Don't Wrestle With a Pig in the Mud
“I learned long ago never to wrestle with a pig. You get dirty, and besides, the pig likes it.” ~ George Bernard Shaw
THE social control media phenomenon encourages groupthink and misinformation. That's a very toxic mixture as the former provides a self-reinforcing feedback loop for the latter. Dissent is culled not based on merit (such as verifiable facts) but an impulsive resort/retreat to immediate comfort. If gratification is derived from "views", clickbait (i.e. deception) is rewarded and if "likes" are the goal, then you must always appease the group, do not ever challenge anything (or risk a ban/shadowban, possibly mobbing, and not merely unpopularity, which relates to a gamified concept of "status"). The notion of addiction is "perfumed" as "engagement" and people can easily become radicalised, just like in cults.
The solution? Do not participate. Do not even bother.
We're long encouraged everyone (people, governments, businesses etc.) to abandon social control media because we saw what became of it. In the early days of Twitter, for instance, discussion was more civil and it hadn't yet been 'militarised' by various nation states. Some provocation is seeded intentionally, by design, to fracture populations overseas (e.g. boosting the most divisive subjects). We wrote a lot about this in relation to TikTok earlier this year.
Let pigs be pigs. Don't pretend you too can become one. █