About a year ago I began to follow my interest in health and fitness on Instagram. Soon I began to see more and more fitness-related accounts, groups, posts, and ads. I kept clicking and following, and eventually my Instagram became all about fit people, fitness and motivational material, and advertisements. Does this sound familiar?
While the algorithms and my brain kept me scrolling on the endless feeds, I was reminded of what digital marketers like to say: “Money is in the list.” That is, the more customized your group, people, and page follows, the less time and money is needed to sell you related ideas. Instead, brand ambassadors will do the work, spreading products, ideas, and ideologies with passion and free of charge.
I’m a psychiatrist谁研究焦虑和压力，我经常写关于我们的政治和文化如何陷入恐惧和部落主义的方式。My co-author是一位数字营销专家，将专业知识带入了讨论的技术心理方面。随着国家的边缘，我们认为至关重要的是要查看社会媒体时代将我们的社会被操纵到部落主义中的容易程度至关重要。即使在疲惫的选举周期结束后，该部门仍然存在，即使不扩大，阴谋论仍在社交媒体上继续出现，成长和分裂。根据我们对压力，恐惧和社交媒体的了解，我们为您提供了一些在接下来的几天度过环境的方法，并保护自己免受当前的分裂环境。
The promise, the Matrix
我们中的那些年龄足够大，可以知道社交媒体之前的生活可能会记得Facebook启动的激动人心。想象一下，几十年来与我们从未见过的老朋友建立联系的能力！然后，Facebook是一次虚拟动态的对话。通过Twitter，Instagram和Apps的出现，这一出色的想法是通过共同的经验和兴趣与他人建立联系的。
事情并没有那么简单。这些平台已经变成了科学怪人的怪物，充满了我们从未见过的朋友，倾斜的新闻报道，名人八卦，自我刺激和广告。
The artificial intelligence behind these platforms determines what you see based on your social media and web activity, including您的订婚带有页面和广告。例如，在Twitter上，您可以关注您喜欢的政客。Twitter算法迅速做出回应，并向您展示更多与政治倾向有关的帖子和人员。您喜欢，跟随和分享的越多，您发现自己朝那个政治方向前进的速度就越快。但是，有这种细微差别：那些跟踪您的算法通常是由您的negative emotions，，，，typically impulsivity or anger.
因此，the algorithmsamplify the negative and then spread it by sharing it among groups. This might play a role in the widespread anger among those engaged in politics, regardless of their side of the aisle.
The digital tribe
Eventually, the algorithms expose us mostly to the ideology of one “digital tribe”—the same way my Instagram world became only superfit and active people. This is how one’s Matrix can become the extremes of conservatism, liberalism, different religions, climate change worriers or deniers, or other ideologies. Members of each tribe keep consuming and feeding one another the same ideology while policing one another against opening up to “the others.”
无论如何，我们天生就是部落生物。但是，尤其是当我们害怕时，我们会进一步回归到部落主义，并倾向于信任我们部落而不是他人传达给我们的信息。通常，那是进化优势。Trust leads to group cohesion, and it helps us survive.
但是现在，同一个部落主义 - 以及同伴压力，负面情绪和短暂的脾气，通常会导致那些不同意您的人。In one study，有61％的美国人报告说，由于他们的政治观点或职位，在社交媒体上与某人无关，未接下来或阻止了某人。
更高水平的社交媒体使用和暴露于有关大流行的轰动性新闻与increased depression and stress。在社交媒体上花费的更多时间与更高的焦虑，这会产生负面循环。One example：皮尤研究中心（Pew Research Center）报告说，只有从保守派平台获得政治新闻的共和党人中，有90％的共和党人表示，美国已尽可能控制Covid-19爆发。然而，不到一半的共和党人依靠至少另一个主要新闻提供者这样想。
The Matrix does the thinking
Human thinking itself has been transformed. It’s now more difficult for us to grasp the “big picture.” A book is a long read these days, too much for some people. Scrolling and swiping culture has reduced our attention span (on average people spend1.7 to 2.5 seconds在Facebook新闻提要项目上）。它还停用了我们的批判性思维能力。即使是真正的大新闻，我们的饲料持续时间不超过几个小时。毕竟，下一个大片的故事就在领先。矩阵进行思考；我们消耗了意识形态，并受到我们的部落者的喜好。
Before all this, our social exposure was mostly to family, friends, relatives, neighbors, classmates, TV, movies, radio, newspapers, magazines, and books. And that was enough. In that, there was diversity and a relatively healthy information diet with a wide variety of nutrients. We always knew people who were not like-minded, but getting along with them was normal life, part of the deal. Now those different voices have become more distant—”the others” we love to hate on social media.
Is there a red pill?
我们需要收回控制。这是我们可以做的七件事，以从矩阵中拔掉自己：
- 审查和更新your ad preferences每年至少一次在社交媒体上。
- 通过将所有广告和建议标记为“无关紧要”来混淆AI。
- 练习更具包容性。查看其他网站，阅读他们的新闻，并且不会“与您不同的人“不友善”。
- 关闭有线新闻，然后阅读。或至少对暴露时间限制了纪律处分。
- Check out less biased sources of news such asNPR，，，，英国广播公司andThe Conversation。
- If you think everything your tribe leaders say is absolute truth, think again.
- Go offline and go out (just wear your mask). Practice smartphone-free hours.
- 最后，请记住，您支持另一个足球队或另一个政党的邻居不是你的敌人; you can still go for a bike ride together! I did today, and we didn’t even have to talk politics.
It’s time to take the red pill. Take these seven steps, and you won’t give in to the Matrix.
Arash Javanbakht is an associate professor of psychiatry at Wayne State University. This piece was co-authored with Maryna Arakcheieva, who is expert in digital solutions and marketing. This article is republished fromThe Conversationunder a Creative Commons license. Read the来源文章。
