Is this what the social media sites are doing to millions?

[applegrove]

"Psych: the story of the human mind" by Paul Bloom. Page 50

"SNIP............

What can move us away from this focus on ourselves? One answer is being in a crowd. As the social psychologist Gustave Le Bon noted in 1895, being in a group can make consciousness of the self partially disappear - "An individual in a crowd is a grain of sand amid other grains of sand, which the wind stirs up at will."

This loss of self-focus is a mixed bag. It can be the source of great pleasure, as when synchronized movement with others - in a rave, a concert or a rockin' Bar Mitzvah - blurs the boundaries of self and other. Lose yourself, as Eminem so nicely put it.

But being in a crowd can also make people do stupid and cruel things; as consciousness goes, so does conscience. And it makes us less likely to help those in need, something call bystander apathy. The more people there are around you, the less you care. One explanation for this is the diffusion of individual responsibility .......

..............SNIP"

Applegrove:

I must admit that when I do help with charities if I can quickly use an app rather than typing in a long credit card and address I do that. Even though it is probably giving money to a tech bro. I want to get back to the crowd and the ideas that give me dopamine hits on the social media sites. What am I saving myself? A minute? I used to aspire to be in jobs where I was helping people. Now I do very little of that. I help in other ways I guess.

[The Wandering Harper]

1. yes I believe so

another thing I think it does is sort and consolidate people into different echo chambers