For long we, as humanity and as a species, have been social. Gossip is, as Harari describes in SAPIENS, a default pattern that came from our evolution. We were initially nomads that walked from place to place in search for food. If our ancestors thought, for a moment, that a place reach his peak on food and survival needs, or started to get too dangerous to be there, we started a search for new place. This cycle repeated over and over for years. Until we notice couple of things, and one of those were: if we communicate with each other, if we "gossip" about a lion that is preparing to attack, or "gossip" about how we can have a great harvest, we realized, as a community, we could get ourselves in an advantage position by having more food, being protected and have control of the resources. That is powerful. The species who controls the resources, owns the control.
Personally, and I think that works for most of my generation, we've been passionate about every new site, technology or IM app that came out. That goes from MSN Messenger to Orkut and today's Twitter and Instagram. We ignite with these technologies one of the oldest instincts in our species: talk with each other. Being social. The instinct that brought the human kind where it is today in the food chain. That instinct got us to have more food, more technical skills, more oportunities to survive. But there is one fact about instincts that got the attention of the this large companies that produced these apps we use today: they are difficult to get through. They are easily followed without questioning. "Why we love so much sugar to the point we can be addicted?" Because it was difficult to be found in the past and it can provide a boost in energy. That is the main point.
With more people using more apps to comunicate we reach a second point of interest and a second human natural behavior: endorphine. The "feel good" moment. The "like" shot. People can deny(actually can't) but they expect to be "liked" when posting a picture, story or a writing. Even I writing this text can't deny I expect people to read and give me feeback. That's human behaviour. But the fact people actually go to these social medias and willingly post, comment and write expecting the "like" shot can be something to worried about. As sugar, smoking and drinking has an impact on your mood(a.k.a. endorphine's release), posting and having a like also came with this response. Your body is prepared to be injected with endorphine. If it does come, that's good. You are relaxed, you feel connection, you feel good. If it doesn't come, maybe it's you. Maybe you do not belong in this communinity. Maybe we don't like your posts. Maybe we hate you. Maybe can't be here. And now you are blocked. There is so much going on that you can't understand why people have so much hate on you. Companies and politicians also got the idea. There are now new oportunities for selling ideas. Being on social media represents a connection with the people. A connection between similar ideas. If you don't agree, others will. This particular environment creates patterns that not everyone can see: bubbles.
"How this guy can agree with this?"; "How didn't you see what I see?";"Why this is not being showed on TV?";"How can people support this guy for president?" The list goes on and on. I think everyone can agree that if we can choose what we can see we will choose the ones who/what please us, right? At least for me is difficult to understand that someone will choose something that will not please him/her(even if you are masochists, you like to be hurt). And from a social media stand point what this creates? Bubbles of people thinking and liking the same patterns. Voting for the same candidate. This is creating a generation that do not tolerate others opinion. And by no means I'm saying we have to tolarate radical opinions, such as: fascism, racism, xenophobia, and so on. These are not opinions, these are hate speechs. They are wrong from the start point. I'm talking about discussions that will push the society forward and are part of democracy. Discussion that will take people from 1970 to 2000 to get into a single decision. People from different origins, from different perspectives, and people that can have different views. This is part of who we are as a society. Democracy is maybe not the perfect social agreement but is the best we had so far. We have to deal with it until we find a better one, or until we allow us to have a better one. By "we" I say "as a global society". I'm not a idealistic person and I know that are large companies and industries lobbying every single political decision. Decisions that can decrease social and political inequality. This is a fact and we can't get rid of it. Although one of the most emancipated acts a human can do is to educate him(her)self . And is what we can do for us and for others. Spread the word. Spread ideas. Bring people together. Talk with each other. The more we can have, the better. I think is the only way we can have to start a more really connected society. Decentralize power and spread oppportunity and knowledge in the way we can.
In general social medias has had a large impact in our daily lives. It in fact connect us, but also apart what is different from us. It does put us in a position of control what we can see, but this could take us to place where there is only happiness. And when we in fact have to deal with the pain, the sorrow, the sadness, we will, maybe, not be prepared to take. This is a problem. Because happiness only exists because there is a counterpart. Without it we remove the natural fact of our existence and we became nothing but living cells walking down the park. Beach pictures, smile faces, they are limited. We need to have this in mind. Seems like everything push us to be active, to be happy, to keep improve our technical skills and when we are not keeping up we are, in fact, stay behing. We are not. We need to understand there is moments for everything: to be sad, to be hapy, to study, and to just sleep all day. Sadness is part of our happiness. Lets get the control back to our hands. Lets us decide what we will feel, not others.
Personally, and I think that works for most of my generation, we've been passionate about every new site, technology or IM app that came out. That goes from MSN Messenger to Orkut and today's Twitter and Instagram. We ignite with these technologies one of the oldest instincts in our species: talk with each other. Being social. The instinct that brought the human kind where it is today in the food chain. That instinct got us to have more food, more technical skills, more oportunities to survive. But there is one fact about instincts that got the attention of the this large companies that produced these apps we use today: they are difficult to get through. They are easily followed without questioning. "Why we love so much sugar to the point we can be addicted?" Because it was difficult to be found in the past and it can provide a boost in energy. That is the main point.
With more people using more apps to comunicate we reach a second point of interest and a second human natural behavior: endorphine. The "feel good" moment. The "like" shot. People can deny(actually can't) but they expect to be "liked" when posting a picture, story or a writing. Even I writing this text can't deny I expect people to read and give me feeback. That's human behaviour. But the fact people actually go to these social medias and willingly post, comment and write expecting the "like" shot can be something to worried about. As sugar, smoking and drinking has an impact on your mood(a.k.a. endorphine's release), posting and having a like also came with this response. Your body is prepared to be injected with endorphine. If it does come, that's good. You are relaxed, you feel connection, you feel good. If it doesn't come, maybe it's you. Maybe you do not belong in this communinity. Maybe we don't like your posts. Maybe we hate you. Maybe can't be here. And now you are blocked. There is so much going on that you can't understand why people have so much hate on you. Companies and politicians also got the idea. There are now new oportunities for selling ideas. Being on social media represents a connection with the people. A connection between similar ideas. If you don't agree, others will. This particular environment creates patterns that not everyone can see: bubbles.
"How this guy can agree with this?"; "How didn't you see what I see?";"Why this is not being showed on TV?";"How can people support this guy for president?" The list goes on and on. I think everyone can agree that if we can choose what we can see we will choose the ones who/what please us, right? At least for me is difficult to understand that someone will choose something that will not please him/her(even if you are masochists, you like to be hurt). And from a social media stand point what this creates? Bubbles of people thinking and liking the same patterns. Voting for the same candidate. This is creating a generation that do not tolerate others opinion. And by no means I'm saying we have to tolarate radical opinions, such as: fascism, racism, xenophobia, and so on. These are not opinions, these are hate speechs. They are wrong from the start point. I'm talking about discussions that will push the society forward and are part of democracy. Discussion that will take people from 1970 to 2000 to get into a single decision. People from different origins, from different perspectives, and people that can have different views. This is part of who we are as a society. Democracy is maybe not the perfect social agreement but is the best we had so far. We have to deal with it until we find a better one, or until we allow us to have a better one. By "we" I say "as a global society". I'm not a idealistic person and I know that are large companies and industries lobbying every single political decision. Decisions that can decrease social and political inequality. This is a fact and we can't get rid of it. Although one of the most emancipated acts a human can do is to educate him(her)self . And is what we can do for us and for others. Spread the word. Spread ideas. Bring people together. Talk with each other. The more we can have, the better. I think is the only way we can have to start a more really connected society. Decentralize power and spread oppportunity and knowledge in the way we can.
In general social medias has had a large impact in our daily lives. It in fact connect us, but also apart what is different from us. It does put us in a position of control what we can see, but this could take us to place where there is only happiness. And when we in fact have to deal with the pain, the sorrow, the sadness, we will, maybe, not be prepared to take. This is a problem. Because happiness only exists because there is a counterpart. Without it we remove the natural fact of our existence and we became nothing but living cells walking down the park. Beach pictures, smile faces, they are limited. We need to have this in mind. Seems like everything push us to be active, to be happy, to keep improve our technical skills and when we are not keeping up we are, in fact, stay behing. We are not. We need to understand there is moments for everything: to be sad, to be hapy, to study, and to just sleep all day. Sadness is part of our happiness. Lets get the control back to our hands. Lets us decide what we will feel, not others.