News/Social media as intoxicants

[Myojin]

Hi Guys,

I would like to remind folks of the "The Sacred Sentences" request, for when the forum and many of us (me too) get too chatty and wordy, as it is just good practice in "less is more."



On the topic at hand, while this is more a citizen's opinion than a "Buddhist opinion," I hope everyone will stay informed of news and developments in society from REPUTABLE sources (we still have ethical and dedicated news reporters and respected news, university and other institutions out there, rather than Q-anon or crazy rumors on facebook or twitter), even while managing to view with a "Buddhist eye," the greed, anger and ignorance in the news you see while not becoming overly entangled.

Simply, we need smart, caring citizens to stay involved.

Gassho, J

stlah

You raise a good point, quality of intake of our media is as important as our diets, to say nothing of our choice of intoxicants. In computer science they call it GIGO (garbage in, garbage out), but one thing that is increasingly being muddied is what constitutes good intellectual nutrition.

Thanks to all who have commented thus far, there are some interesting and insightful thoughts coming from this, I guss it's something we can all relate to to a greater or lesser extent.

Further ruminations on the topic; something that comes back to me time and again is the idea that the thoughts that we actively cultivate, will propagate. That is to say not only the media induced thought patterns that we have to deal with, but other forms of mental activity, some based on consumption, or on other behaviour. In many cases, not only can our behaviours harm ourselves, but can also exacerbate real world harms, such as drug use inadvertently funding criminal networks that do a lot worse things than just move a bit of weed about, I don't want to be part of such things, even as a passive consumer.

Anyway, as is often the case, these precepts get deeper the more I think about them.

Sattday

Dan

[paulashby]

Try a little test to discern the level of manipulation on the web.
Click three Fox news links and watch how all the next pop ups are
right wing extremist articles. Then click three Huffington post links
and observe a flood of left wing news bits to grab your consciousness.
Now realize we are all being played. Exercise discernment about the
sources that will be sent your way.
The whole point of appealing click options is to promote intoxication with
our perspectives of choice. Mine lean liberal so I will often click an opposite
viewpoint to try to grasp why some want to make America like Florida
minus the great beaches and Miami art deco.
Daily zazen can help you dump some of the social media buzz we absorb.

Gassho, peace,Paul sat lah

[Myojin]

Try a little test to discern the level of manipulation on the web.
Click three Fox news links and watch how all the next pop ups are
right wing extremist articles. Then click three Huffington post links
and observe a flood of left wing news bits to grab your consciousness.
Now realize we are all being played. Exercise discernment about the
sources that will be sent your way.
The whole point of appealing click options is to promote intoxication with
our perspectives of choice. Mine lean liberal so I will often click an opposite
viewpoint to try to grasp why some want to make America like Florida
minus the great beaches and Miami art deco.
Daily zazen can help you dump some of the social media buzz we absorb.

Gassho, peace,Paul sat lah

You only have to spend five minutes scanning through Youtube to see that, it's the easiset thing to to go down a rabbit hole, the quality of which varies wildly, and the problem is most of it adheres to the rules of confirmation bias, you see more of what you click on.

For this reason I'm mainly seeing audiobooks by Terry Pratchett at the moment, but it's only a few clicks away from being much much worse.

Sattday

Dan

[Gareth]

One thing is that we are still at least somewhat in charge of who and what we interact with on social media. I realise it is addictive, e.g. I spent 20 minutes on “suggested for you” content on Facebook this morning without even noticing. However, if we don’t engage with angry people, e.g. by not subscribing or upvoting, then we won’t get that content nearly as much. I also think that as Buddhists we should try to lighten the tone in darker patches of the social media landscape, if we can.

Gassho,
Gareth
Sat today, Lah

[Bion]

One thing is that we are still at least somewhat in charge of who and what we interact with on social media. I realise it is addictive, e.g. I spent 20 minutes on “suggested for you” content on Facebook this morning without even noticing. However, if we don’t engage with angry people, e.g. by not subscribing or upvoting, then we won’t get that content nearly as much. I also think that as Buddhists we should try to lighten the tone in darker patches of the social media landscape, if we can.

Gassho,
Gareth
Sat today, Lah

Or we can refrain from expressing our opinions about every single thing, cause that attracts arguments and we can remove all the people and content that is harmful, including family and friends.. I can be your friend in person and not have you as a friend on Insta or Twitter and we absolutely won’t stop being family just cause I don’t want to witness your Facebook rants and share your chain messages and copy-pastes. It’s absolutely compatible. Interactions online HAVE to be controlled the same way we do in person or face to face.

Sorry for running a bit long here

[emoji1374] Sat Today

[Gareth]

Yes, I totally agree, that’s actually what I meant in part. I do think we can choose to curate our social media feeds in the way you suggest. On the other hand, it is also possible to use social media with a purpose, an intention to help in some way.

Gassho,
Gareth

Sat today, Lah

[Tom M]

This is a difficult one. I constantly struggle with addictive behaviours, like my hobby and work both being software engineering, and the addiction to the flow state of engaging with that. It obliterates feelings for a while and is a reassuring place, but the return to reality is often unpleasant, and makes me a worse husband & father.

Tom
Sat today