paranoid thinking is generally counterproductive. It disempowers you.

If, when you participate in online platforms, you notice a nasty thing inside yourself, an insecurity, a sense of low self-esteem, a yearning to lash out, to swat someone down, then leave that platform. Simple.

We modify each other’s behavior all the time, and that’s a good thing. You’d have to be insensitive and uncaring to not change how you act around someone in response to how that person reacts.

The unplanned nature of the transformation from advertising to direct behavior modification caused an explosive amplification of negativity in human affairs.

The problem is in part that we are all carrying around devices that are suitable for mass behavior modification.

The damage to society comes because addiction makes people crazy. The addict gradually loses touch with the real world and real people. When many people are addicted to manipulative schemes, the world gets dark and crazy.

To a degree, you’re an animal in a behaviorist’s experimental cage.

Some have compared social media to the tobacco industry,fn5 but I will not. The better analogy is paint that contains lead. When it became undeniable that lead was harmful, no one declared that houses should never be painted again. Instead, after pressure and legislation, lead-free paints became the new standard.fn6 Smart people simply waited to bu

The core process that allows social media to make money and that also does the damage to society is behavior modification. Behavior modification entails methodical techniques that change behavioral patterns in animals and people. It can be used to treat addictions, but it can also be used to create them.