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Don't just blame Facebook for fake news: It's us, too
Critics such as Zeynep Tufekci are quite right to take Facebook and Twitter to task for allowing nefarious and hostile actors, likely including the Russian state, to hold sway on social media (“Facebook’s Ad Scandal Isn’t a ‘Fail,’ It’s a Feature,” New York Times, Sept. 23, 2017).
These actors must be reined in online, for the very simple reason that so many of us are immersed in our news feeds and Twitter streams, and thus susceptible to whatever toxins are allowed to proliferate there.
Some have called apps, including social media, “the race to the bottom of the brainstem.” The most primitive parts of our brain, responsible for fight-flight and survival, are always on the lookout for perceived threats. In our restless, clicking and scrolling state, we are often naturally attracted to and activated by tantalizing, titillating, and emotionally charged posts that are lacking in reason, but are inflammatory and viscerally captivating. Viral news, click bait, gossip, rumors, and scandals get a disproportionate share of our attention. And since we become what we do, our reason is overwhelmed by reaction. In fact, a recent 60 Minutes segment demonstrated how President Trump’s political operatives optimized Facebook ads for reaction, not thought. As we engage in social media, we may become less reasonable, and prone to reacting out of our most base and primal fears.
The late neurologist and psychiatrist Viktor E. Frankl pointed out our freedom lies in our ability to put space between stimulus and response. In this space lies our freedom to choose, he wrote. Online, this inner life can shrink. Our wandering minds look for cheap thrills and anything that confirms our biases of threat. We reduce the world to simplistic one-size-fits-all narratives, and heap blame on our usual suspects. I call the Internet the angernet. Anger is the most viral and contagious emotion on social networks, and as we use social media, we deepen the groove of anger – making our anger more likely and the most readily shared.
But we’ve been racing to the bottom of the brainstem, where fear, anger, hatred, and reactivity reside, for decades in this country. Again, we can’t simply blame social media. Trust has been eroding for decades, for many reasons. No matter the generation, only a minority of us trust each other, according to the Pew Research Center’s surveys. Millennials are the least trusting of all: Only 19% of them agree that “generally speaking, people are to be trusted.” Any scroll of the news feed quickly confirms this dangerous bias to mistrust, as we are besieged by a near cataclysmic barrage of traumatic events. We are also more polarized than ever, with a great percentage of partisans believing that the other side aims at the destruction of all they hold dear in America. As we feel more vulnerable, we are more likely to mistrust and become further polarized, and the cycle continues.
More importantly, as we flee real-world relationships and interaction for the ease and seeming reach of the online world, we lose subtle cues and important connections that would normally soothe our reactivity. Humanity has evolved and progressed precisely because of our social connections. We are who happens to us, and what we make of the happening. When we connect in more superficial ways, we endanger our very identities. As a nation, we are having an identity crisis: We have not worked out who we are in relation to one another, and to ourselves. This is expressed politically, and in our confused and fearful opinions and appraisals of each other and government. Without the good graces that come out of shared presence in real-world relationships, we are more likely to think badly of each other. We are more likely to retreat into narrow and tribal identities where we think safety resides, and deemphasize communal identity. In this space of narrow identity, ideological self-righteousness and dogma prevail, and we are less likely to listen and cultivate curiosity, understanding, and empathy for others. One example lies in how representatives and senators spend less time socializing with each other than in years past, and are thus less likely to forge compromise. Online, we are all refugees from the real world, and we fall to building our own personal walls and exiling those with whom we disagree – who then become those we hate, fear, blame, and fight.
We have met the enemy, and it is us.
The antidote to mistrust is in cultivating the top of our nervous systems, where long-term planning and positive emotions reside. We can only do this through real-world relationships. Social media will not ultimately take us to a feeling of society. It might provide a glimmer of connection, but its inherent vectors of disconnection and division are proving deadly, from Internet radicalization, to the increased levels of depression, anxiety, loneliness, and suicidality noted with increasing Internet and social media use.
We each have incredible human possibilities, but to reach them, we have to transcend the biases and reactivity of our habitually and usually unconsciously self-centered egos. We can start with awareness of what the Internet siren is doing to us and steer our ships in a more fruitful direction. Toward home, toward our hearts, and toward each other.
Dr. Chandra is a psychiatrist and writer in San Francisco. He is the author of Facebuddha: Transcendence in the Age of Social Networks (Pacific Heart Books, 2017).
Critics such as Zeynep Tufekci are quite right to take Facebook and Twitter to task for allowing nefarious and hostile actors, likely including the Russian state, to hold sway on social media (“Facebook’s Ad Scandal Isn’t a ‘Fail,’ It’s a Feature,” New York Times, Sept. 23, 2017).
These actors must be reined in online, for the very simple reason that so many of us are immersed in our news feeds and Twitter streams, and thus susceptible to whatever toxins are allowed to proliferate there.
Some have called apps, including social media, “the race to the bottom of the brainstem.” The most primitive parts of our brain, responsible for fight-flight and survival, are always on the lookout for perceived threats. In our restless, clicking and scrolling state, we are often naturally attracted to and activated by tantalizing, titillating, and emotionally charged posts that are lacking in reason, but are inflammatory and viscerally captivating. Viral news, click bait, gossip, rumors, and scandals get a disproportionate share of our attention. And since we become what we do, our reason is overwhelmed by reaction. In fact, a recent 60 Minutes segment demonstrated how President Trump’s political operatives optimized Facebook ads for reaction, not thought. As we engage in social media, we may become less reasonable, and prone to reacting out of our most base and primal fears.
The late neurologist and psychiatrist Viktor E. Frankl pointed out our freedom lies in our ability to put space between stimulus and response. In this space lies our freedom to choose, he wrote. Online, this inner life can shrink. Our wandering minds look for cheap thrills and anything that confirms our biases of threat. We reduce the world to simplistic one-size-fits-all narratives, and heap blame on our usual suspects. I call the Internet the angernet. Anger is the most viral and contagious emotion on social networks, and as we use social media, we deepen the groove of anger – making our anger more likely and the most readily shared.
But we’ve been racing to the bottom of the brainstem, where fear, anger, hatred, and reactivity reside, for decades in this country. Again, we can’t simply blame social media. Trust has been eroding for decades, for many reasons. No matter the generation, only a minority of us trust each other, according to the Pew Research Center’s surveys. Millennials are the least trusting of all: Only 19% of them agree that “generally speaking, people are to be trusted.” Any scroll of the news feed quickly confirms this dangerous bias to mistrust, as we are besieged by a near cataclysmic barrage of traumatic events. We are also more polarized than ever, with a great percentage of partisans believing that the other side aims at the destruction of all they hold dear in America. As we feel more vulnerable, we are more likely to mistrust and become further polarized, and the cycle continues.
More importantly, as we flee real-world relationships and interaction for the ease and seeming reach of the online world, we lose subtle cues and important connections that would normally soothe our reactivity. Humanity has evolved and progressed precisely because of our social connections. We are who happens to us, and what we make of the happening. When we connect in more superficial ways, we endanger our very identities. As a nation, we are having an identity crisis: We have not worked out who we are in relation to one another, and to ourselves. This is expressed politically, and in our confused and fearful opinions and appraisals of each other and government. Without the good graces that come out of shared presence in real-world relationships, we are more likely to think badly of each other. We are more likely to retreat into narrow and tribal identities where we think safety resides, and deemphasize communal identity. In this space of narrow identity, ideological self-righteousness and dogma prevail, and we are less likely to listen and cultivate curiosity, understanding, and empathy for others. One example lies in how representatives and senators spend less time socializing with each other than in years past, and are thus less likely to forge compromise. Online, we are all refugees from the real world, and we fall to building our own personal walls and exiling those with whom we disagree – who then become those we hate, fear, blame, and fight.
We have met the enemy, and it is us.
The antidote to mistrust is in cultivating the top of our nervous systems, where long-term planning and positive emotions reside. We can only do this through real-world relationships. Social media will not ultimately take us to a feeling of society. It might provide a glimmer of connection, but its inherent vectors of disconnection and division are proving deadly, from Internet radicalization, to the increased levels of depression, anxiety, loneliness, and suicidality noted with increasing Internet and social media use.
We each have incredible human possibilities, but to reach them, we have to transcend the biases and reactivity of our habitually and usually unconsciously self-centered egos. We can start with awareness of what the Internet siren is doing to us and steer our ships in a more fruitful direction. Toward home, toward our hearts, and toward each other.
Dr. Chandra is a psychiatrist and writer in San Francisco. He is the author of Facebuddha: Transcendence in the Age of Social Networks (Pacific Heart Books, 2017).
Critics such as Zeynep Tufekci are quite right to take Facebook and Twitter to task for allowing nefarious and hostile actors, likely including the Russian state, to hold sway on social media (“Facebook’s Ad Scandal Isn’t a ‘Fail,’ It’s a Feature,” New York Times, Sept. 23, 2017).
These actors must be reined in online, for the very simple reason that so many of us are immersed in our news feeds and Twitter streams, and thus susceptible to whatever toxins are allowed to proliferate there.
Some have called apps, including social media, “the race to the bottom of the brainstem.” The most primitive parts of our brain, responsible for fight-flight and survival, are always on the lookout for perceived threats. In our restless, clicking and scrolling state, we are often naturally attracted to and activated by tantalizing, titillating, and emotionally charged posts that are lacking in reason, but are inflammatory and viscerally captivating. Viral news, click bait, gossip, rumors, and scandals get a disproportionate share of our attention. And since we become what we do, our reason is overwhelmed by reaction. In fact, a recent 60 Minutes segment demonstrated how President Trump’s political operatives optimized Facebook ads for reaction, not thought. As we engage in social media, we may become less reasonable, and prone to reacting out of our most base and primal fears.
The late neurologist and psychiatrist Viktor E. Frankl pointed out our freedom lies in our ability to put space between stimulus and response. In this space lies our freedom to choose, he wrote. Online, this inner life can shrink. Our wandering minds look for cheap thrills and anything that confirms our biases of threat. We reduce the world to simplistic one-size-fits-all narratives, and heap blame on our usual suspects. I call the Internet the angernet. Anger is the most viral and contagious emotion on social networks, and as we use social media, we deepen the groove of anger – making our anger more likely and the most readily shared.
But we’ve been racing to the bottom of the brainstem, where fear, anger, hatred, and reactivity reside, for decades in this country. Again, we can’t simply blame social media. Trust has been eroding for decades, for many reasons. No matter the generation, only a minority of us trust each other, according to the Pew Research Center’s surveys. Millennials are the least trusting of all: Only 19% of them agree that “generally speaking, people are to be trusted.” Any scroll of the news feed quickly confirms this dangerous bias to mistrust, as we are besieged by a near cataclysmic barrage of traumatic events. We are also more polarized than ever, with a great percentage of partisans believing that the other side aims at the destruction of all they hold dear in America. As we feel more vulnerable, we are more likely to mistrust and become further polarized, and the cycle continues.
More importantly, as we flee real-world relationships and interaction for the ease and seeming reach of the online world, we lose subtle cues and important connections that would normally soothe our reactivity. Humanity has evolved and progressed precisely because of our social connections. We are who happens to us, and what we make of the happening. When we connect in more superficial ways, we endanger our very identities. As a nation, we are having an identity crisis: We have not worked out who we are in relation to one another, and to ourselves. This is expressed politically, and in our confused and fearful opinions and appraisals of each other and government. Without the good graces that come out of shared presence in real-world relationships, we are more likely to think badly of each other. We are more likely to retreat into narrow and tribal identities where we think safety resides, and deemphasize communal identity. In this space of narrow identity, ideological self-righteousness and dogma prevail, and we are less likely to listen and cultivate curiosity, understanding, and empathy for others. One example lies in how representatives and senators spend less time socializing with each other than in years past, and are thus less likely to forge compromise. Online, we are all refugees from the real world, and we fall to building our own personal walls and exiling those with whom we disagree – who then become those we hate, fear, blame, and fight.
We have met the enemy, and it is us.
The antidote to mistrust is in cultivating the top of our nervous systems, where long-term planning and positive emotions reside. We can only do this through real-world relationships. Social media will not ultimately take us to a feeling of society. It might provide a glimmer of connection, but its inherent vectors of disconnection and division are proving deadly, from Internet radicalization, to the increased levels of depression, anxiety, loneliness, and suicidality noted with increasing Internet and social media use.
We each have incredible human possibilities, but to reach them, we have to transcend the biases and reactivity of our habitually and usually unconsciously self-centered egos. We can start with awareness of what the Internet siren is doing to us and steer our ships in a more fruitful direction. Toward home, toward our hearts, and toward each other.
Dr. Chandra is a psychiatrist and writer in San Francisco. He is the author of Facebuddha: Transcendence in the Age of Social Networks (Pacific Heart Books, 2017).
Amazon, toxicity, and helping patients find resilience
“No human being should be spoken to like that!” My 20-something patient working in the tech industry was horrified by treatment being meted out to a colleague by her boss. “He called her stupid, right in front of the whole team!” Though she wasn’t the direct target (this time), she was shaken by witnessing the incident, vicariously traumatized. It took her back to her own experiences of being harshly treated in a different workplace, experiences that triggered a deep depression, suicidal thoughts, and hopelessness for herself and the world in general.
The New York Times’ report on Amazon’s intense, demanding, and sometimes devaluing employee climate made headlines recently. The article described employees crying at their desks, working extremely long hours “night after night,” and undermining fellow colleagues. Most disturbing were reports of mistreatment or unfair evaluation of employees with health or family concerns. (In a letter to employees, Amazon founder and chief executive Jeff Bezos reportedly defended the tech giant’s management practices, saying the company “would not tolerate the ‘shockingly callous management practices’ described in the article.”)
Workplace abuse and demeaning bosses are not limited to the tech industry. Doctors themselves are no strangers to difficult work and training conditions. In fact, toxicity is almost a given in most doctors’ experiences. After all, pediatrician Perri Klass called medical school “a not entirely benign procedure” in her book by the same name. Over the years and after significant advocacy efforts, medical training has become more humane, with limits on working hours and call. But even today, stories abound about abuse, harsh criticism, and lack of empathy toward medical students, trainees, and physicians as employees. Tasked with caring for others, physicians find themselves not always cared for by the systems in which they are embedded. On the bright side, reflecting on these experiences can increase our empathy, insight, and skill in caring for those caught in hierarchical power relationships.
People in hostile working and learning environments often feel victimized, blamed, shamed, unworthy, and inferior. They can feel marginalized, isolated, and cut off from a sense of belonging and meaning, triggering sadness, rage, and anxiety. Hostility affects career and personhood and can be felt as an existential threat. Coworkers are not always helpful. The words many of us heard in training are not dissimilar to advice our patients might get from their peers at work. “Suck it up.” “Hold your nose and go.” “Don’t take it seriously.” “Get over it.” The dyad of victim and oppressor becomes a triad of victim-oppressor-unempathetic observers who reinforce oppression. The power of the therapeutic relationship is in changing the triad. The psychiatrist’s compassionate support and positive regard provides safety, reassurance, perspective, mentoring, and healing for the victim of toxicity, helping them become a resilient survivor. We become an important refuge for the person in crisis, providing ballast for their situation and an important role model for empathy in adversity.
Workplaces can be dehumanizing. At worst, employees are valued only for their productivity. Bosses, in turn, are understandably focused on goals and output, and bear a myriad of demands and pressures themselves. But people are obviously more than their jobs, though their jobs can provide much in the way of growth, self-efficacy, and connection. Freud himself underscored the importance of both work and love. Nurturing the whole person can help them succeed in both areas. It is reassuring to note that emotional intelligence has been shown to be the best predictor for business success as well as important for overall happiness. Psychologist Daniel Goleman identifies five components of emotional intelligence: self-awareness, self-regulation, motivation, empathy, and social skills. Psychotherapy works to improve all of the above through many means, but the most crucial is the therapeutic relationship.
One of our tasks is to identify and treat psychiatric illnesses. But more importantly, psychotherapy is a humanizing encounter. The psychiatrist provides a new relationship that leads to new experiences and insights for the patient, helping them to understand themselves, their world, and their narratives in life. As far as I can tell, you will never be able to order these on Amazon.
Dr. Chandra is based in San Francisco. His book in progress, “Facebuddha,” explores the psychology of social networks through a Buddhist lens. You can sign up for a newsletter to receive more details at www.RaviChandraMD.com.
“No human being should be spoken to like that!” My 20-something patient working in the tech industry was horrified by treatment being meted out to a colleague by her boss. “He called her stupid, right in front of the whole team!” Though she wasn’t the direct target (this time), she was shaken by witnessing the incident, vicariously traumatized. It took her back to her own experiences of being harshly treated in a different workplace, experiences that triggered a deep depression, suicidal thoughts, and hopelessness for herself and the world in general.
The New York Times’ report on Amazon’s intense, demanding, and sometimes devaluing employee climate made headlines recently. The article described employees crying at their desks, working extremely long hours “night after night,” and undermining fellow colleagues. Most disturbing were reports of mistreatment or unfair evaluation of employees with health or family concerns. (In a letter to employees, Amazon founder and chief executive Jeff Bezos reportedly defended the tech giant’s management practices, saying the company “would not tolerate the ‘shockingly callous management practices’ described in the article.”)
Workplace abuse and demeaning bosses are not limited to the tech industry. Doctors themselves are no strangers to difficult work and training conditions. In fact, toxicity is almost a given in most doctors’ experiences. After all, pediatrician Perri Klass called medical school “a not entirely benign procedure” in her book by the same name. Over the years and after significant advocacy efforts, medical training has become more humane, with limits on working hours and call. But even today, stories abound about abuse, harsh criticism, and lack of empathy toward medical students, trainees, and physicians as employees. Tasked with caring for others, physicians find themselves not always cared for by the systems in which they are embedded. On the bright side, reflecting on these experiences can increase our empathy, insight, and skill in caring for those caught in hierarchical power relationships.
People in hostile working and learning environments often feel victimized, blamed, shamed, unworthy, and inferior. They can feel marginalized, isolated, and cut off from a sense of belonging and meaning, triggering sadness, rage, and anxiety. Hostility affects career and personhood and can be felt as an existential threat. Coworkers are not always helpful. The words many of us heard in training are not dissimilar to advice our patients might get from their peers at work. “Suck it up.” “Hold your nose and go.” “Don’t take it seriously.” “Get over it.” The dyad of victim and oppressor becomes a triad of victim-oppressor-unempathetic observers who reinforce oppression. The power of the therapeutic relationship is in changing the triad. The psychiatrist’s compassionate support and positive regard provides safety, reassurance, perspective, mentoring, and healing for the victim of toxicity, helping them become a resilient survivor. We become an important refuge for the person in crisis, providing ballast for their situation and an important role model for empathy in adversity.
Workplaces can be dehumanizing. At worst, employees are valued only for their productivity. Bosses, in turn, are understandably focused on goals and output, and bear a myriad of demands and pressures themselves. But people are obviously more than their jobs, though their jobs can provide much in the way of growth, self-efficacy, and connection. Freud himself underscored the importance of both work and love. Nurturing the whole person can help them succeed in both areas. It is reassuring to note that emotional intelligence has been shown to be the best predictor for business success as well as important for overall happiness. Psychologist Daniel Goleman identifies five components of emotional intelligence: self-awareness, self-regulation, motivation, empathy, and social skills. Psychotherapy works to improve all of the above through many means, but the most crucial is the therapeutic relationship.
One of our tasks is to identify and treat psychiatric illnesses. But more importantly, psychotherapy is a humanizing encounter. The psychiatrist provides a new relationship that leads to new experiences and insights for the patient, helping them to understand themselves, their world, and their narratives in life. As far as I can tell, you will never be able to order these on Amazon.
Dr. Chandra is based in San Francisco. His book in progress, “Facebuddha,” explores the psychology of social networks through a Buddhist lens. You can sign up for a newsletter to receive more details at www.RaviChandraMD.com.
“No human being should be spoken to like that!” My 20-something patient working in the tech industry was horrified by treatment being meted out to a colleague by her boss. “He called her stupid, right in front of the whole team!” Though she wasn’t the direct target (this time), she was shaken by witnessing the incident, vicariously traumatized. It took her back to her own experiences of being harshly treated in a different workplace, experiences that triggered a deep depression, suicidal thoughts, and hopelessness for herself and the world in general.
The New York Times’ report on Amazon’s intense, demanding, and sometimes devaluing employee climate made headlines recently. The article described employees crying at their desks, working extremely long hours “night after night,” and undermining fellow colleagues. Most disturbing were reports of mistreatment or unfair evaluation of employees with health or family concerns. (In a letter to employees, Amazon founder and chief executive Jeff Bezos reportedly defended the tech giant’s management practices, saying the company “would not tolerate the ‘shockingly callous management practices’ described in the article.”)
Workplace abuse and demeaning bosses are not limited to the tech industry. Doctors themselves are no strangers to difficult work and training conditions. In fact, toxicity is almost a given in most doctors’ experiences. After all, pediatrician Perri Klass called medical school “a not entirely benign procedure” in her book by the same name. Over the years and after significant advocacy efforts, medical training has become more humane, with limits on working hours and call. But even today, stories abound about abuse, harsh criticism, and lack of empathy toward medical students, trainees, and physicians as employees. Tasked with caring for others, physicians find themselves not always cared for by the systems in which they are embedded. On the bright side, reflecting on these experiences can increase our empathy, insight, and skill in caring for those caught in hierarchical power relationships.
People in hostile working and learning environments often feel victimized, blamed, shamed, unworthy, and inferior. They can feel marginalized, isolated, and cut off from a sense of belonging and meaning, triggering sadness, rage, and anxiety. Hostility affects career and personhood and can be felt as an existential threat. Coworkers are not always helpful. The words many of us heard in training are not dissimilar to advice our patients might get from their peers at work. “Suck it up.” “Hold your nose and go.” “Don’t take it seriously.” “Get over it.” The dyad of victim and oppressor becomes a triad of victim-oppressor-unempathetic observers who reinforce oppression. The power of the therapeutic relationship is in changing the triad. The psychiatrist’s compassionate support and positive regard provides safety, reassurance, perspective, mentoring, and healing for the victim of toxicity, helping them become a resilient survivor. We become an important refuge for the person in crisis, providing ballast for their situation and an important role model for empathy in adversity.
Workplaces can be dehumanizing. At worst, employees are valued only for their productivity. Bosses, in turn, are understandably focused on goals and output, and bear a myriad of demands and pressures themselves. But people are obviously more than their jobs, though their jobs can provide much in the way of growth, self-efficacy, and connection. Freud himself underscored the importance of both work and love. Nurturing the whole person can help them succeed in both areas. It is reassuring to note that emotional intelligence has been shown to be the best predictor for business success as well as important for overall happiness. Psychologist Daniel Goleman identifies five components of emotional intelligence: self-awareness, self-regulation, motivation, empathy, and social skills. Psychotherapy works to improve all of the above through many means, but the most crucial is the therapeutic relationship.
One of our tasks is to identify and treat psychiatric illnesses. But more importantly, psychotherapy is a humanizing encounter. The psychiatrist provides a new relationship that leads to new experiences and insights for the patient, helping them to understand themselves, their world, and their narratives in life. As far as I can tell, you will never be able to order these on Amazon.
Dr. Chandra is based in San Francisco. His book in progress, “Facebuddha,” explores the psychology of social networks through a Buddhist lens. You can sign up for a newsletter to receive more details at www.RaviChandraMD.com.
