If broadcast TV was an opiate of the masses, is social media an amphetamine?
This is an abridged version of a longer piece.
Is it possible that social media plays a role in amplifying our divides and increasing political polarization?
Much of the thinking around this idea has focused on specific product features, like the use of addictive UI design (as examined in The…
This will be a place where I examine indicators of videos being deceptive or staged. There’s only one here now but I will add to this over time. If you have ideas for interesting videos to examine, send them my way and I’d appreciate it.
My experience and interest in fake/staged videos
To skip to the video…
If broadcast TV was an opiate of the masses, is social media an amphetamine?
I have an abridged, easier-to-read version of this here, which I recommend. For an audio reading, see my podcast.
Does it feel like everyone is becoming more angry? It’s not your imagination, and it’s not confined to the United States. …
The following is a transcript from an episode of my podcast, People Who Read People, where I interview a Portland, Oregon antifa/BLM protester who intellectually defends the violent, militant aspects of the Portland protests and riots, and who talks about reasons for physically fighting with rightwing groups.
I’m using this page as a place to compile work that I’ve done related to researching and investigating deceptive online activity, including fake news and fake accounts.
Who am I?
My name is Zachary Elwood. My main claim to fame is that I’ve written some books on poker behavior (aka “poker tells”). You…
This will be a compilation and analysis of the best and most logical anti-vegan arguments. The arguments examined are:
Note: spoilers exist for both “Joker” and “Once Upon A Time In Hollywood”
I’ve read quite a few reviews of Todd Phillips’ Joker movie and none of them talked about what I saw as the most important elements of the movie — the things that made the movie thought-provoking and…
Many people are looking for ways they can help fight the lies, propaganda, and fake news that enable people like Trump to gain power and find support. This piece will be about some ideas for ways that anyone, anywhere, can help combat these lies.
This piece proposes ideas for solving these two problems:
- How can someone, as an individual doing online fundraising (or some other person-to-person transaction) fairly easily establish their credibility?
- How can someone, who is considering donating to an individual’s online fundraiser (or considering some other person-to-person financial transaction) feel more comfortable…
In this piece I’ll examine the almost-certainly deceptive conservative Twitter account @emilia_suze, who claims to have a PhD and be an “AI tech inventor” and who, I assert, uses a fake name and fake photo. Not only does this account have a pretty sizable Twitter following (31.7K …
