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Modern Media Is a DoS Attack on Free Will

m.nautil.us

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Re: Modern Media Is a DoS Attack on Free Will

#101

Post by cJ0th »

jesperlang wrote: post #57
ryandrake wrote: post #42

Ironically, the first thing you're greeted with on this site is an attention-grabbing ad, if you choose to browse without protection. If modern media a DoS attack, it's not very sophisticated since it can be easily avoided by non-participation. Install an Ad blocker. Browse the web in private mode. Turn off notifications. Treat everything you read with skepticism (assume it is trying to manipulate you). And never, ev…

I've taken it a bit further with my ad blocker. Started blocking not just ads but irrelevant things like: * Top/Related posts (they distract) * Newsletter signup blocks in the middle of articles (I never ever want to signup for newsletters) * Sharing tools (I know how to cut-past a URL, thank you) * Recent comments blocks (I don't care) * Page footers (bloated with completely irrelevant information) * ... and so on Y…

Also, I recommend browsing youtube via something like startpage.com or duckduckgo.com. That way you're not distracted by follow up videos, recommendations and comments.

Re: Modern Media Is a DoS Attack on Free Will

#102

Post by rhizome »

unholiness wrote: post #86

I personally haven't found the same effect in long-form media, such as: - Non-fiction books - University-centered online courses - Documentaries - Some of Netflix's original programs - Wikipedia's monthly news summaries - The "Great Courses" on Audible These media aren't thoroughly monetized on a pay-per-attention-stolen model. They're more optimized around having good reviews from friends and online. It makes me won…

It makes me wonder if there might be the possibility of a Netflix for news, where an 3rd party curates and allows ratings of lengthier pieces on long-term issues, interviews with important figures, and 20-minute investigative reports (like I remember seeing on 60 minutes)

Isn't this essentially the model that HuffPo and other news aggregators (rewriters) use? Hasn't really panned out in that context, but maybe there needs to be a more quality-focussed site that isn't subject so much to avarice.

Re: Modern Media Is a DoS Attack on Free Will

#103

Post by smsm42 »

tarsinge wrote: post #69
smsm42 wrote: post #36

Earlier quoted context omitted.

So you're saying to fix the problem of you voluntarily surrendering your free will to distractions brought to you by profit-seeking entities, we need to take free will out of the equation by introducing a system where resources would be centrally allocated and there would be no free will involved in what is offered for you and what you could consume, thus no distractions - you always read the content that the People'…

The issue is that free will cannot be exercised under certain circumstances because for-profit have found a hack to shutdown it. Sure completely surrendering it is disproportionate, but for me it would be more akin to banning certain toxic substances in food, like too much sugar cause addiction and health problems so consumers lose their ability to make an informed choice. Here we would simply ban certain practices i…

> The issue is that free will cannot be exercised under certain circumstances because for-profit have found a hack to shutdown it.

No they did not. You don't go to Twitter/Facebook because your free will has been "shut down". You do it because you like it. If you don't want to do it, it is very easy to stop. You won't have excruciating pain and debilitating disease if you don't read what she did next, you heart won't stop and your brain won't shut down if you don't learn one weird trick to burn body fat and make all people of your preferred gender to fall in love with you forever. Literally nothing would happen. You decide whether to do it or not. If you decide to do it, it's ok - it is your time, your life, if you want to spend a little bit of it reading about one weird trick or looking at funny cats, who am I to say no? Go for it. But please stop blaming somebody else for your decision to do it. You have free will. Embrace it.

Re: Modern Media Is a DoS Attack on Free Will

#104

Post by rhizome »

Jean-Philipe wrote: post #87

I'd pay Facebook to be ad free. Why don't they want my money?

You can't afford to pay them the amount they make from the ads you see/click.

UPDATE: 2016 revenue is $27B. At 2B MAUs, that's a little more than $1/mo. Hmm. Surely there's something I'm overlooking.

Re: Modern Media Is a DoS Attack on Free Will

#105

Post by p0nce »

suneilp wrote: post #93
tribune wrote: post #34

I've been coming to resent my smartphone more and more, essentially because of this. I recently quit using tobacco. I remembered all the warnings from my school health classes about how hard it was to quit once you start, how there's a physical dependence and all that. It was uncomfortable at times, and there were plenty of cravings to get over, but I was ultimately successful. I can compare this to the couple of tim…

I disabled all facebook notifications and I don't get wrapped in other notifications. I just check in on stuff from my desktop when I feel like it instead of feeling compelled to do so. If waiting in a lobby then I might do something on my phone or just cross my legs and meditate (yeah I'm odd).

What I do is disable all email and desktop notification on every site I go. It's not worth the mental burden.

Re: Modern Media Is a DoS Attack on Free Will

#106

Post by anigbrowl »

jimmytucson wrote: post #74

The same is true for TV and radio. Think of all the popular culture that's been created and paid for, not directly, but by merely agreeing to have commercials on in your home for a few minutes. This still boggles my mind. How can viewing advertisements be an adequate substitute for paying cash?

Because the marginal cost of the advertising in a large market is so low. A handy rule of thumb is that you spend about the same amount on marketing that you do on product development; the actual production and distribution costs per unit are much lower. Either your product is a flop and you shut down and move on, or it's a hit and you have yourself a nice little income stream.

Re: Modern Media Is a DoS Attack on Free Will

#107

Post by anigbrowl »

theonemind wrote: post #53
shmageggy wrote: post #33

I would gladly pay for something like what is advocated for in this article, but I'm not aware of anything like it. A news publication that: * Has the goal of filtering rather than flooding * No ads * No pop-ins 3/4 of the way through the article telling me about four other articles I should read * No endless scrolling * Upfront about bias * Cites sources

This actually reminds me of Delayed Gratification https://www.slow-journalism.com/ . I don't think they make an online version of anything, though. You get it in print. A quarter (3 month) time delay helps with the filtering. No bother about what Trump tweeted on any given day. Kind of like a history book being written in "real time".

No bother about what Trump tweeted on any given day.

So it's a fair bet that nothing he tweets is likely to affect you. Many others don't enjoy that luxury.

Re: Modern Media Is a DoS Attack on Free Will

#108

Post by mitchty »

SAI_Peregrinus wrote: post #83
tj-teej wrote: post #63

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A simple first step, which changed a lot for me: Keeping your phone on Do Not Disturb permanently. It (AT LEAST) frees you to decide when to check the phone, rather than letting these companies, (through notifications) decide for you when you're going to check your phone.

Another benefit of this (at least on Android) is that you can set Do Not Disturb to "Priority Only" and have it allow calls/texts from your contacts, but not other notifications. This eliminates telemarketer robocalls, as they're very unlikely to get lucky and spoof a contact's number. I also turn off the ability of most apps to display notifications. That helps.

Yep, you can do the same with iOS too with allowing contacts to get through. I turn off all notifications entirely is my first tip, at least to not be on the home screen. I have to actively want to look at notifications, push notifications are almost sheer evil.

Second is to restrict your internet use to specific times or to just say an hour every night from 9-10pm. Lets say start out by saying internet only from 0-15 minutes on the hour (initially). The idea is to get you used to not reflexively use the internet to prevent boredom or distraction.

How you accomplish that, say by killing your internal dns server to not respond or even firewall off your network from reaching the internet is up to you. But the key is to make it so you change your habit of when using the internet is ok.

Oh also, leave the phone at your desk, only pick it up when you need to look at it or if it rings etc...

Another good tip, reward yourself for each milestone, you want to encourage yourself to do the right thing. Don't use negative reinforcement unless you really know how to make that work. Its easier to do stuff like: if I don't go online at all today, I'll eat a container of ice cream (bad example if you do this every day but you get the gist) as a reward.

Re: Modern Media Is a DoS Attack on Free Will

#109

Post by smsm42 »

wffurr wrote: post #78
snerbles wrote: post #44

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This has to be one of the most heavily-couched calls for Marxism I've seen all week. "Democratic deployment" will still suffer from well-applied demagoguery, the people themselves are still prone to manipulation - even when their choices are abstracted away in a command economy.

Did I deliberately avoid the M-word? Maybe. A solid counter to demagoguery is economic justice and education that encourages critical thinking. People are much less prone to be swayed by that sort of thing when their health, shelter, and food are not at risk.

Should I read this as "solid counter to socialist propaganda is actually building socialism"? If so, I wholeheartedly agree. As somebody who actually lived under socialism (until it collapsed), I am inoculated against it forever. However, I think this is way too cruel punishment for a weak souls swayed by a false promise of socialist demagoguery about "justice" and "education" and inevitably finding themselves in abject poverty, monumental totalitarian tyranny and thorough thought-control likes of which had never been seen by humanity before. I'd recommend learning from other's mistakes instead, unfortunately 20th century has enough material for that.

Re: Modern Media Is a DoS Attack on Free Will

#110

Post by smsm42 »

wffurr wrote: post #79
erasemus wrote: post #70

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>require major changes driven by the democratic process Marxists tell people what's best for everyone; they don't do what people want.

Funny, I would say the same thing about advertisers.

Except advertisers won't put you in gulag if you don't buy their product.
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