A critical and skeptical view of (dis-)connecting in times of corona

A critical and skeptical view of (dis-)connecting in times of corona

It is fascinating how the Internet is connecting people all over the world in new and unexpected ways, radically shaping our perspective and giving the world a new type of central nervous system. Technology is clearly changing us, especially the way we connect with our friends, families, and the world around us. But technology has also led to some of the biggest problems of our daily life. It is accelerating our connectedness in ways we cannot even predict or be completely aware of. 2020 and the pandemic leveraged it into unprecedented extent.

Let’s examine what can happen when these technologies take over and overwhelm our personal lives. The dark side refers to the caustic influence of technology on the individual and society where AI programs are designed to keep us scrolling frenetically manipulating us. This is the “climate change” of culture that’s happening visibly through our devices.
Social media has its own goals and it has its own means of pursuing them by using our psychology against us. Social media and other platforms are designed to isolate and manipulate us, reinforcing existing interests and viewpoints while stoking societal divisions. It shows how our time and attention is monetized, how there is more profit in (dis-/mis-)information than in truth, and the ways in which democracy is being eroded. These platforms have been created to connect us but are now being weaponized against us, we are talking about weapon-grade communications tactics and information warfare that have been used extensively from military and secret agencies/services.

I have to admit that I became a Facebook addict during the lock-down that was caused by the corona pandemic in order to stay connected with people and whilst the unprecedented events were happening, I couldn’t get off it. It had figured out what worked on me, which was political, scientific and conspiracy theory polarization. Soon after that and because of online conflicts occurring between myself and friends or relatives through that connecting medium, I started reflecting about these issues and began to wean myself off. Furthermore, there are thousands of specialists and experts who are publicly expressing a different scientific standpoint on the pandemic but are confronted with aggression, being chased across their profession with substantial existential threats and purposely ignored and discredited despite their knowledge and status. To me that is orchestrated disconnecting of people with critical and skeptical mindset and that is disrespectful. This was even magnified during summer by blaming and stigmatizing young adults as scapegoats, through the mainstream media and governments, stating them as irresponsible causing spread of infections when in fact what happened was increasing questionable testing on healthy young adults. I am worried about such a society that casts the first stone with such ease on anybody doubting what is happening and is not far from what happened in authoritarian systems during our recent history. Recently inside Canadian parliament a discussion took place on isolation camps being built not only for covid and New Zealand has them already in place for the healthy that might deny being tested!? The prime minister of Israel mentioned mandatory chipping of children!? Having children being detained for days without allowing contact to parents, happened in Greece and specific laws came into place in Germany! The inviolability of searching your home without a court warrant is also being bypassed. And all of it using covid as an excuse!? Where is the scientific evidence that justifies such human sacrifice by disconnecting families and children?

Because human societies are complex systems, common factors that may contribute to their societal collapse (economical, environmental, demographic, social and cultural) can cascade into another, building up to the point that could overwhelm any mechanisms that would otherwise maintain stability. Unexpected and abrupt changes, what experts call non-linearities, are some danger signs. In some cases a natural disaster (e.g. pandemic) may precipitate a collapse. Other factors such as increasing poverty, overpopulation or resource depletion might be the proximate cause of collapse. Significant inequity and exposed corruption may combine with lack of loyalty to established political institutions. All aspects of society were severely affected and deteriorated during the corona pandemic.

Surveillance capitalism is an economic model which pressures are driving the intensification of connection and monitoring online with spaces of social life becoming open to saturation by corporate actors, directed at the making of profit and/or the regulation of action through distributed and largely uncontested new expression of power which constitutes hidden mechanisms of extraction, commodification, and control that threatens core values such as freedom, democracy, and privacy. This is a "coup from above" where the system biases towards filtered/altered information for profit. Not to mention the increase in mental health issues and suicides which are attributed to social media usage.

Fake news, fact checks, algorithms which produce non-objective opinion controlling the information, censorship, defamation, collateral damage, social (dis-)approval, perception of others, division in society, lost trust, tribalism are just a few keywords that appeared in 2020 all at the same time and in a never before seen magnitude through different media consortium, isolating ourselves to channels that tell us we are on the right side.

Over the past few months, all kind of media seemed to stand almost uncritically behind the panel of experts and the government, there, where it is precisely the press that should be critical and prevent one-sided governmental communication. This has led to a public communication in our news media, that is more like propaganda than objective reporting and does not align with real connection nor with the right of people to get to know the truth without withholding information. In my opinion, it is the task of journalism to bring news as objectively and neutrally as possible, aimed at finding the truth and critically controlling power, with dissenting experts also being given a forum in which to express themselves. This view is supported by the journalistic codes of ethics. Alternative opinions were ignored or ridiculed. We have not seen open debates in the media, where different views could be expressed.

I am also surprised by the many videos and articles by many scientific experts and authorities, which were and are still being removed from social media. I feel that this does not fit in with a free, democratic constitutional state, all the more so as it leads to tunnel vision. This policy also has a paralyzing effect and feeds fear and concern in society. The relentless bombardment with absolute figures, that were unleashed on the population day after day, hour after hour, without interpreting those figures, without putting them in relation nor comparing them to figures from other years or other cases, has induced a real psychosis of fear in the population. This is not information, this is manipulation followed by an unprecedented media censorship until we see the world the way they want us to. Fear distorts the perception of truth and reality and inhibits healthy connection, and we are fed fear by the media and governments. Many people do not want to admit the propaganda works, because admitting it means confronting our own susceptibilities, horrific lack of privacy and hopeless dependency on tech giants ruining our democracies on various attack surfaces.

So, how to properly connect when all those breaches are incompatible with our society’s human rights, constitution and liberties? Does the new normal wants us to stay trapped in that system even more by social distancing instead of getting out there and connect in the real world with face-to-face interaction, intimacy, objectiveness and real connection? How could connection be the key to fight propaganda and manipulation?

People listen to people who they trust, who respect them, and who they feel connected to. If we want to fight false information, then we need to be willing to connect first and argue later. Develop awareness and open-mindedness. Get together, interact and find compromises to a shared understanding. We need to agree on what is truth in order to navigate out of the problems. Technology and media are creating chaos, incivility, lack of trust, loneliness, alienation, polarization, distraction and inability to focus on real issues which makes society incapable of healing itself. Get out of the illusion and get exposed to different points of view. Turn your back on any obscure media and organizations where we are the product, in order to create space for societal connection and conversation free of the manipulation engines. We need to take and demand responsibilities here before it is too late, for that to happen we need to bridge the gap and truthfully, respectfully connect. Else I fear that connection will be happening only through virtual reality in the near future. Be skeptical, critical without rejecting nor accepting anything that is being fed to us, especially through the “official” channels. That is the point of democracy and freedom, to check constantly on those in power, that is our obligation and duty. They are accountable to the people, especially when they bring in more misery, poverty and disconnection through alienation and non-objective, one-sided messages. The “connected world” is tearing us apart and there’s no conspiracy here, just important unanswered questions. Those in power do not seem to have our best interest at heart, they are exploiting us through our human need to connect and abusing our emotions, playing on instincts, fear and anger. Manipulation is occurring through any media, psychological operations are a fact and it is difficult for most to realize when, why and how it is happening. Greed, control and power will always be the drivers of it. Our dignity as humans is at stake! Our democracy has been compromised through recent manipulation events in election choices and outcomes, at best we have liberal oligarchy. How do we know that what is happening is to our best interest when it is evident that deep human connections and interactions are a danger to any totalitarian system because of exchange of ideas? There is too much at stake in order to not get actively involved!

I can understand that many readers would have expected an optimistic approach, but I decided to do a realistic one. I am an optimist myself but cannot tolerate it if that optimism puts on blinkers, and we ignore or avoid seeing what is really going on with respect to human connections during current times. In Greek, the word for a human being is anthropos, which happens to mean “he who looks upward.” Throughout the centuries, thinkers have seen symbolic significance in this meaning—a significance nicely summarized by author Joseph Pearce:

“A better name for man is that given to him by the Greeks. The Greeks called man anthropos which means ‘he who turns upward.’ Unlike the other animals, which are governed by instinct and unable to do so, man looks up at the heavens, seeking a purpose and meaning beyond the mere creature comforts of everyday life. Reiterating [Oscar] Wilde’s epigram that we’re all in the gutter, but some of us are looking at the stars, we might see the gutter as the symbol of natural instinct and the stars as the symbol of supernatural desire. Man looks up; the lesser creatures do not. Man gazes; the animal grazes.”

Human beings are those whose nature is to ask deeper questions, and we primarily do this through our connection with others. When these connections are hindered, we are not acting according to our nature. We are wasting our time.

Sources:

https://www.thesocialdilemma.com/

https://www.thegreathack.com/

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Societal_collapse

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Surveillance_capitalism

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fear,_uncertainty,_and_doubt

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Psychological_manipulation

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Media_manipulation

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Psychological_warfare

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Internet_manipulation

https://docs4opendebate.be/en/open-letter/

https://www.nzz.ch/international/hans-juergen-papier-warnt-vor-aushoehlung-der-grundrechte-ld.1582544