The Internet as a mood magnifier

A recently published story in the Atlantic Magazine references a study that was done in which peoples moods were intentionally manipulated on Facebook.

http://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2014/06/everything-we-know-about-facebooks-secret-mood-manipulation-experiment/373648/

In short, people who were shown more positive stories tended to express positive feelings.  Conversely, those who were shown primary stories tended to express negative feelings.

This might seem obvious in retrospect, and in fact I have been considering this issue since I was a teenager.  Yet I think it is so obvious, that it slips beneath the conscious mind most of the time.  And that is a shame.

One of my favorite metaphors for the mind is that it is like a radio.  The mind is like a radio in that we can make a conscious decision about which emotional station we want to tune it into.  Despite that amazing ability of ours to define our own mindset, too often we put the mind on auto-pilot and simply accept whatever stimulus comes our way.  In effect, our minds and spirits becomes like ships adrift at sea without a captain to chart a course and steer the vessel.

Though we might not realize this powerful reality, the media definitely does.  They realize it, and they use to keep people in a state of conflict and concern.  One does not need to look much further than the "news" with the 24/7 diatribe about "problems" in the world to see it.  Reality TV shows constant conflict, whether it is teams of cooks being yelled at by famous chefs, or random people tossed into a house with each other and fed alcohol until they begin arguing.  Sporting events, politics... tension and conflicts and competition put on blast at all hours of the day and night.  What comes in between the problems and conflicts?  Commercials of course!  Promises of an easier life, if you just use THIS product.  A healthier life, if you just eat THAT new drug.  More status in the eyes of your peers (there by proving that you are a WINNER in the conflict of social standing) if you just drive THIS vehicle.

As powerful and entrenched as the old model is, it is a dying model.  The Internet and social networks allow people to create their own content.  Now sure, the old media is doing their best to saturate the digital channels with their tried and true content of concern and worry.  Yet as conscious individuals we are allowed to choose what we propagate.

One needs look no further than the revolutions taking place around the world, and the reactions of the authorities to those revolutions, to understand the transformative power of the Internet.  By that I mean, the first thing that authorities do when people start getting together to enact change is to disable communications. They block Twitter, and Facebook and email.  They shut down text messaging and cellular phones.  Free speech is scary to institutions who are used to controlling the message.

And that is the purpose of this post.  Control of the message.  We have it.  You have it.  I have it.  We have the power and ability to project peace and positive messages.  We have the ability to tune our minds to potential, and to amplify the potential for good in the world.  We also have the ability to degrade the strength of the negative signals.  That is the easy part.  All it requires is to not pass along stories about conflict, and competition.

There are so many great things going on in the world right now.  Huge advances are being made every day in the fields of alternative energy and healthcare.

Direct Democracy 1.0

Digitally signed and timestamped social actions, tabulated and submitted for later archival and research into the the subject of community .

Reimbursable civil improvement projects, spontaneously verified and validated.

Judicial review and mass dissemination to leverage Streisand Effect for contextual applications of defensive litigation strategies.

Package/Container format including audio, video, text and other captures of the event that can be recorded by a personal communications device.

Newspaper, editorial reviews to media outlets, including pageview analytics, hit tracking to trend interest by region.

Reverse Surveillance = Massive Peer Review

Wishlist for Social Networking master control console

Constituents, Constituents, Constituents!

Relational DB with constituent table at the core.

Ability to manage LARGE lists/groups of constituents. (Approx 50,000 - ??? 1,000,000+???)

CMS system -
Templates
Easy to modify
Standard content types (graphics, text, etc)

Publishing engine
Export to Facebook, Twitter, Myspace... unified, cross site presence
Metatag to ID content
DKIM authentication of content
ImagePortal / image server, rights and protection validation of content license

***Museum Centric

Artwork follow up.
Web page connect.
TMS tombstone info.

Allow public voting / curation of exhibition based on links.

NetFlix like recommendation system? If you liked this work, check out THIS one!

Commercialize? Put reproducable image(s) on mugs, calendars, coffee cups, skateboard decks, etc?