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Social Media Is Making People Dumber, Fears Elliott's Paul Singer
Excerpted from Elliott Management's latest letter to investors,
PROGRESS?
Some technology represents unquestioned progress, despite causing real challenges to the employment prospects of citizens who are made redundant. For example, recent advances in science and medicine have merely scratched the surface in terms of enhancing our ability to find cures for diseases in an increasingly focused way at sharply diminished cost. Also, the technology of moving people and goods in vehicles and organizing their movement on roads contains tremendous opportunities for cost and energy efficiencies, as do the areas of resource extraction, the development of alternative energy and the efficiency of food production. These are just a few obvious and impactful areas in which technological progress has lots of headroom for human betterment.
On the other hand, some technological progress is not really progress at all. Innovations in the technology of communications, including social media, provide increasingly powerful and robust platforms to disseminate information. Unfortunately, these same increasingly powerful and robust platforms are also used to spread information that is untrue, and to package information in tiny bits of faux-knowledge that (because of their sheer volume) leave little room for neither more comprehensive reading nor discussion and contemplation. This fact reinforces our view that young people need to be taught the basics as early as possible – of history, political science, philosophy and civilization. In the absence of that grounding, all of these Twitter and Facebook bits alight on a population that lacks the tools to sort or analyze what they are reading while scrunched over their Androids. (Interesting word, Android; maybe in a thinly-veiled joke, it is meant to describe the hooked users and not the device...)
The technology of communications also democratizes news and opinion. Although this development may seem positive at first blush, it also has some powerful negative aspects. Whatever one thinks about the “mainstream” media’s biases, there is at least a set of standards and professional codes of conduct that are more or less followed by established media outlets. Writers are edited, and editors seek to protect franchises against irresponsible communications. Bloggers, by contrast, do not really have to adhere to any such constraints, and making them hew to any standards of professional responsibility is difficult at best. The “blogosphere” effectively makes the dissemination of news and opinion a kind of dense windy fog.
[We assume Singer does not consider Zero Hedge among the 'dense windy fog' of blogs given its readership rivals most mainstream media, but rather the meme-du-jour vox populi]
This overabundance of information and opinion is not a positive development in our view (although we are certainly not suggesting it be curtailed or controlled by governments). Ask yourself the following set of questions: Do people seem better informed today in the developed world? Smarter? Is the discourse more sophisticated? The answer is a resounding “no” to all those questions. Modern communication modalities play a role in this sad fact, and so does modern education, particularly higher education, which in too many cases has eschewed foundational course materials in favor of self-indulgent or ideological navel-gazing.
* * *
One wonders whether social media (and perhaps the legalization of pot) is Huxley's Soma for the 21st Century... a nation of compliant robots numb to original thought.
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It's a Recovery Bitches!!!!!!! < how's that for Dumb?
Don't worry, Ebola will take care of them.
Government dissenters are silenced, kittens praised.
Look Up !!!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z7dLU6fk9QY
Give me pot or give me... SQUIRREL!
We are taught what to think, not how to think.
Thats why you remember 'history' as being a boring class, and on the tests, they tested your knowledge of dates (memorization).
Herd Redirectio...,
How to think would go against the indoctrination.
Social media is like the Army 2.0, allowing the folks to be all that they can be.
I was on a tropical beach a few weeks ago. I'm not going to say where, but it was as close to paradise as I can imagine one can find on earth. One of the things that really struck me was the number of people that spent a majority of their time peering into a little 4 x 2 inch screen, rather than look out at the beauty that was in front of them. I kind of felt sorry for those people.
If I can suspend looking at charts and ZH for a week, why can't they stop looking at facebook, twitter, and instagram?
Never mind
Try this answer below:
http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2014-07-30/social-media-making-people-dumb...
Social Mediers made fonestar. Made gh0atrider.
Who made who? Questions for you to ask biggly.
Who were you 10 weeks ago?
I wish you'd disclose which tropical island it was, as I have a deep longing for a vacation away from the world in just such a place...
fonestar is fonestar.
fonestar is banned.
gh0atrider is fonestar.
what did you do to cause your excommunication?
and who is biggly?
Stupidity is an autoimmune response to intelligence. There is no vaccine....
It also reinforces the thought that you had to be stupid to begin with to think that social media was the best thing since sliced bread. You had/have to be a complete moron not to realize that 95% + of the content is totally moronic. Now the stupid are getting stupider? Great! Way to go ! Woooohoooo!
People operate on the following levels:
1. Instinct
2. Feeling
3 Logic and clear thought
4 Eventually #3 turns into what appears to be cynicism
Social media operates on level 2. To many, it feels good to spout off about absolutely meaningless things and get a "like" It is a form of affirmation/validation.
Now, I will sit here and secretly hope you up vote me and my great comment.
"We are taught what to think, not how to think."
Indeed.
Not education but indoctrination.
Which is the system that has been developiong since the Pledge of Allegiance wormed its way into the classroom in the aftermath of the War for a Unitary and Indivisible State:
http://www.oldtimeislands.org/pledge/pledge.htm
Can it be any wonder, then, that it has reduced the population to dumbed-down, docile, and dependent wage slaves, debt serfs, and welfare beggars who, in their stultified ignorance, return to the voting booth like dogs to their vomit?
America is dead. And it will not return until Rome on the Potomac is.
No, everyone is taught, explicitly and actively by pedagogy (as in multiplication tables) else passively by observation/imitation (as in language acquisition [especially in pre-literate communities]):
-How to think (and how not to think)
-What to think (and what not to think)
-What to think about (and what not to think about)
It's been as a fundamental and basic component of human development and cultural reproduction for ... about a million years (since anatomically and cognitively modern Homo sapiens).
In short, you're taught to think how everyone else thinks (for example, what we mean when we say that someone's thinking "makes sense" or "is rational" or "is logical" or "is right", etc.), what everyone else thinks (beliefs, attitudes, opinions, preferences), and about what everyone else thinks about (subjects, interests, topics, ideas), to the greatest degree possible within a given community (the range is pretty narrow, historically).
Believe it or not, people really are taught some critical thinking and analysis skills, things that were unimaginable in the pedagogy of a century ago. But it's all within the boundaries of what's socially acceptable, which is not much at all. The fact that this is a very recent and unevenly applied development should show just how irrelevant it is to the human condition thus far. Serfs simply do not need, and should not have - if stability of the social order is not something being actively attacked - most thoughts and thinking "skills". Medievals who could deploy (Platonic and) Aristotelian logic to produce a proof of what they had already been told to believe and assumed to be true were considered the most educated men in the world - and they were.
None of what the article quotes even begins to attack all of the issues at play in contemporary education let alone contemporary childrearing in general. The safest conclusion is that a nation is a nation of idiots and imbeciles - within its own historical context - because it chooses to be so. All that's changed is the volume of data, information, and knowledge, and the ease of its accessibility. If knowledge of economics, for example, is not prioritized socially, it should surprise no one that most will never seek or get such knowledge. Even if the monetary (exchange value) cost of a book is essentially 0, there is still opportunity cost, among other factors.
Which kinds of information, knowledge, ideologies, and ideas are popular and promoted, is the real issue. Anything you didn't need to think or think about in order to get your job, for example, would make a good example of a very large set of things that you are, statistically, unlikely to ever think/think about.
Ah go vox yourself
Are people becoming stupid , I don't know let's ask an IPhone zombie, they cannot anwser , what they don't have an APP for that.
How much should someone value the advice of Paul Singer, who single-handedly is driving Argentina to default on its government bonds? Singer the gambler who doesn't know when to fold them. Singer's reputation could take a real slamming if Argentina somehow finds a way out of its current default mess. Meanwhile, Singer, whose mindset is like a car repo guy, is tunnel-visioned in trying to get the max for his vulture fund. All or nothing. Singer is going to make some powerful enemies if and when Argentina defaults in 24 hours or so. Singer better throw away any nail guns he owns.
"How much should someone value the advice of Paul Singer, who single-handedly is driving Argentina to default on its government bonds?"
Blaming a hedge fund for literally over a century of horrendous political, economic, and social mismanagement of the entire country on the part of the entirety of all of Argentine society at every level, on a hedge fund who bought their debt a few years ago?
Everytime I'm afraid I've seen everything, ZH's sockpuppets continue not to disappoint me.
YouTube has announced a formal investigation of the MH17 incident. The investigation will be shown on YouTube. Do not try to contact YouTube concerning the investigation.
I always wondered what would become our generation's Capone Vault. Now I know.
And yes, Paul is right: social media is great for chatting, but so was MSNM, and Bloomberg chat. Neither is any more revolutionary than a usenet/darknet chatroom. Lets see what LINKD does.
In the 80s we had party phone 1900 get laid, that was social media.
Social Media is making it easier for those in control.
Agree!
Yep, because they can control content. "All wars are bankers wars" is banned on Facebook!
Who the fuck still goes on Facebook (unless yor 12).
People were already dumb. Social media just allows idiots to express just how stupid they are, to the rest of the world.
EDIT: The Revolution will not be tweeted.
i dont have a problem with dumb people twittering shit all over the place. sometimes it's nice to have written evidence of someones stupidity. the things that really fucks with my head, though, is how it has become basically an official medium of communication for governments and media outlets....
louis ck: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KpUNA2nutbk
ill paraphrase- most people's phones are smarter than them
"...young people need to be taught the basics as early as possible – of history, political science, philosophy and civilization."
interesting how he leaves out economics.
obviously, singer knows it's all bullshit.
trader1,
Unfortunately, during the 5 stages collapses, none will matter.
If people were not so dumb maybe he would be hanging from a lamp post.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hdKr1jlDzW4
The aim of Newspeak is to remove all shades of meaning from language, leaving simple concepts that reinforce the total dominance of the State.
Twitter is an online social networking and microblogging service that enables users to send and read short 140-character text messages, called "tweets".
WTF dey sayin'? YOLO! LOL. BFF, KK? BTW - I eight brockoly 4 lunch n' yogert ass desert.
100% agree
First step: Throw away your smartphone.
Second step: Get off Twitter, FB, Linkedin and other "social" sites.
Ta-taaaaaa!
You officially have your life back!
"Brain damage is always permanent"
Dain Bramage, because the mind is a terrible thing.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y9ClsOQdlUE
The only place left to "chat" will be ZH. Are you leaving this site as well?
tl;dr.. only read 140 chars or less
This overabundance of information and opinion is not a positive development in our view (although we are certainly not suggesting it be curtailed or controlled by governments).
...
You could make the same case for news media like MSNBC and Fox news based on that criteria and they have nothing to do with social media. Maybe it isn't the medium but the presentation aka the script being followed regardless of the medium.
Whatever one thinks about the “mainstream” media’s biases, there is at least a set of standards and professional codes of conduct that are more or less followed by established media outlets.
Bulls**t, how many times has the mainstream media been caught out lying to the public.
MSM has no integrity left, people don't trust it because it has no standards of honest reporting or professional code of conduct when it comes to reporting the truth.
Strikes me that it's the Ivy League that's making people dumb.
It's the clever promulgation of an increasingly ignorant, controlled "hive mind."
Aldous Huxley's grandfather Thomas Henry Huxley's epitaph
Be not afraid, ye waiting hearts that weep
For still he giveth His beloved sleep.
And if an endless sleep He wills it best. M'Fers.
funny: "Writers are edited, and editors seek to protect franchises against irresponsible communications"
I have to disagree with this article; reputation is how blogs are weeded out. And their rise has enabled people — who have not had a voice before — to be heard.
Potato,
The irony is, if it wasn't for state policies, Internet, most likely, wouldn’t exist.
Don't be ridiculous. The Internet Protocol was just the next step after the first packet data links. The ideas were in the air, there were other protocols that came and went in those years.
An IP-equivalent would have happened, this one just happened to be sponsored by the US military when it needed reliable communications for nuclear missile racetracks, I believe it was.
Demdere,
Internet took about 30 years to develop. Which corporation would wait these many years? Even Buffett walked away.
I stick with my first statement; if wasn't for US government subsidizing it through the military and universities... just look at Reagan's star war, big subsidy for it.
How else do you explain millennials voting for Obama overwhelmingly the second time and now less than two years later into his second term are now thinking impeachment. It's irrational at the very least or someone that can't quite grasp logic.
Things that I have observed in the past few years have me concerned.
I see a lot of really intelligent people that might have gone into science, engineering, computer science, medicine, etc. wasting it away on video games, social media, etc. Any curiosity about the world and how it works, etc. has also just been sapped or completely hijacked into nonsensical activities.
Even worse is that people of average intelligence, the majority of people on the "bell curve," that would have also pursued higher order pursuits or trades are also whittling away their time in nonsensical activities and their curiosity about the world is also shot.
It is like everyone is slipping onto neutral.
Note: I have nothing against trivial or "nonsensical" activities, but when they become the primary activity of many, especially presumably educated and intelligent people, something is wrong. Imagine if a majority of people of average and above intelligence all started playing Chess and only pursued Chess day in and day out.
Four-fifths of the population has always been dumb as shit. They stop learning at age 12 both intellectually and emotionally. They don't so much acquire knowledge past that point as much as new comforting myths to explain the world that they obviously don't understand around them. And they fear everything. Mostly because they know so little. So everything is a threat.
And politicians in democratic society play to this. They invent a fear and then proclaim they're going to protect them. Boobus eats it up and demands more free stuff.
Too much information making for terrible discourse. Pfff. How about just easier access for people to obtain bullshit to worry about?
Catullus You said: "politicians in democratic society play to this"
How about family? Education? And how about the church?
Yeah. So what?
Rewrite your nonsense and add those!
What's nonsense about it?
Because most brain development and growth happens much earlier than the age of 12... As a starter.
Check it, yourself:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BoT7qH_uVNo
Ummm... what?
People have always been this dumb, the difference now is that stupid people have an easier time broadcasting their views. In the past they could only express views in the physical presence of others if they couldn't convince someone to publish them (in the absence of the internet), and perhaps would have chosen to keep quiet if they didn't think they were one of the smarter people in the room.
if they could even find somebody to talk to. now - all the dummies don't have to go to a local bar, they just go online.
and the cellphone is the best - because it allows you to talk to yourself in public with an excuse. i'm convinced a huge number of people 'talking' on the phone in public (to appear desired and important) have nobody on the other end.
"Social Media Is Making People Dumber"
I agree. Since I joined Facebook a year or two back I was inundated with garbage e-mails every day asking me "Do You Know this/that person" and an endless stream of others informing me that Joe Bloggs has responded to my comment with "kkkkkkkkkkkkkkk" or some other piece of garbage.
I came to the conclusion that Facebook is full of senseless garbage, so I haven't signed in for at least 8 months. It sickens me that Zuckerberg is a $billionaire for creating such garbage. He simply reflects the sad state of society today.
This dumbing down of Amerikans also plays a huge part in the deterioration Amerikan economy.
1) stupid people can't comprehend arithmatic (thus they are indifferent to economic policy, and they continue to march the herd towards slaughter)
2) resourcefulness and creativity have been replaced with constant tittytainment, killing the innovations that can create new value
3) A culture of laziness in the American herd has drastically lowered productivity (wonder why the young can't find work? they are USELESS). Oh yeah, stupid people now also cost more than ever to employ.
4) Joe Lavorgna
passenger_pidgin,
So, are you insinuating that Americans were not dumb and ill-informed in the past?
I am - very specifically in terms of mathematics and hard sciences. I await your rebuttal, Escrava Isaura. I will admit that my frame of reference is shorter than 40 years, if that makes a difference. At any rate, I am interested in any information you may provide to the contrary.
I was speaking more in general. Agree with you in math and science. Read somewhere that more than half of US PhD’s are foreigners.
I also agree with Chomsky and Hedges that education is the best form of indoctrination. Agree with Chomsky that the religion right are idiots. And with Hedges that they are Fascists.
Here is my broader view: Let’s use Tom Brokaw’s 1998 Propaganda:
The Greatest Generation: I find that generation extremely misinformed, nauseatingly immature, and totally dysfunctional.
Then, the Baby Boomers Generation: Very hypocrite and bankrupted. I call them the “I gave up, because of so much stupidity and ignorance on the other side” generation.
Now, we have the X-Generation: That I call the greatest over stimulated, highly indoctrinated, and still poorly able to differentiate facts from fiction.
Anyway, I think you are giving too much credit to previous generations, if I understood you correctly. I find most Americans very ignorant of America history.
Do you mean "arithmetic", ace?
Dis awther is stoopid. I be on twitter 247 and im smrter thn him!! #FOOL!
One wonders whether social media (and perhaps the legalization of pot) is Huxley's Soma for the 21st Century
I've expressed that same sentiment on many occasions.
I would say smoking pot expanded my horizons to see through a lot of the bullshit. I'm certainly a libertarian.
Can it make you a lazy Fuck? Certainly.
what? defending traditional news outlets as
standard bearers is like defending a pedophile rapist
against the sobs of a child; yet, there is money in it.
.
no more to say on that.
I want to emphasize just how little most people know about the world and to make the point about how important real knowledge is. In our modern world we are constantly assaulted with so much data, information and noise that it is often hard to stay focused. How people live their lives and the quality of those lives is important in defining our existence and society.
With all the debate about gay marriage, gun control, funding pre-k, and such we should put high on our agenda the goal of crafting a better, smarter, and overall improved society. Programs to promote and teach better parenting should be considered and made a focal point of in this endeavor. More on this subject in the article below.
http://brucewilds.blogspot.com/2014/07/crafting-better-society.html
I'm with you on the concept of raising better people. To me, it feels like the only way to fight back that can make a difference someday. Sadly, if I raise decent people, I'm afriad that they will live consciously in a world more effed up than this one. It's difficult enough to find intelligent discussion on a daily basis today (isn't that why we are here?)- how will reasonably smart people feel in 20-30 years?
What you must realize, AdvancingTime, is that strong families and good people don't let the shit that is happening today take place. Good, caring, intelligent people are not what gives the planners more control- hence the modern wasteland.
Perhaps, instead of focusing on what is lost (the dignity of our compatriots), we should focus on how to profit from those who don't care anymore. That, or start looking for someplace to raise a family where you won't get sprayed too much when SHTF. I am open for suggestions on both options, if anyone would like to provide input
I am open for suggestionson both options, if anyone would like to provide input.
I appreciate your comment. It's human in a beautiful way and...I've nothing to offer.
again...I do appreciate reading such a comment/plea.
I might offer this: feel for others that don't make such statements but without prompt will give you many suggestions.
Love, friend.
AdvancingTime,
I am afraid that you are for an unpleasant surprise…. I am gonna go one step further: You are clueless about humanity.
Correction: My apologies. You are definitely not clueless. I mean, you are naive... by what I just read in your post
I respectfully disagree, I never said anything would change and I have very low expectations going forward.
So, that makes your view even more importantly to read/follow.
Anyway, I was commenting about your second paragraph of the previous post. It’s totally unrealistic!
And those ideals, as humanity becomes more and more desperate of our economic and energy collapses, those ideals laid out by you will be the least concern in their minds. Actually, it will be the contrary, as the finger pointing and demagogues take over.
Biased sample to start with.
You have to be fucking dumb to sign up to any social network.
Didn't ZH get a Paul Singer "Fear" column yesterday?
EMP blast will return "Social" media back to pre-smartphone era anyway.
DUH gee ya think??
Looks like the Argentinians are smarter than a few know-it-alls too!
We really need an EMP reset.
"impactful"? Yes, we are becoming stupider.
no one was calculating the cost of essential unlearning.
.
Zero Point : Volume II - The Structure of Infinity FULL MOVIE 1080p
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S2rg7CeY1ek
"One wonders whether social media (and perhaps the legalization of pot) is Huxley's Soma for the 21st Century"
Actually, artificial pharmaceutical concoctions are Huxley's "soma".
The reason pot has been demonized for so long is precisely because the elite are scarred shitless of people thinking outside of the reality they create for public consumption.
STFU Singer.
Who's Singer? What's Twitter?
Who gives a fat fuck?
It's making people dumber, but more importantly, it' making it easier to fuck dumb women!; as lomg as they take STD tests!
It is what you make of it. The net is another tool and with tools its always in how its used.
I found a company that so far has bent over backwards with a real tricky problem. Both of us have a vested intrest in it working. We are gonna nail this bitch and make good honest money off it. Without the net it would never happen.
Another thing. There are tool users and tool makers. How these two groups use the net is completly different. Yes lots of people on the net are just stroking things. A tiny handfull of folks of the tool makers type are giving thier insight into things most cannot even grasp. If you are honest with yourself ya might be able to spot them.
Singer is of the tool user type. meh, just more noise.
You the man WB. Now thats a fine tool you made.
ZH is social media.
"Social media" Hoover would of had a field day with them.
A vast majority of people to this day still believe in prophesy and this guy thinks social media is the problem.
Intriguing...I was thinking exactly the same today during a walk. And have been thinking like it for a long time. Somebody hire me, quick!
Social media is total subversion of what the internet is about. Dont share any personal details online was the mantra...now you have to sign in with your real name and facebook account. Whatch out for the push to make name registration mandatory.
Because of social media I live in a generation where narcissism is not only fully accepted but actively encouraged. Sharing everything. But people are shy by nature. You don't share the intimate or embarassing crap. You gotta convince everybody how happy cool and successful you are...
And thats what it is. Its even sold as something thats fresh and creative. Its about knowledge and sharing and information and cloud and bla. But its not. Its a bunch of vain voyeurs showing off shit they buy to other voyeurs. Why do you think there's no dislike button on Facebook? It breaks the happy lad each other back and go on another shopping spree ending with a nice bio-salad that tastes like cum but sure looks great on Instagram.
Like like like likeLIKE!!,LIIIIIKEEE. Like my stupid postsyou dumb fucks and I'll lile yours. You look great in that new shirt..it doesn't make you look fat or like a dressed up ape...like, at all!!!
Raise your hand if you've unfriended people in real life for being annoying on Facebook. Pump your fist proudly if you've ever unfriended friends for what your other Facebook friends might say. You know like the dude that posts Alex Jones videos all the time, or the chick thats always hating on herself?
Social media is going nowhere. I haven't even mentioned the problem of having a product that can only be successful as long as its free to use. Forcing you to monetize by advertising, putting up paywalls for premium service and mining data. Things thatll degrade your service and annoy the users. The fierce competition forces you to expand the service aggressively to stay ahead of or head off competitors. This dilutes the service even further and will push the first people away.
Indeed the most heard reason for people leaving any service is always that..it used to be great because it let me do this or that but now its a bloated piece of shit with features I don't need or want. I'm moving to plucky startup service X and the whole cycle repeats.
Most of these ambitious techstartups will never turn a profit, or not a substantial one. The rare ones that do are the big ones that have to bloat to keep making a profit...until they implode on themselves and die a slow and painful death. When did you last visit a Myspace page? Couple of years back this was the tool to promote bands...now it's tumbleweed central. Facebook will head that way too. Twitter is cool, but as long as it's free of charge and the service stays a simple and largely anonymous messaging tool. I have no use for it, bit can imagine a journalist would.
Social is just another bubble. In terms of internet its a subversion to the idea of free information and exchange, readily available to all. I realise that was as a naive utopic thought back then as it is now. In terms of human contact, its a barrier and a step back. Sharing meaningful or upsetting info is not allowed in the social network. Best stick to taking pictures of your food and everything you buy to show what a good liberal consumer you are.
Consider this moment in time as peak-social.
I would not count Zero hedge in this category. There is actually much intelligent discourse and content on the site and I am thankful that it exists. It has linked to information from some of the smartest practitioners, as well as some terrific academic material over the years. I have actually learned a lot here and I know a lot of other smart people who feel the same. The site has been ahead of the mainstream media and the markets in picking up emerging themes and stories.
The only negatives are the insane comments from the end of the world crackpots, racists, socialists and anti-Semites.
Knowing whatever faster has got nothing over knowing what lasts.
RE:
WTF are these people smoking? The media's "ethics" have waned since 9/11 dramatically. Codes of conduct don't mean shit (unless you plagarize). CNN, Fox, MSNBC, CNBC are all bullshitting on a DAILY basis on NUMEROUS topics. And the people kinda know. That's why they aren't watching (that, and they either can;t afford cable or are stealing it).
RE
Yes you are, you plutocratic twats.
Why do you think the U.S. State Dept. issued a bogus claim over social media last week about Russia firing missiles into the Ukraine? 'Cause they know it will work. I've been contemplating the conspiracy for a few years now that Facebook was in fact devised and created to be the "TV" of the 21st century.
Exactly. Except, it will be abandoned by younger people as soon as they smell the propaganda. That's an option Baby Boomers never had and look how they turned out!
u cant make them any dumber than they are, else they'd be amoeba
Some of us knew this as soon as crapbook, shitter and all the others came out and didnt bother.
Yes, in a word. Social media is making people stupid. And narcissistic, as well.
I have become comfortably dumb...
In order to accurately analyze information, especially in the psychological and social realms, one needs a framework and models that can effectively calculate salient variables. I believe General Systems Theory provides a basis for such inquiry. How many of the so called educated are aware of the existence of General Systems Theory?
http://www.statpac.org/walonick/systems-theory.htm