Ten Arguments for Deleting Your Social Media Accounts Right Now

by Jaron Lanier

The problem isn’t any particular technology, but the use of technology to manipulate people, to concentrate power in a way that is so nuts and creepy that it becomes a threat to the survival of civilization.

Your character is the most precious thing about you. Don’t let it degrade.

Whatever you say will be contextualized and given meaning by the way algorithms, crowds, and crowds of fake people who are actually algorithms mash it up with what other people say.

The version of the world you are seeing is invisible to the people who misunderstand you, and vice versa.

What’s really going on is that we see less than ever before of what others are seeing, so we have less opportunity to understand each other.

The ones who are manipulated, meaning you, are the product, not the customer.

The foundation of the search for truth must be the ability to notice one’s own ignorance.

Acknowledging ignorance is a beautiful feature that science and spirituality hold in common. BUMMER rejects it.

We need to find a way back to reality, and the only way to do that is to have conversations that aren’t mediated by technology that is financed and animated by third parties who hope to persuade us. We must fight to speak to each other outside of the persuasion labyrinth.