Media Mind Control

Posted on by serenitisparkles

 

def; noun Mind Control is a process where a group or individual uses methods to persuade others to change their basic beliefs and values.  

Imagine you are introduced to a new friend.  A friend that is so captivating, you can’t take your eyes off of them.  This friend becomes the best keeper of your deepest, darkest secrets. They become your counselor, constantly steering you.  

Now imagine that this person has become the ONLY one in the world who knows you, COMPLETELY.  But this friend, was not a friend. This friend was a wolf in sheep’s clothing. This friend only wanted to profit off of everything they knew.  They wanted to sell your thoughts in order to control your next move. They had their own agenda. It was an agenda that if carried out, would end in you living every moment to maximize their profit.  

Most wouldn’t want a friend like this.  But we all HAVE this friend. Say Hello to MEDIA!

When I speak about media, I speak on it in a broad sense.  Media, in this instance, ranges from social media, streaming media(Youtube, Netflix, Hulu, etc), Search Engines (Google, Bing, Yahoo, etc), and any other platform that DIRECTS and MANAGES end users.  

The media’s primary goal is to get closer to each end user(us), in order to analyze our behaviors, collect data, create a profile unique to each user, and then sell who we are to drive up sales for anyone willing to pay for our information.  All of the media platforms are built to know as much information as possible about each individual. Things like;

 

  1.  What time are we most active online?
  2. What memes do we share?
  3. What restaurants do we eat at?
  4. Which articles do we read?
  5. How long did we watch that viral video?

 

The fact that every platform knows this information is disturbing, but what’s far worse and more dangerous is that they also know things like;

 

  1.  Who your family members are.
  2. Who are the closest people to you?
  3. That you were sick last week.
  4. Today, you celebrate the birth of your newborn.

There will be a time when few can resist the life the Media has painted for you.  Few will turn everything off, look inside themselves, and find what they want in life.  We ALL have the capability to think for ourselves, and create an image of the world as we see fit.  If you “follow” the media, there will come a day when you can no longer LEAD. If you are a leader, BE a Leader and shut everything off, create your own thought process.

 

Stalked By Digital Footprints

Posted on by serenitisparkles

 

Stalked by Digital.jpgImagine a world where blood sucking corporations were in constant pursuit of our trail. Imagine that the closer they could get to you, the more money they would make. Imagine they were able to place a GPS tracker, watch every move we make, and witness every conversation we had.  They can even predict our next move. WELCOME to the world of BIG DATA and DIGITAL FOOTPRINTS.

Across the world and concentrated heavily in the US, there are businesses set up solely to watch our movements and study our habits.  There are devices designed to ensure the precise collection of every mark we make in the digital world.  They are like stalkers lurking in the darkness, recording everything about our lives, to then hand over our personal information over to the highest bidder.

If we all believed that world existed, we would all be much more careful of leaving a digital footprint trail. The reality is that everyday, with every click of a button and stroke of a key, we are creating a lifetime of digital footprints. We are volunteering personal and private data along with giving up our right to privacy to exist in a more “convenient” world. In this digital world, the end user (us)  searches for the easiest way through.  The more convenient the internet becomes, the more invasive corporations are in our personal lives.

As a corporation, using data collectors, called aggregators results in a 200% increase in sales within a 6 month span.  It is like pure gold.  Collecting these digital footprints allows a corporation to specifically target each user.  The aggregators  collect strings of data from each website you visit, all of your personal information(name, age, gender, location,  your most common websites (and any other website you have visited), and your social media posts.    They are not only collecting your clicks, they are collecting your context.

THEY COLLECT LITERALLY EVERYTHING YOU HAVE DONE ONLINE. They have millions of digital files identifying your long path of digital footprints.

The Universal Declaration of Human Rights offers everyone the “Right to Privacy”.  Unfortunately for the internet, there is very little control, if none, over privacy laws protecting our personal information.  Unlike tangible places in the world, the internet is global and there is no worldwide policy that addresses the right of digital citizens regarding their digital footprints.  So there it is  digital citizens, we are subject to a world where everything we do is being tracked by corporations and governments, with little control over what is done with our personal data.  We are being watched by people we don’t have any relationship with and our most private data is available to anyone with enough money to hire these collectors.  The internet is becoming more important in our daily existence and if we do not become educated about the moves we make in the digital world, all of our freedoms that we enjoy in the physical world will be at risk.

In the words of Plato, “Good people do not need laws to act responsibly,  while bad people will find a way around those laws.”

Next time you tweet, email, create a profile, or post a photo, remember that not everyone using this data has your best interest at heart.   We will all die one day, but within the internet, our digital footprints will LAST FOREVER.