A social media algorithm is an incredibly powerful tool. With a slight tweak in coding, Big Tech executives can control what content the public sees or doesn’t see. China via TikTok has had enormous success pumping specific ideologies — most of them harmful — into American culture (not to mention harvesting American data).
During the Biden regime, Jack Dorsey, former CEO of Twitter, and Mark Zuckerberg, CEO of Meta, colluded with the government to squash certain stories, like Hunter Biden’s laptop and the Russiagate scandal, and censor Americans who questioned COVID vaccines and mandates.
In this way, the algorithm has the immense power to shape public perception around every single topic.
Our heavily digital society ought to be extremely cautious about this. If we want to protect ourselves, not to mention our children, from indoctrination, radicalization, and addiction, we must be vigilant.
But what does that look like?
Nicole Shanahan, BlazeTV host of “Back to the People,” invited digital media innovator and co-founder of Black Rifle Coffee Company Richard Ryan to the show to discuss this question.
Ryan’s new book, “The Warrior’s Garden,” is a deep dive into the implications and dangers of social media algorithms and a step-by-step guide on how we protect ourselves against harm.
An algorithm fails to be effective in shaping perception if people aren’t spending large quantities of time on the platform. In other words, its power lies in its ability to addict. But creating millions of zombie-like addicts is not just about what content is being circulated; it’s about how it’s being served.
Ryan gives the example of casinos. The games and the potential of cashing in big aren’t the only things that keep gamblers shelling out their hard-earned money. A casino’s environment wields enormous influence on the duration of a person’s stay, which is why they are intentionally engineered to foster addiction. The lack of clocks and windows, the labyrinthine layout where there’s no straight exits, and the bright lights, flashing colors, and constant sounds create a disassociation bubble, where external realities fade.
Social media platforms are basically personalized digital casinos, except we’re not losing our money; we’re losing our time, quality of life, and our ability to think critically and independently, as algorithms chip away at our brains.
“I think we’ll find that a lot of this will have some type of implications for memory or cognitive decline, definitely emotional atrophy and different neurological processes for sure,” says Ryan.
If cognitive issues weren’t scary enough, our tech addictions are also eating away at our time. This is really terrifying when you think about what time is — “the only currency that we spend that we never know our remaining balance.”
How do we protect ourselves from brain rot and throwing away precious time?
Ryan’s advice is simple:
1. “Figure out where your digital consumption is going.”
2. Ask yourself, “What things do I really value in life?”
3. “Start establishing boundaries.”
For Ryan, this looked like coming to the realization that he didn’t want to “spend 2.8 years of [his] life on TikTok” and instead devote his invaluable hours doing the things he felt were truly life-giving.
He cut back on certain apps, installed a blue-light reducing screen protector, and programmed his phone settings to grayscale. When he got home from work, he started putting his phone by the front door, almost like hanging up a coat jacket.
“I can’t compulsively just scroll on the couch or anything like that. I have to be present with everyone that’s around me,” he says.
He also got rid of most of his streaming services and bought a blue-ray disc player.
“I said to myself, I’m not going to sit on the couch, and even if we want to watch a movie, we’re not going to just … click on something. If we want to watch something, we’re going to agree we’re going to go to the movie theater, or we’re going to order it, and it’ll be here in a day or two,” he tells Nicole.
“Inputs equal outputs because so much of my daily consumption was algorithmically curated to keep me in a fight-or-flight state. Anger, fear, anger, fear — like my inputs were all negative and so by offsetting that with positive inputs, it really had a meaningful impact on my life.”
To hear more of the conversation and learn more about Ryan’s book, watch the full interview above.
Want more from Nicole Shanahan?
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