Mind Control on the Internet.

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From hermetically sealed online culture bubbles creating weird nutcases, to the phenomenon of internet celebrities who are manipulated in ways that are akin to MKUltra experiments, there is probably some form of mind control happening on the internet! What is your opinion about this waking nightmare/ paranoid delusion?

-yeah, they use your browser cookies to show you targeted advertisements

-they record click-throughs to determine what works on you

-they use predictive algorithms to show you content they think you will click on

Well, let's see.

Corporations are track your every move online. Ostensibly to provide better service, more targeted advertising and of course, to sell your information to other marketers.

Microsoft tracks *other* unknown information on you and your communications and social connections via Windows 10 itself - even if you tell it not to do so.

Facebook and Google both have documented ties (ie not conspiracy theory) ties to the NSA or CIA. It wouldn't surprise me if they were the modern equivalent to say, defense contractors during the Cold War (ie corporations acting with so much intermingled cooperation that they might as well have been fronts for the CIA).

There were some interesting studies done over the last decade using proxy servers to alter the information people received over the Internet. Mostly just skewing "news stories" or postings one way or another and then recording the aggregate effect.'

So, yeah.

I went with "I don't use the Internet, so I don't care about this." cuz I thought that was an awesome answer to have on an internet poll.

It's controlling information, clever advertising, predictive manipulation, which directs the culture and people's thinking. Though I can't say it is as deterministic as control, like you control a car.

We humans see patterns and like to think someone is in control behind it all. Usually it's emergent order, and not one entity like Bill Gates or the NSA or whatever.

I don't know if there is actual "mind control" like Manchurian Candidate or Firefly going on. If so, I guess I wouldn't know because it's not targeted at me, or well if it is targeted at me I wouldn't know either. But probably not.

All of that said, sometimes I love thinking these things are real.

They definitely do this.

I don't think I'm being "mind-controlled," though.

I just believe Internet advertisers want to know your buying habits.

LOL.....there's too many of us souls!

I block all adds, don't use social media, never used my real name or picture on the internet (I managed to negotiate what I call "The Ron Swanson Clause" which doesn't allow my employer to do it either). You cannot find out where I was born, went to school or where I work by using the internet.

It protects me to some extent.

I'm very much amused by the shocked reaction you get when telling people you don't have a Facebook account and how many assume you're "against technology"

Privacy became a luxury and I imagine it will soon turn into an unaffordable one.

Not mind control. Humans are essentially mind-controlled by other humans without technology. It's called "culture." We all have to fit into whatever culture we belong to. Culture decides (to an extent) what's beautiful and what's ugly, what's popular and unpopular, what's good and bad, which opinions are "correct" and which are not, what's lawful and unlawful, etc.

We are born into a culture and brainwashed from infancy. We are taught "morals" through stories and religious teachings. Television, film, the internet, textbooks, fiction, videogames, and magazines are always there to influence us. And then our peers and family are there, too. Humans rarely seem to think for themselves. As social animals, we aren't supposed to.

"Mob mentality" is real. http://psychcentral.com/news/2008/02/15/herd-mentality-explained/1922.html
Most of us are probably susceptible to it regardless of what we may believe about our ability to think for ourselves.

In my opinion, the internet and modern technology are dangerous for other reasons. Privacy is essentially gone in technologically advanced societies. Every store has a "membership card" or "rewards card" that allows those that have one to get sales, promotions, and "rewards points." The real purpose of these cards is to target advertising and gather data about consumers and shopping trends for companies to use for themselves and/or to sell to other companies. So they can know everything about each one of us to get us to buy more "stuff."

And then many stores have "rewards credit cards" that can be used anywhere, and then the consumer gets "rewards" for using that card at other places. Like the Target Red Card. So that Target can know about your shopping habits everywhere that you shop, not just at Target.

And then there are the surveillance cameras and cell phone cameras (which basically everyone has) to record every stupid or embarrassing thing you do, so that it can eventually be posted on the internet and shared with the world until well after you're dead and buried.

Companies like Google (if you have an account) have your email info, which connects to the Google search history info, and the Chrome browser info, and the YouTube search info, and the pictures that you upload into the "cloud", and the info about apps bought or downloaded from Google play, and the songs and games. And those who stay signed into their Google account can expect to have all of that shared with Google, and even when they aren't signed in, Google collects what it can.

We have no real privacy as long as we use modern technology. And if I try to explain this to other people they think that I'm paranoid.