Delusion

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The polarization of everyone's ideas is increasingly worrying.

Is human society regressing?

I recently read in a study that the next generation is likely to be the first generation whose intelligence level may be lower than that of the previous generation. This is very frightening.

Today, I found myself thinking a little about this subject.

Being outside the “circle” of news, largely because I don't have social media (X, Facebook, TikTok, or Instagram), which I stopped using over a decade ago, and recently because I chose not to watch television—after the retreat I took at the end of August, I am able to better discern the situation. Maybe I'm also being a little pretentious, but you can comment on that if you think so. I really like to hear opinions that are contrary to mine. But nowadays it seems that this concern I try to maintain is no longer “normal.”

We don't accept what doesn't suit our tastes, we're not interested in what isn't like us. Are we locking ourselves away in a walled house with no windows?

I think it is essential to keep an open mind and seek out what is going on. Not only outside, but also within ourselves. And if we stop doing so, aren't we regressing?

If I watch more videos of right-wing politicians, the algorithm will tend to give me more videos of right-wing politicians, with whom I agree. And it will suggest to me, above all, and at the same time, ridiculous videos of left-wing politicians, because it knows that I don't identify with left-wing politics, and as such, by offering ridiculous videos, or ones that are very divisive of left-wing politicians, I will also watch them.

Does each of us truly realize that this happens every second we are online?

The algorithm knows exactly when we stop liking a particular video. It knows exactly when we stop reading or paying attention to a particular news story, and give up and move on to another story.

It knows that we click more if we read the word “humiliate,” for example. And continuing with the theme of politics, if there is a mention of “A humiliates B,” rather than “A debates issue with B.” And so, it knows exactly all of that. Everything is recorded, all of our clicks, all of the associations we make between ideas, words, or images that we like, all of the themes.

It knows all of this, all of our interests, and with that it offers us a personalized experience.

The order in which we see the news, which news items will be shown or suggested to us, which reactions we like to see in the news.

It's the algorithms that choose.

Each of us receives different suggestions and different articles, allegedly tailored to who we are.

The algorithm has one and only one goal, and it is not to manipulate users. The algorithm's goal is simply to keep each person connected to a platform for longer, viewing or interacting with it.

It will always search for videos that will keep us there longer, even if it's just half a second longer on our cell phones.

Human nature is much more attracted to what is loud, what is more radical, what causes more fear, or what scares us.

Since the beginning of time, the brain has evolved in this direction. And for a very logical reason. By being able to identify potential dangers around us, we ensure that we avoid or signal potential risks to our integrity. We want to ensure our survival. The survival of our tribe, or our family. We look at what seems chaotic to us, and our brain tries to make connections and establish causalities when they don't even exist.

Imagine you are on a dark street and you see a car with five people inside, playing loud music. Immediately, our internal alarms go off, and we assume a defensive position. We distance ourselves. And it's like that with everything.

It is for these reasons that we are witnessing a climate of polarization today. Not because we have well-founded ideas, but because we are gradually being conditioned to personalize our ideas, leaving critical and objective thinking aside.

We don't like to be contradicted, and we don't even make the effort to try to understand the other side of the fence a little.

^{Translated with DeepL.com (free version)
Free image from Pixabay.com}