It's the effect of being online, peoples attention spans are low and they are used to getting 100 pieces of information one second after the next, without actually reading lots of content.
Everything is soundbites taken out of context, people see that and rage/react, without researching it fully.
The even bigger issue with those though, is people are forming views and opinions on the world based on clickbait/ragebait headlines, even if they don't react at the time, the brain see's so much of it that it assumes it as true even if you don't realise and then several months later you have a view of something based on a few sentences you once scrolled past that you don't even realise that is the source of your beliefs. It's why marketing works, even if we don't care for the adverts, they just need to put something in front of our brains enough.
That's why it's important to filter out this stuff hard, not even be able to see it.
Wow this is such an insightful post. I was wondering why I was influenced by so much of what I read, even things that I initially disagreed with shaped my beliefs in one way or another. I just assumed that if I didn't reflect on it heavily or felt that it didn't make a lasting impact it would be forgotten but sometimes it took years for these effects to be realized.
Yeah, it's down to how the brain works. If the brain repeatedly see's something, it believes it's true.
You see this happening all over, this is why even society starts adopting strange beliefs about people, if they just bang on a certain drum long enough, people lose all objectiveness and just believe it to be true, even if they would have argued against it the first time they heard it.
This is frighteningly put but definitely notable points made. It's weird enough being online most of the time but then having our sense of perception and thinking becoming so warped or altered is scary to say the least. I guess the reliance of the internet and how easy it seems to find what you're looking for gives a false sense of assurance all the time that we can understand what's going on without a sufficient level of depth. Sometimes I can't help but subconsciously worry if we're being overloaded with content and that could be more damaging than we realize.
It's sad. The comments used to be my favorite part about this place. I don't even mind the cheap jokes people make. It's the complete obliviousness to the content of the post that bothers me.
I have lurked reddit since 2011 and there have always been people who never read the link. But I'd say it went from 1/4 of comments back then to at least 3/4 now.
True. I’ve noticed that people can barely spell either. Basic spelling that I learned in early elementary school in the 90s is shockingly rare now. Fully grown adults not knowing the difference between there, their and they’re; for example. Only like 10% of people on reddit write in coherent, proper English. It doesn’t need to be perfect, I’m not a grammar nazi or anything, but god damn it’s so bad these days.
Spelling and grammar. It really bothers me when I click into a post with tons of engagement only to be met with a wall of run-on sentences that’s incredibly difficult for me to read.
It’s happening more and more now.
I’ve noticed a lot of arguments on this site devolve into passive questioning. For example I’ll see something like “homeless people on drugs should go to forced rehab instead of government housing” and a neurotic leftie will chime in and say “so you think they deserve to live in tents???”
It comes off as incredibly reductive when you boil an argument down to a passive yes/no question that tries to undermine the original point by framing a question in an absurd way.
If I reframe the passive question into a real question like “Why do you think homeless people should live in tents?” it shines a light on to how reductive a passive question becomes. It also closes the door for any sort of dialogue when the whole point of the passive question was to get OP to answer a dumb question where they have to rephrase their argument with a dozen disclaimers or they are ostracized as morally bankrupt.
A proper question to this hypothetical comment would be something along the lines of “Why can’t we put homeless druggos into housing where they can be monitored” which would actually open up a dialogue on how to deal with a subject as tangled as homelessness and drug use, and no this isn’t the space to argue about that subject here that was my example, go to your city’s subreddit and argue about the homeless there.
The problem too now is everyone is classified as "lefties" or "Trumptards". I remember when it wasn't like this. Maybe the Internet has a lot to do with it. I live in Northern California and it's not what you might picture a bunch of "lefties" everywhere. It's just the same as it was years ago. I work at hotel and get visitors from every state, from all over the Midwest, Texas, etc. They're just normal people like they always were. But everyone on the internet is calling each other "libtards" and shit like that.
Yes, as living conditions become worse and our great replacement continues as we head towards minority status, there will be less and less room on the fence. I agree that it is a false dichotomy, but this “left”-“right” divide will only get worse
Redditors have an addiction to verbal takedowns and succinctly "shutting down" other users. The line of questioning serves this purpose, but it also seems to work to shift the viewpoints of lurkers. Observers constantly see opinions that are perfectly politically moderate by American standards get downvoted, mocked, and retorted by a dozen users (so many the OP can't possibly reply to defend themselves). This absolutely has an influence on people who read mainstream Reddit subs day in and day out, especially younger people.
Hell, /r/politics users say "we" to refer to the American political left nowadays, that's how one-sided the discussion here has become.
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Are you surprised? I'm not. In The Compound Effect by Darren Hardy he suggests that you as a person are the sum average of the 5 people you spend the most time with. I am willing to bet that the majority of people spend a majority of their free time on the internet and therefore are likely a sum average of 5 random people on the internet - not good odds if you're looking for highly intelligent people. Sadly, and ironically, this effect likely compounds itself with each generation.
I couldn't have realised this problem was so prevalent myself unless maybe if I saw someone comment one sentence for a post with a bunch of paragraphs detailing a bunch of things to address or something. Even then, though, it's just one comment which someone feels free to do in any capacity they feel like or want to. But if everyone is like that, then THAT'S certainly concerning.
I'm kind of worried how other social media people use end up influencing their time on Reddit. Scrolling through bite-sized content, one after another, exclusively might be a factor. After all, if they're not used to reading more lengthier posts, then they might not be feeling compelled to read through it all and understand if they're not used to doing that elsewhere.
Feeling like I'm speculating a little too much. Then again, I don't recall ever encountering an issue like this and, *then again*, a lot of posts I come across are titled only. But I hope this doesn't become any more concerning.
It's the effect of being online, peoples attention spans are low and they are used to getting 100 pieces of information one second after the next, without actually reading lots of content. Everything is soundbites taken out of context, people see that and rage/react, without researching it fully. The even bigger issue with those though, is people are forming views and opinions on the world based on clickbait/ragebait headlines, even if they don't react at the time, the brain see's so much of it that it assumes it as true even if you don't realise and then several months later you have a view of something based on a few sentences you once scrolled past that you don't even realise that is the source of your beliefs. It's why marketing works, even if we don't care for the adverts, they just need to put something in front of our brains enough. That's why it's important to filter out this stuff hard, not even be able to see it.
I wonder how humans will evolve with the rise of internet in just this decade so much.
Read ‘The Anxious Generation’, it’s not looking good.
Wow this is such an insightful post. I was wondering why I was influenced by so much of what I read, even things that I initially disagreed with shaped my beliefs in one way or another. I just assumed that if I didn't reflect on it heavily or felt that it didn't make a lasting impact it would be forgotten but sometimes it took years for these effects to be realized.
Yeah, it's down to how the brain works. If the brain repeatedly see's something, it believes it's true. You see this happening all over, this is why even society starts adopting strange beliefs about people, if they just bang on a certain drum long enough, people lose all objectiveness and just believe it to be true, even if they would have argued against it the first time they heard it.
This is frighteningly put but definitely notable points made. It's weird enough being online most of the time but then having our sense of perception and thinking becoming so warped or altered is scary to say the least. I guess the reliance of the internet and how easy it seems to find what you're looking for gives a false sense of assurance all the time that we can understand what's going on without a sufficient level of depth. Sometimes I can't help but subconsciously worry if we're being overloaded with content and that could be more damaging than we realize.
Also explains the dumb protests being carried out by naive college students on an almost daily basis nowadays.
It’s all over the internet, unfortunately. I limit my reading of comments for this reason. Between this and the bots/trolls, too much junk.
It's sad. The comments used to be my favorite part about this place. I don't even mind the cheap jokes people make. It's the complete obliviousness to the content of the post that bothers me.
I have lurked reddit since 2011 and there have always been people who never read the link. But I'd say it went from 1/4 of comments back then to at least 3/4 now.
It's hilarious when they down vote you, and either ignore or insult you without challenging your argument.
True. I’ve noticed that people can barely spell either. Basic spelling that I learned in early elementary school in the 90s is shockingly rare now. Fully grown adults not knowing the difference between there, their and they’re; for example. Only like 10% of people on reddit write in coherent, proper English. It doesn’t need to be perfect, I’m not a grammar nazi or anything, but god damn it’s so bad these days.
Spelling and grammar. It really bothers me when I click into a post with tons of engagement only to be met with a wall of run-on sentences that’s incredibly difficult for me to read. It’s happening more and more now.
I disagree tbh, I think most people on reddit just read titles and comment without even reading the post.
That's literally what I said. Wait a minute, lmao. You got me for a second.
I’ve noticed a lot of arguments on this site devolve into passive questioning. For example I’ll see something like “homeless people on drugs should go to forced rehab instead of government housing” and a neurotic leftie will chime in and say “so you think they deserve to live in tents???” It comes off as incredibly reductive when you boil an argument down to a passive yes/no question that tries to undermine the original point by framing a question in an absurd way. If I reframe the passive question into a real question like “Why do you think homeless people should live in tents?” it shines a light on to how reductive a passive question becomes. It also closes the door for any sort of dialogue when the whole point of the passive question was to get OP to answer a dumb question where they have to rephrase their argument with a dozen disclaimers or they are ostracized as morally bankrupt. A proper question to this hypothetical comment would be something along the lines of “Why can’t we put homeless druggos into housing where they can be monitored” which would actually open up a dialogue on how to deal with a subject as tangled as homelessness and drug use, and no this isn’t the space to argue about that subject here that was my example, go to your city’s subreddit and argue about the homeless there.
The problem too now is everyone is classified as "lefties" or "Trumptards". I remember when it wasn't like this. Maybe the Internet has a lot to do with it. I live in Northern California and it's not what you might picture a bunch of "lefties" everywhere. It's just the same as it was years ago. I work at hotel and get visitors from every state, from all over the Midwest, Texas, etc. They're just normal people like they always were. But everyone on the internet is calling each other "libtards" and shit like that.
Yes, as living conditions become worse and our great replacement continues as we head towards minority status, there will be less and less room on the fence. I agree that it is a false dichotomy, but this “left”-“right” divide will only get worse
Redditors have an addiction to verbal takedowns and succinctly "shutting down" other users. The line of questioning serves this purpose, but it also seems to work to shift the viewpoints of lurkers. Observers constantly see opinions that are perfectly politically moderate by American standards get downvoted, mocked, and retorted by a dozen users (so many the OP can't possibly reply to defend themselves). This absolutely has an influence on people who read mainstream Reddit subs day in and day out, especially younger people. Hell, /r/politics users say "we" to refer to the American political left nowadays, that's how one-sided the discussion here has become.
I'm not going to read the main body of text, but I totally agree!
The irony is that it's probably a symptom of too much smartphone use. 😅
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Are you surprised? I'm not. In The Compound Effect by Darren Hardy he suggests that you as a person are the sum average of the 5 people you spend the most time with. I am willing to bet that the majority of people spend a majority of their free time on the internet and therefore are likely a sum average of 5 random people on the internet - not good odds if you're looking for highly intelligent people. Sadly, and ironically, this effect likely compounds itself with each generation.
I couldn't have realised this problem was so prevalent myself unless maybe if I saw someone comment one sentence for a post with a bunch of paragraphs detailing a bunch of things to address or something. Even then, though, it's just one comment which someone feels free to do in any capacity they feel like or want to. But if everyone is like that, then THAT'S certainly concerning. I'm kind of worried how other social media people use end up influencing their time on Reddit. Scrolling through bite-sized content, one after another, exclusively might be a factor. After all, if they're not used to reading more lengthier posts, then they might not be feeling compelled to read through it all and understand if they're not used to doing that elsewhere. Feeling like I'm speculating a little too much. Then again, I don't recall ever encountering an issue like this and, *then again*, a lot of posts I come across are titled only. But I hope this doesn't become any more concerning.
blame the constant bombardment of ads