It's very powerful stuff, for sure. There seems good evidence now that the more desperate, lonely and isolated people feel, the more they turn to online relationships and the more deeply the rely on them. There is strong link between heavy FB use and depression. People with depression and struggles are more likely to turn to people they don't know in person, and social media like Instagram is likely to keep people in depressive spirals, as they feel beset by jealous, spite, comparison, bullying and cliques. It's a nasty, vicious storm, particularly damaging for young people who are affected by peer tastes more acutely, and also for older people who feel isolated - more vulnerable to scammers posing as friends.
It's a good reason to break social media habits and close accounts.
I’m interested in your comment @Fire that you have had online correspondence interaction with journalists and writers.
When my wife has faced significant operations I have written to people she admires asking if they might send a goodwill message to boost her recovery - often they have done much more, sending as well signed books, CDs, cartoons and the nicest of encouraging words. So hats off to Russell Watson, Germaine Greer, Fred Vargas, Alexander McCall Smith*, Denise Lewis, Matt (Telegraph cartoonist), Blazing Fiddles folk band, Michael Gambon and Donna Leon.
* His words were dictated to him by Mma Ramotswe. Her panacea for life’s ills is to drink plenty of red bush tea!
Influencers know that the human brain is not remotely rational and doesn't much like to spend time reasoning
Really? I spend lots of time thinking about the pros and cons of something before I make what I think is a rational decision. Isn't that why we canvass opinions from fellow gardeners here to make a reasoned judgement? I'm hoping that my doctor is rational when he prescribes any medication and that the pilot on the jet to my foreign hoilday rationally consults his flight instruments!
May be that sentence should read: "Influencers know that the brain of their followers is not remotely rational.........."
I’m interested in your comment @Fire that you have had online correspondence interaction with journalists and writers.
When my wife has faced significant operations I have written to people she admires asking if they might send a goodwill message to boost her recovery - often they have done much more, sending as well signed books, CDs, cartoons and the nicest of encouraging words. So hats off to Russell Watson, Germaine Greer, Fred Vargas, Alexander McCall Smith*, Denise Lewis, Matt (Telegraph cartoonist), Blazing Fiddles folk band, Michael Gambon and Donna Leon.
* His words were dictated to him by Mma Ramotswe. Her panacea for life’s ills is to drink plenty of red bush tea!
How wonderful! I have friends who are poets and some got a hand written letter from Seamus Heaney encouraging them in their writing. I don't think there can be any better measure of a warm heart and a Poetry Grandfather than that.
It's a very complicated trend and although we think it's new, it isn't really. It's just the means of getting it out there that is new.
Fire you say ' I certainly feel more friendly with people on this forum or on neighbourhood Whatsapp groups than I ever felt to anyone on TV, even though we never meet in person.' , is that perhaps because you don't have any interaction with TV? After all we just watch that whilst, possibly, being influenced by ads say but on social forums we chat in groups, as we are doing now, or person to person but we get to know each other as we do in real life so, therefore, feel closer.
I don't know, psychology is a complicated 'trend' if you like.
I spend lots of time thinking about the pros and cons of something before I make what I think is a rational decision.
...and it will cost you time and energy to do it. As a novice, imagine working out the percentage savings on buying a tractor from one source rather than another; working out petrol consumption, wear and repair over a ten year period, probabililties of breakdowns, ease of parts replacement, etc etc. If ten tractor-experienced people you know and trust recommend three best brands, the chances are you would be tempted to narrow down the choices to those three, rather than comb through 50 options. Or maybe not. After all that research your eyes might be sore, your neck ache, and your bum numb.
People on the forum were raving about hori knives and which brands were best. I looked at three types over a few months and bought one. I could have done a cost/benefit analysis, but instead I thought - "people I like and who seem like good gardeners say it really helps; I can imagine it would very cool to use. I will buy one".
May be that sentence should read: "Influencers know that the brain of their followers is not remotely rational.........."
There was a big change through the study of behavioural economics in the 1990s. Economists had always suggested (assumed) that people are wired to make pretty much rational decisions. The reality is that this is very far from the truth. People are influenced by all sorts of things - hormones (being a big one), impatience, family, habit, tradition, religious practice, guilt, addiction, stories (another big one) and so on. Which is why social media stars are so successful, advertising is worth investing billions in, people want to believe politicians even if they have lied to you every day for 20 years.
To work out a complex maths problem (counting backwards from 100 in your head in blocks of 13) we have to stop what we're otherwise doing, concentrate, possibly squint and maybe have a few goes. It's hard to manoever a car around a series of complex roundabouts that are new to you, and chat at the same time. We can't even really use our mouth and our eyes at the same time, if we are really concentrating. It takes significant brain power.
What the brain is best at (historically) is making instant decisions to fight it, run away, eat it or shag it. Generally if we are good at these decisions in the moment, we will survive. Survival was rarely down to counting backwards in chunks of 13. And our systems are pretty much the same today.
A book that goes into the fine detail of all this is Thinking Fast and Slow by Daniel Kahneman who won a Nobel for his work on behavioural economics (looking at how people choose and why).
Is that perhaps because you don't have any interaction with TV? After all we just watch that whilst, possibly, being influenced by ads, say, but on social forums we chat in groups, as we are doing now, or person to person but we get to know each other as we do in real life so, therefore, feel closer.
I would agree that TV is a pretty passive process that doesn't require much activity from us, unlike, say, trying not to get killed while gaming, or arguing about Brexit on a forum, both of which can be fully immersive, emotional experience. It's why the last are (arguably) more addictive than TV. Your hormones are kicking off all over, when you face death or shame, bullies, exclusion from online group, when you are ridiculed or someone raves about your photos.
Ads try to engage these emotions and hormones too. They suggest that you smell bad, your teeth are not clean enough to attract a beautiful woman, you need life insurance or your kids will starve, you own a shamefully old phone and your car shows you are an old, broken down has been. What you really need to get out of the ditch is Coke, a new iphone, Wrigley's Spearmint Gum, Standard Life and a new Lexus. With all these you will mean no longer be a failure and the stunning, shiny people will no longer be embarrassed to be seen with you. You will be sexy, assured, informed, not missing out on Life.
I suppose that a "blog" is a bit like those Christmas round Robins in that one is presented with the exciting and glamorous and the sordid and depressing are swept under the carpet. Maybe as gardeners we know that gardens, and life, don't always turn out as we planned.
Aren't celebs advertising on TV simply influencers too? They have precisely the opposite effect on me, as I can't stand most of those who appear all the time.
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<br>When my wife has faced significant operations I have written to people she admires asking if they might send a goodwill message to boost her recovery - often they have done much more, sending as well signed books, CDs, cartoons and the nicest of encouraging words. So hats off to Russell Watson, Germaine Greer, Fred Vargas, Alexander McCall Smith*, Denise Lewis, Matt (Telegraph cartoonist), Blazing Fiddles folk band, Michael Gambon and Donna Leon.
* His words were dictated to him by Mma Ramotswe. Her panacea for life’s ills is to drink plenty of red bush tea!
How wonderful! I have friends who are poets and some got a hand written letter from Seamus Heaney encouraging them in their writing. I don't think there can be any better measure of a warm heart and a Poetry Grandfather than that.
Fire you say ' I certainly feel more friendly with people on this forum or on neighbourhood Whatsapp groups than I ever felt to anyone on TV, even though we never meet in person.' , is that perhaps because you don't have any interaction with TV? After all we just watch that whilst, possibly, being influenced by ads say but on social forums we chat in groups, as we are doing now, or person to person but we get to know each other as we do in real life so, therefore, feel closer.
I don't know, psychology is a complicated 'trend' if you like.
Maybe as gardeners we know that gardens, and life, don't always turn out as we planned.