Pigeons, Rats & Us: The Digital Exploitation Of Dopamine Feedback Loops & Schedules Of Reinforcement

[Yithian]

I'll post this interesting video now and return to give my personal thoughts this evening, by which time I hope to have been rewarded by multiple LIKES and comments of praise for making such a good find (see video).

YouTube Version:

Non-YouTube Version:
https://www.bitchute.com/video/Sm5PX036GRs/

 

[Victory]

Basically too much digital interaction sends me half crazy.
I loose the ability to concentrate for any useful length of time.

But the way that video is put together I turned of after a minute...too many internet clips of that sort have a man with a boring voice talk around a subject instead of getting to the point.

 

[Yithian]

Basically too much digital interaction sends me half crazy.
I loose the ability to concentrate for any useful length of time.

But the way that video is put together I turned of after a minute...too many internet clips of that sort have a man with a boring voice talk around a subject instead of getting to the point.

The part that I was especially interested in was the fact that by controlling the opaque algorithms that determine the output of the variable dopamine hits--likes, views, featured content, trending content etc.--they are able (no doubt with only a broad precision), to influence emotion; influence emotion over an extended period and you're influencing mood; mood is massively linked to decision-making, which is where the other pincer you may be driven towards comes in: increase dopamine, elevate mood and risk-taking increases. At this point offer gambling or pseudo-gambling propositions: lootboxes, credit card applications, bookies' advertisements. Conversely, shadowbans, technical failures, dwindling likes, initial downvotes, videos in restricted state, reduced advertising revenues and repeated failures to trend are depressing for those who virtually live online and depend on social media for income. In this scenario, the other pincer appears in the form of councilling, pharmaceuticals, pampering products, 'educational' opportunities and dating sites: all to drag you out of the rut they have dug for you--at a cost.

Politics, it may be added, is effectively another bundle of products that candidates and parties will offer, but the apparatus sketched above is easily sufficient in tandem with control of the news feed to target that depression, anxiety or positivity towards specific issues and 'soften' specific audiences to focus-grouped messages.

 

[Yithian]

The link works, but the video doesn't appear to run no matter where you click.

There are two links in that post.

The first is an embedded YouTube video that should play here without requiring a click off-site.

The second, it is possible, might require a plug-in you don't currently possess.

Back on topic, I'm surprised that there isn't more interest. There's no revelation in the video, but it does tie the strands together well, I thought.

Victory, it needn't be done that way, but the video is--for good or ill--fairly typical of the short online documentary form.

 

[Victory]

The part that I was especially interested in was the fact that by controlling the opaque algorithms that determine the output of the variable dopamine hits--likes, views, featured content, trending content etc.--they are able (no doubt with only a broad precision), to influence emotion; influence emotion over an extended period and you're influencing mood; mood is massively linked to decision-making, which is where the other pincer you may be driven towards comes in: increase dopamine, elevate mood and risk-taking increases. At this point offer gambling or pseudo-gambling propositions: lootboxes, credit card applications, bookies' advertisements. Conversely, shadowbans, technical failures, dwindling likes, initial downvotes, videos in restricted state, reduced advertising revenues and repeated failures to trend are depressing for those who virtually live online and depend on social media for income. In this scenario, the other pincer appears in the form of councilling, pharmaceuticals, pampering products, 'educational' opportunities and dating sites: all to drag you out of the rut they have dug for you--at a cost.

Thanks for the summary.

And I agree, I find social media usually leaves me feeling down.
Seeing a lot of people going to exclusive events the general public do not know about let alone get invited to is not good for the general public.

My mood is much better when I stay off it.

Someone like me is more easy to get to with the second part of the dopamine control...digging out of the rut.

I also think that the sheer overload of information, most of it not that interesting, but it is eye catching, overwhelms one.
This leaves you somehow "mentally tired/confused".
The brain seeks solace...in the wrong way...by clicking the next page/link or by keeping on scrolling.
In the bizarre hope that the next thing you see will somehow provide comfort/an answer to this confusion.

The worst of this is Instagram...and The website of The Daily Mail....which is a bombardment of stories, 75 - 90% of which are junk news...sensationalist headlines about something really quite unimportant.