I watched the Social Dilemma in part because it’s always good to know what the enemy is up to. Bit of a joke there, but in all seriousness, why would you trust Big Tech who created the problem and profits exponentially off of it, to now correctly diagnose and solve the problem?
It’s a good documentary, don’t let me discourage you from watching, it is just that like everything else, you need to engage the clutch and employ your critical thinking and powers of discernment. Coincidentally, that is my second objection to this film. I’m not nearly as concerned by the fact that you are the product, that Big Tech uses social engineering and artificial intelligence to manipulate human behavior, but rather that billions of people have consented to passively lay back and allow themselves to be led around by the nose.
Ironically this all brings me to father’s day. Happy Father’s Day, everyone! My own father had a lot of issues, God rest his soul, but he did teach me that nobody can make you into their useful idiot without your permission. My Heavenly Father has only affirmed that truth to me a million times over. Whatever happened to personal responsibility?
We’re all dumb, easily deceived, seeking people favor and approval, and prone to foolishness. There are heaps of grace and all these things are forgivable, but at some point we’re complicit, at some point we’re just consenting to our own slavery. At some point we have to take personal responsibility and accept accountability for what we think and believe, and why. Don’t forget the “why,” because that part is really important.
The Bible actually says in 1 Peter 3:15 in part, “….be ready always to give an answer to every man that asketh you a reason of the hope that is in you with meekness and fear……” I really like that wording, the concept behind it, because you have to think critically and feel emotionally, and produce a personal answer. “I saw it in my facebook feed” is not a valid explanation. Neither is, “I believe it because I wanted to find favor with these popular people and that’s what they all believe.”
Critical (and emotional thinking ) is required, as well as some self awareness. By “emotional thinking” I am not talking about outrage, virtue signaling, or caring, but rather knowing in your heart that what you are believing and consuming is well with your soul.
I was not pleased about the ending of the video, with how they seemed to imply “they” need to do something about fake news and conspiracy theories. Ai yi yi. That’s even worse then the original problem in the first place. Also, in the past two years all my “conspiracy theories” and “fake news” have come true. The last thing we need is more censorship, legalism, and Big Tech as the self appointed moral arbitrators of “truth,” all for your own good, of course.
Some of the greatest evil the world has ever seen has always been introduced to us as being for the collective, common good. My own crazy, jaded father taught me those are trigger words, and don’t ever let someone else talk you into doing something, “for your own good.” If it was really for your own good, you wouldn’t need to be manipulated into it.
And my heavenly Father taught me that the needs of the one really matter. He leaves the 99 for the one. You are not a cog in a machine, you are not an NPC, you are not a member of the collective, you are an individual with His undivided attention, and you matter.
I have plenty to say about Big Tech and social media, but I also pretty stubbornly insist that is not the root of the problem. The root of the problem is actually our inability to have that personal one on one relationship with our Heavenly Father and from there, with one another. I don’t want to pick on parents, parents are always the world’s pinatas, but today we have changing tables and car seats with phone holders so the Russians can indoctrinate your baby and you won’t have talk to them at all. Then we send them off to public school to finish the job. And we do all this because we trust the experts, we trust the government, we trust just about anybody but ourselves.
A big part of that has to do with fatherlessness, with the father fracture in our society. Fathers are who give us the confidence and the assurance that we can trust in ourselves, and even when our earthly one is deeply flawed, we have a Heavenly Father eager for a relationship with us.
See, there's this thing called biology... 
Good stuff IB. I haven’t seen the movie yet but I’ve been wanting to. Like you said though we all know we’re being manipulated by Facebook, Twitter, etc…and it really is up to us to take responsibility for our thoughts and actions. And yup, relationships begin with where we stand in Christ.
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Amen, Tricia. Happy father’s day.
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Excellent Father’s Day contribution. If earthly fathers will not do their job, our Heavenly Father will, but who will convince the wounded “fatherless” that there is a Heavenly Father to heap love (healing) on them.
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Amen, Oneta! We have a heavenly Father who really does want to heap love and healing on us.
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I saw the movie, and, like you, wasn’t really surprised by anything that was revealed. No big revelations there. I’ve been laughing at the new commercials put out by Facebook for internet regulations. Have you seen them? Usually some young person who says that they were born in 1996 and how internet regulations haven’t really changed since then. But the kicker is it’s sponsored by FB, in little tiny letters. As if FB would be the best judge to impose new “internet regulations.” Seriously? Let’s just hand over that goalpost to Zuckerburg. I’m sure he can be trusted. LOL!
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Ha! So true about those commercials! I tend to believe some in big tech realize things are out of control and they’d very much like to blame the gov for a lack of regulation and the people for not demanding it. Instead of censorship and control, they might want to stop treating people as commodities.
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“…at some point we’re complicit, at some point we’re just consenting to our own slavery.”
My sentiment, exactly. I realize unfortunately, that I too have allowed far too much to slip on my watch. Though I defiantly continue to protest against the obvious flaws, I’m humbled by the reality that while we all must discern between truth and “news”, rightly identifying fact from fiction rarely provides any solutions to the ongoing masquerade.
Over two millennia have past since Pilot questioned, “What is truth?”. Even accepting the only appropriate answer (Jesus Christ), little universally application has ensued. The remedy is, and has always been by God’s design, a PERSONAL acceptance and employment. Group think and mass compliance will never resolve the problem until, and unless, there is first a PERSONAL agreement about what is truth.
Ironically, God introduced Himself as our Heavenly Father. The Truth has forever warned us that freedom is KNOWING the Truth!
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Well said, MJ.
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I don’t know anything about The Social Dilemma, but on YouTube, one can watch the documentary titled “Stare into the Lights My Pretties” which is good.
I encourage all of you who watch the Republican propaganda channel, deceptively misnamed “Fox News” to critically evaluate such programming and reject it. IB claims the Russians are attempting to indoctrinate your baby, yet she likely has Fox News playing on her tv.
Same with a lot of the Conspiracy Theories. Evil absolutely networks and conspires and the powers that be are dark and conspiring and such is happening all over. However, just as an example, look at Pizza-gate or whatever craziness that was where a small business, a simple pizza parlor was made into a target of all sorts of phoned-in death threats, etc. based on lies. Evaluate what is likely conspiring by the elites instead. Not a pizza parlor. But rather look at things that concentrate power and wealth in the hands of the very few, at grave expense of the majority. Look at the practices of corporate irresponsibility with pollution or dumping barrels of chemicals into waterways instead of properly treating it and then employing an army of lawyers, security personnel, etc. to cover it up, gaslight those who question such, and vilify any EPA regulations.
Look at how unions are demonized in most people’s minds. Yet Amazon and Walmart both take anti-union propaganda very seriously and expend great effort into ensuring the exploited labor force doesn’t have leverage via a union. Think about who benefits. Think about why schools aren’t teaching the benefits of unions.
Think about why there is the push to individualize the environmental harms/protection. A push to ban plastic straws is seen as great. Yet EPA protections and strengthening laws against pollution, maximizing fines so it isn’t a mere cost of doing business if a bad business is finally fined. Corporate pollution greatly outweighs the harm of a consumer being able to use a plastic straw at a restaurant. Yet attention is finite and the focusing of people’s attention on something insignificant like plastic straws, means less time and attention goes toward evaluating the harms and dangers of fracking, for example, or the aging pipes and our drinking water supply.
Just look at how Texans were sold a lie of freedom in their electric consumerism, yet what freedom was there in reality when 10,000 bills arrived for bare minimum heat during the cold this past winter? Busted pipes, and now with the heat wave they aren’t living it up in freedom in reality, are they?
Also, why don’t any of you see Trump as the grifter he is? He’s corrupt. He’s not a successful, self-made man, he was born into wealth. There is a principle in psychology where if you repeat a lie enough times it eventually becomes believed as truth. Trump uses such to his benefit. He repeated the clear lie about the stolen election over and over again, leveraging the media via his outrageousness. IB believes the election was stolen. Yet, Republicans are the ones passing overly restrictive voting laws in prominent Democrat-voting areas, gerrymandering, and stealing elections via any means possible, including rounding up and pulling voting machines to create crazy-long lines and discourage people from voting who are likely to be voting Democrat.
Trust nobody with wealth is a good rule. Behind any fortune is a crime (or more accurately, a series of crimes). People fawn over those with money and fortunes and think they must know something or be better or have a greater intellect but most often it is through psychopathic, ruthless, corruption, scheming, scamming, conspiring, theft, etc. that one achieves monetary success. You have to be evil to do the things that most successful business folk do. Look at Trump the businessman who litigates and fails to pay contractors and runs to bankruptcy protection while living it up in a penthouse apartment, while those small-time contractors who Trump ripped off, lose their homes and become homeless and their small business is no longer, either. Wage theft is so common among the elites. You don’t become rich by paying your bills and adequately and fairly paying those you employ. You become rich by ripping people off, exploiting, scamming, working the system, paying a team of attorneys to ensure you don’t pay any taxes, much like other wealthy persons do.
Bezos was paid by the government something like $4,000 in a tax credit in one year, while being worth billions. Some elites tax returns were leaked a week or two ago and you can see for yourselves what system we have and how the rich don’t pay taxes and stay rich by robbing and scamming. The wealthy would rather employ vast attorneys and accountants to ensure they don’t pay fairly in taxes. They are audited almost NEVER, whereas the poorest are overrepresented in audits conducted.
You fear the Russians? Have you seen the Americans? Facebook should be renamed in everyone’s minds as Fecesbook and treated accordingly.
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Well, first of all I don’t watch Fox news. In fact, I don’t even have a TV. Also, I have never had a positive experience with a union. You can tell me how awesome they are, but all I’ve ever seen them do is take money out of people’s paychecks. Also, all the union leaders I’ve met drove fancy car and wore massive gold chains. They look like organized crime to me.
I followed pizzagate pretty closely. There is nothing simple about it.
No, I don’t fear Russians, perhaps I should, but I just used them as a caricature of internet psy/ops.
Other than that, I pretty much agree with most of your comment.
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Ah, thanks for explaining your Russians comment as a caricature of internet psy/ops.
If unions weren’t beneficial to the otherwise nonexistent leveraging power of a lower-level worker, they wouldn’t be feared by Walmart and Amazon. The most exploited workers would benefit from the leveraging power of a union.
Sorry for my inaccurate assumption about Fox News being on your tv. My bad. The stolen election claim had me assuming you had Fox News playing in the background. Again, my bad. Shame on me. Sorry for that.
Many of those in Big Tech make sure to keep their kids away from cell phones and social media. They don’t want their children’s brains hijacked by addictive social media and forever changed – for the worse.
Just think if everyone threw away their smartphones, laptops, tv sets, and went back to the reading the local newspaper for the news and otherwise being invested in their present surroundings and their immediate community. A back to the basics movement. I think we are all too addicted now to be able to do it.
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Love this: ” in all seriousness, why would you trust Big Tech who created the problem and profits exponentially off of it, to now correctly diagnose and solve the problem?” Good point!
Good point about 2 Peter 3:15 about being critical and emotional thinking and self-awareness.
Love how you tied it all back to father’s day for this post!
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My wife and I also liked “The Social Dilemma” but talked about the importance of critical thinking as well.. You can’t check your brain at the door…ever! I felt that way when everyone was blaming Russian hackers for affecting elections through disinformation spread through social media. The real problem in my mind is that people are uncritically forming opinions based on social media posts. Big tech won’t be the solution. We all need to think more clearly & discern by the Spirit. Thanks!
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Amen! Don’t check your brain at the door. 🙂
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