We are the problem
2025-09-04
I intend this to be a relatively short complaint.1)
Not directed to “someone else”, but to myself and to ourselves. And it's actually very obvious, so may not even be worth writing. (I'd be interested in views on this.)
So what am I complaining about? → this → For sure, social media algorithms play on our base motivations for argument, for outrage, for engagement solely because of some feeling like “we can't let that falsehood pass without countering it”. But we do it, often, as part of our daily lives, with other humans face-to-face, without any prompting from the algorithms. So, yes, the algorithms are contributory factors, but they are not the cause. They are just playing on a basic human weakness.
And to put this in a broader context: I see this as one of the ways in which our interactions with or through technological means and media can serve to raise our awareness of how we interact with other humans. Can we, perhaps, become aware of the patterns in the relatively safe context of technology, and then transfer that to growing out of the patterns that bedevil our human interactions?
Responses: learning, education, development; ontological commoning
If we are the problem, can we learn to get over it? What ways out can we see?
Let's try collective raising of awareness. I was going to say “consciousness raising” but gives me a slight flavour of potential indoctrination. I mean raising awareness in the most open sense, not in the sense of raising people's awareness to see things the same way as I/we do.
Naturally, this links back to ontological commoning ideas. If you can't listen to another person's or another group's stories and belief systems without jumping in an “correcting” them, then try establishing common ground at the ontological level, first. That means, make the effort to understand the way that the other person or group sees the world – sees “reality” – without getting caught up in stories or belief systems that trigger a defence of one's own identity constructs.