"The internet introduces a world in which the importance and the difficulty of having principles is skyrocketed." - Ben Thompson

This quote comes from Ben's discussion breaking down Meta's recent content moderation changes. The internet pervades my life, and as I've leaned into social networks increasingly over the last twelve months, I've started to see the ouroboros cycle of self delusion that can emerge.

You read, you write, you chatter, you meme.

It's all fun and games as you banter back and forth. Yet... at some point you start to see just how narrow your feed becomes.

Twitter isn't as inherently recursive as a platform like TikTok, whose 'for you' lives to reinforce your slightest indulgences, yet it's very easy to find yourself within a homogeneous pool of thought. I meander through Crypto Twitter, then Tech Twitter, then American Dynamist central, and suddenly they've all got blurring views converging on groupthink.

The more you lean into a space like Twitter, contributing, conversing, and clashing with its inhabitants, the more you find yourself engulfed by its information stream. And realizing just how extremely that broad stream flows in only one direction. This is self-evident, but there are multiple layers at play: some amount of increased exposure (more consumption), some amount of increased engagement (more contribution), and some amount of psychological rationalization (more contemplation). The latter, I believe, is the more subtle.

We all view ourselves as being above the indoctrination of these platforms and their bedeviling algorithms, but therein lies the danger. Like your friend with a coke habit-- not perhaps outwardly acting as an addict, but always toting it along on any given outing and always at hand for their compulsive indulgence. It isn't a single Tweet that indoctrinates an addict, but the subtle slide of months engrossed in a singular point of view. The more you discuss and the more you contribute, the more likely your sense of investment is to rationalize and erode your original viewpoints in the slide toward your repetitive platform exposure.

Some of this is being dramatic. But it's important self-awareness.

So, this year I'm looking at my information diet, I'm reexamining my principles, and I'm trying to double down on refining my own voice.

This brain blast was prompted in part by Mario Gabrielle's resolution to cut his own social media exposure. I've paraphrased or bastardized a few of his ideas above, but I'll end with its relevance in a world of AI:

"Surrendering to that momentum by donating your attention is a step toward losing ownership of your mind. It is too easy to find yourself adopting opinions and preferences you haven’t thought through but that are part of the fabric of these networks.

It has always been useful to be inventive, but it is increasingly essential as AI continues to bolt knowledge work in great hungry gulps. If it has not happened already, very soon, our greatest advantage will simply be the ability to think as ourselves — to rely on our unique accumulated training data and apply our singular algorithm. The more your data and algorithm adhere to the dominant monoculture, the less you will have to offer.

As much as possible, I would like to ensure that I continue thinking like myself rather than running someone else’s program." - Mario Gabrielle, Monk Mode

It's about getting smarter with WynnGPT. Discerning training and careful curation for feeding my own wrinkled wetware a higher quality diet.

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