Last post I was thinking about blindered worldview and the way it cuts you off from most of the world, and the negative effective of this insularity. Then I happened to see an article in the Wall Street Journal by Neil Strauss, The Insidious Evils of ‘Like’ Culture. Strauss writes at length about the ways the ‘like’ button is molding the thoughts of many into a kind of group think…the overwhelming of difference in the hope for acceptance.
What he doesn’t mention is that there is not one group think but many…each group separated from the others by different shared ‘like’. As you get sucked into a circle of ‘like’ you increasing lose touch with things outside this circle, things in other circles of ‘like’. After all, if it’s not ‘liked’ by those in your circle it doesn’t show up on your screen.
As I thought about this I realized that the ‘like’ button is the ultimate way to ensure you only spend time with those sharing your worldview. It’s a huge machine working to ensure you always find approval for your ideas and rarely hear a dissenting word. The ‘like’ button takes insularity to a whole new level.
Rather than broadening your experience by including dissenting or just different perspectives and leading to new ideas and directions, it leads to mediocrity…the lowest common denominator.
Beware of ‘like’, the path to conformity. Seek out those with differing points of view, the path to new ideas.
The African sun must have affected your editing button. Good thinking, as usual. You cause me to think, and ponder… and sometimes to even change a bias. I think the national conformity index is low these days. I also think that, for some of us, you’re causing it to change.