https://fixthenews.com/p/310-bipedalism-rice-us-prisons-empty
"One of our readers is Professor Jennifer Mercieca, who teaches communication
and journalism at Texas A&M. She recently ran an experiment with her students
that we think you'll find fascinating.
Like many of us, Jen’s students are chronic doomscrollers, turning their phones
into what she calls ‘misery machines.’ But instead of just accepting this as
the way things are, she decided to try something: what if her students spent
time ‘hopescrolling’ instead?
She had them create social media accounts devoted entirely to sharing solutions
journalism, about problems being solved, diseases being eradicated, renewable
energy advances, that kind of thing. None of their posts went viral or got much
engagement (no surprise there) but what happened to the students themselves was
remarkable.
Many of my students reported that the experience was both illuminating and
healing. “Before our Hopescroll project,” one wrote, “I really didn’t
realize the amount of negative content I consume daily. I see scary news
articles, I see people being mean to one another on social media, and I
spend hours scrolling through posts that have no meaningful purpose.” Some
students even noticed that their social media algorithms began to change, as
they started to see more positive content on their feeds instead of quite so
much doom.
One student reported that shifting their attention away from “institutions
that benefit from people’s fear” and toward “those who aim to heal” made
them feel more resilient. Several students noted that they saw a shift in
their moods that surprised them: “Honestly, I did not expect that much would
change, however, after reading about communities working together for a
large cause, individuals trying to make a difference in their own way, and
new innovations being made in hopes of creating a better future, it
readjusted my perspective that not all is bad and/or lost in the world.”
What Jen’s experiment shows is that we’re not passive victims of algorithmic
manipulation. We have more power than we think. Every time we share outrage
bait or doom-laden headlines, we're feeding a machine that makes everyone more
miserable. But we also have the ability to choose differently. The algorithms
will follow us wherever we lead them. We just have to decide where we want to
go."
Share and enjoy,
*** Xanni ***
--
mailto:xanni@xanadu.net Andrew Pam
http://xanadu.com.au/ Chief Scientist, Xanadu
https://glasswings.com.au/ Partner, Glass Wings
https://sericyb.com.au/ Manager, Serious Cybernetics
