“A Perfect Storm of Cognitive Degradation”
“A Perfect Storm of Cognitive Degradation”
‘Brain rot’ is the Oxford English Dictionary’s word of the year – a fitting choice, given the startling impact the internet is having on our grey matter, says journalist Siân Boyle
This article gets so close but it feels like it goes right past the actual point.
Profit motivated tech companies are weaponising psychology to dominate your time. There's nothing stopping them from turning your reward system against yourself. Plus given this time is generally being spent on passive consumption, of course people are gonna end up dumber—brains need exercise just like the rest of your body.
Regulation is basically the only way to remedy this (beyond actually nationalising these organisations) and unfortunately it's gonna have to be American regulation for the most part, which I'm not gonna hold my breath for under the next administration
I just don't see any way to regulate this without violating the Constitution.
It's a really tough thing.
You mean because of Freedom of Speech? I think it’s not that hard; your freedom ends where someone else’s freedom begins. Propaganda and advertising for example are designed to force you into believing something / thinking in ways that you wouldn’t, so you are effectively cut off from thinking and believing like you would have been doing without that pressure.
That probably depends on which constitution you're talking about ;)
But I wonder if "for-profit organization may not use recommendation algorithms" would be constitutional in e.g. EU countries.
An independent NGO or watchdog kind of regulatory body staffed by psychology and technology experts with the legislative teeth to issue cease notices with meaningful fines to back them up (take the GDPR penalties as inspiration) should a media platform implement a harmful user experience.
It would be important that the organisation is protected from lobbying interests and direct control from the elected politicians. Though obviously its existence would hinge on the corresponding legislation being persisted.
The result will be a couple of big fines and then everyone else will play ball
If you want to witness the last vestiges of human intellect swirling down the drain, hold your nose and type the words “skibidi toilet” into YouTube.
This is the first sentence. Ohhh the danger of skibidi toilet!!!! So dumb. Who takes this boomer crap seriously? lol.
Bonus points for linking to their old (citationless) article about email. It just shows how they roll out this nonsense every couple years with the latest tech.
And if you browse through the actual studies mentioned, they don't actually say what this article claims. It's a conflation of "doom scrolling" (unscientific) with various internet addictions, etc. where the studies are fairly vague.
While the article is crap, the phenomena of "brain rot" does exist. The brain is like a muscle in this regard; if you never challenge it, it deteriorates. There's even links to increased chance for neurodegenerative sicknesses in such cases. But we have this at least since TV, it's nothing new with the internet.
I do miss the days when I could fully read a news article or a book without flicking through to the next thing, or even watch a tv show or movie without feeling compelled to reach for my phone.
BS I can totally hold my attention longer th
I would say so. My concentration spans decimated, it’s either this or drinking. Or stress.
Old people yelling at the cloud, as is tradition for every single generation before and likely many to follow.
This „Badger badger badger” song was the funniest shit ever when I was young. The only difference is that this one was an Adobe Flash applet while the new stuff is high definition video since we have more bandwidth now.
We have never had machine learning algorithms that exploit human psychology to give precisely timed hits of dopamine. Algorithms that know you better than your family members do.
I think in the near future we're gonna be looking at the modern social medias similar to how we see smoking cigarettes today. Addictive and bad for you.
Every single generation fixates on something new ones do because they’re scared of change. I was endlessly derided for many things that are norm now. They were supposed to end the world but somehow we keep on going. I see my generational peers turning into own parents and dooming about Skibidi toilet thing. They forgot they were children once too.
We have never had machine learning algorithms that exploit human psychology to give precisely timed hits of dopamine.
We still don't.
What do you mean "was"?
Mushroom mushroom!
Snake! A snake! Oh, it's a snake!
YOU'RE just a bunch of shapes and colors!
Now, now, young one. You simply lack the taste and sophistication to appreciate the depth inherent to badger badger badger.
The sharp, minimalist vector graphics of badger badger badger gave it character and pedigree. Not like the tiktok junk of today.
And you had know how to install and patch browser plugins and computers required knowledge. You had to know about the URL and share it on MSN messenger. Not like the brain dead smartphone apps used by modern teens.
Remember one thing at least. One of us tried to end the healthcare monopoly and it was one of us who turned him in. Boycott McDonalds!
Also remember to eat the billionaires. Or at least cook them in oil or heated salt.
I mean, if the article is going to insult skibidi toilet right off the bat, baselessly I might add, it's hard to focus on evaluating how our media consumption is actually changing our cognition, according to the article.