on a daily basis, including Facebook and video games;

Lower grades for middle school, high school and college students who checked Facebook at least once during a 15-minute study period;

Lower reading retention rates for students who most frequently had Facebook open on their computers during the 15-minute study period.

Facebook will cause lower grades for students, but it’s OK for adults? hmm…

Facebook (FB) Investment Advice

It’s just a matter of time when this will result in a major scandal, FB stock will crash, and class action investigations will pile up. Lawyers will have to hire companies that automate workflow just to deal with the huge amount of securities class action settlements for this case. The Facebook (FB) IPO disaster was a telling sign about this issue. Sell it, block it, delete it, disgard it. Facebook is a bunch of trash. There’s no technology behind it. There are a huge amount of struggling companies that have developed really ground breaking technology that will change the life of humans on this planet earth. Facebook (FB) is not one of those companies. Facebook (FB) is a disaster waiting to happen. It’s a liability. And it’s unsolveable.

Delete your Facebook account, sell your Facebook stock if you have it – it’s guaranteed that by doing so, you can grow your portfolio, increase your IQ and overall well being. Save your business, save your family, save your life – and delete this virus!