“The short-term, dopamine-driven feedback loops we’ve created including the hearts, likes, and thumbs up of various social media channels are destroying how society works.  There’s no civil discourse, no cooperation; only misinformation, mistruth.” Chamath Palihapitiy, Former Vice-President for User Growth, Facebook

There it is. Straight from the dragon’s mouth. New-tech minds exploiting the most vulnerable elements of the human psyche to re-engineer the collective human experience…and get wildly rich and powerful at the same time. A former wunderkind child of social media expresses ‘tremendous guilt’ in his part of its creation and goes on to say he doesn’t allow his own kids around that (expletive deleted). If this doesn’t make young parents rethink just about everything millennial, nothing will.

Does this surprise? It shouldn’t. Network television executives pioneered digital technology creating short frequency waves locking a child’s brain into cartoon programming.  Chronic viewing produced an inability to focus on non-digital stimulus. Ever wonder why A.D.D and other nasty learning disorders in children are epidemic?  Hopefully, Sponge Boob and his ilk will never be the same in your home.

Credit card companies work in concert with credit reporting agencies to inversely reward debtors using credit more than those who don’t. Shouldn’t that be the other way around? Consumer debt used in careful moderation should result in higher credit ratings, right? Nope. Higher balances, as long as paid down and on time, grant better ratings than lower credit balances and credit used less frequently. Yet once the aggregate credit balance is algorithmically determined to be top heavy (which is inevitable), the whole rating house of cards comes crashing down on the debtor’s head. That’s the real karma of consumer credit.

Therapists working with principles of addiction use resonance imaging called brain slicing to show parts of the brain most damaged over time by different substances and stimuli. Out of five sampled categories; crystal meth, pharmaceutical opioids, heroin, marijuana and pornography, which do you think had the most destructive affect in the shortest amount of time? Toxic chemicals released during radically unnatural levels of graphic visual stimulation are like hydrochloric acid on the brain. Pornographers use the internet to create trap doors through innocuous pop-up advertising. Those who are not necessarily in the market to destroy life and relationship can easily find themselves in dark places very quickly, unable to get out. Statistics now show over half of all 14-year old boys have been exposed to hardcore pornographic content. There’s a special place in hell for those exploiting our most vulnerable. Between now and then, however, it is up to sentient adults to resist the riptide culture pulling us deeper into the abyss.

I had the privilege once to swim on the Great Barrier Reef. Our small charter vessel anchored a couple hundred yards off the massive reef’s edge bordering the deep, blackish-blue Pacific.  Ignorantly wandering too far towards the edge, I found myself swept off by a strong current throwing me thirty yards out and thirty feet deep into the predatory hunting lanes of the Great White shark. These big creatures patrol the far boundaries of the reef to feed on a myriad of species not excluding myself.  It’s hard to describe the sudden chill of dark ocean not warmed by the sun and with full knowledge of what was impatiently waiting for me. It was lunchtime.

Scrambling to the surface in a surge of adrenaline, my greatest fear was realized when the captain standing on the bow of the boat held a large caliber rifle. He wasn’t looking at me. Another powerful surge of current transported me back safely onto the reef just as quickly.

Here we are today, collectively swimming cluelessly on the surface of a deep cultural abyss.  Chamath Palihapitiy, Executive Officer of the USS Social Media, is on the bow shouting warnings of impending danger. There are big sharks in the water. We’ve finished our enlightening cup of conversation and now it’s lunchtime. What are you going to do?

Be good not bitter.