Internet PsyOp

I’d post this on Facebook, but my friends there wouldn’t notice.

Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, etc. — all of them are a subtle PsyOp. They are all carefully structured to cheapen and atomize our thoughts. The high emphasis on things quick and meaningless prevents substantive conversation. All you get is silly chatter and pre-packaged platitudes.

There is a certain class of folks for whom that’s about as real as it gets. Facebook is for them. It won’t demand more than they have to give, and it lulls them into a sense of false accomplishment, which is enough for their lives. It’s not so much a put-down to realize the majority of humanity are there. I still have a pastoral care for them and will do what I can to make sure they don’t get trampled or devoured by demons, but if Facebook represents the nature of the problem, I can’t very well use Facebook to fight the problem. The structure and operation of Facebook prevents them actually paying attention.

However, I had to try. I gave it an honest shot. But when I posted or linked things there that represented my very life and breath, the reason I still have a physical presence on this earth, it was these things most likely to be ignored. Facebook as a whole is the wrong audience for my work.

The whole time I was there it reminded me of my experience with PsyOps. It seemed there were several characters in particular who interacted with me somewhat near substance on some things, but consistently avoiding those items with the most gravity to me. An element in PsyOps is to subvert someone’s values by giving them no traction at all, and choosing to emphasize lesser things so that, bit by bit, the mind is drawn away from whatever threatens the system most. Even when you are trained to do that stuff to others, you still find yourself falling for it.

Virtually the entire gamut of social networking is aimed at doing that very thing. Anyway, that’s my wild rant for the week.

(Update: This doesn’t mean I quit trying forever, but during the time I wrote this, I needed a long break from FB so I could attack the problem from a different angle.)