As a man of instinct and listening to my gut, I had avoided Facebook and Twitter. I dabbled in Google+, but that was of a limited scope as I was an avid roleplayer back then, but nothing else. However, what I did avoid is a lifetime of fake dopamine boosts and mental ruin. I can see how the mob acts in a different light, whereas if I joined the hate train, I would never be able to (and always refuse to) admit it and put up a pitiful defense.
In short, I always need to know what the hell I'm getting into.
Social Media is a design method of providing an interconnected system of "free" communications and publicity, taking advantage of the false desire of instant gratification. The moguls use this introduction of order as a business model to make the people feel comfortable. However, that comfort comes at a price, which is your private information and sanity.
It's as I said in the last post, this is what happens when people want instant gratification more than freedom. However, this post, I am going to look at how social media (Facebook and Twitter included) harm the consumer and take advantage of the resulting damage. This will include advertising as Silicon Valley has a strong like to advertising.
There are many subtle ways the "Big 3" toy with your mind by utilizing deceptive user interfaces. Let's start with generic stuff. First generic method of manipulating your mind is sliding or deleting posts fast enough that no-one sees them. Sliding is defined here as preventing a post from moving up to the top despite the chatter happening on it. This way, ideas that are threatening to Silicon Valley can be quickly silenced.
The second method is to cast a net to catch trigger words that will result in you getting digitally binned or otherwise restricted. This is a method the CCP (Chinese Communist Party) is known to use, and is also used by Silicon Valley extensively for their own gain. This is the most common one I've seen used on Youtube.
The third method is to shadow-ban figures that are dangerous to the narrative the Big 3 are trying to push. This means you are blacklisted from any and all Silicon Valley services and searches, meaning you cannot be reached except by an alternative method. This is the worst, as search engines like Google can go further than shadow-ban you by cooperating with fake news to flood your results with slanderous, defamatory articles.
These methods might not be so subtle to those who were on the receiving end or are otherwise knowledgeable about them, but for the confused, I'll list them out anyways. Let's start with Facebook. To my studies, Facebook uses intricate bots or others who speak your tounge to dig into your personal life and attempt to shape your perspective on the world and specific topics. There's also the overall depressing nature of what Facebook allows on the platform. It's meant to BREAK you. All sorts of things are censored, such as articles Zuck doesn't agree with or thinks is threatening to him.
Twitter on the other hand is a bit more simplistic. You see, their UI is deceptive because of a lack of a dislike button. It makes you think that no one downright dislikes or hates the content that is put out, which results in denial and a weak defense when someone outright says they hate what SJWs are pushing for example. The lack of a dislike button, the like button being a heart, and the existence of an instant sharing button leads to the creation of a human botnet that unwittingly does Dorsey's bidding half the time.
If you aren't signed up, Youtube shoves plenty of safe and politically correct stuff into your retinas. Currently, they're inflating the channel unsubscribed to subscribed users to make it look like the channel owner is not getting enough support. While this causes a lot of mental damage to the owner, especially if they've been at it for some time, it also affects the user when the owner points it out near the start of the video, as an idea is implanted, "not many people are helping this creator". If a known lefty is saying it, then those infected by the other 2 social media would likely say "sure". It would be the likely opposite if a known freedom-loving gun ownin' God fearin' person is pointing it out as well.
Of course, I've listed out how the main 3 social media affect you mentally, but there are more things that I have not gone deep on. Some of the effects can be devastating. If you attempt to break free after you've been trapped, you can have withdrawal trouble ranging from pining for the fake dopamine you can resist to a harsh breakdown that will necessitate praying to God with all your heart to overcome, depending on how off the deep end you've gone.
Status effects can also come into play, such as fear, schizoprenia, becoming a shut-in, etc. My best advice? Get physical with workouts, Karate, Taekwondo, etc. Learn how to get and stay healthy and dedicate yourself to something you'd like to do, be it tinkering, software development, competition, etc. Become more confident in yourself, and thus break free of the fake insecurity resulting from social media withdrawal.
The social medias have a strong link to advertising as a route of generating revenue for themselves. However, the Big 3 and many others do this in an incredibly malicious way: they use the telemetry they obtained from your activity to deliver "personalized" ads in a bid to convince you to click them. Oftentimes, these ads either directly target the user or grind against their political preferences, which leads to those who don't know how to utilize adblockers to be more likely to be manipulated to a particular side in a conflict of any kind, or manipulated into thinking one thing is true over another.