Two things are vital. You won’t like either of them.
First, go to the hardware store and buy a mousetrap. Try setting it (you won’t need any cheese). While doing this, lose control of it and let it snap on your finger. (Don’t do this with a rat trap lest you end up in Urgent Care - ask me how I know). Like Pavlov’s Dog or the rubber band on your wrist that you snap to stop smoking, this is a reinforcement mechanism. If you are sure you get the message you can save the bruised knuckles and just use your imagination. Keep the trap. You will need it the next time you click on a link that offers you free Metamucil but actually installs a program on your computer that sends pictures of your mother-in-law in her bathrobe to Prince Harry.
Second, visit this link which describes the research of Richard Thaler, who won the Nobel Prize in 2017 for his work in Behavioral Economics and his book titled “Nudge.” There you will learn the underlying theory behind all the snooping, monitoring, pressure and intrusiveness of constant advertising, subliminal and overt, that is all over your computer screen all the time. Be sure to read the part about how your government is “helping” right along with all the others.
You must guard against this to have any hope of doing your own thinking and controlling your own life.
Here is what one corner of my “Welcome Window” (which changes regularly without my consent) had for me today. Note all the “help” I am offered. Yes, Microsoft is a philanthropic organization that exists for no other purpose than to help others.
Everything on the internet is true
Once a week everyone should find a link that is a couple of years old and read it. Below is how the financial wizards helped you 18 months ago. On November 30, 2022, the European Central Bank predicted the demise of Bitcoin. Seen the price of Bitcoin lately? As I write this, Sam Bankman-Fried’s “victims” are about to get all their money back. An ill-timed downturn in a volatile market offered Sam’s government the opportunity to incarcerate him for 115 years. Note the “Follow” button in the upper right. English translation: “Follow me over the cliff…” Note the plug for X at the bottom. Yep, those people are the first to know a lot - that is wrong.
It’s a virus
Every link in your email or browser should be considered a virus. Not just a computer virus, a deadly virus. Think “Mental Ebola” with every click. The convenience we all yearned for when computers first arrived has become a monster of enormous proportions. After two generations it has stolen our ability to think for ourselves.
What is the cure?
Here is a success story. Five years ago the daughter of a friend of mine wrote a book: #Unsubscribed: How I am thriving in high school without social media (and you can, too). The proof is in her own story, now graduated from college and well on her way as a successful young adult thinking for herself. That story must be enlarged to capture a lot of grown-ups who need the same message.
More remedies you won’t like: There is an alternative to MS Windows. It is called Linux. It is part of the “open source” movement that rejects the idea we all must be enslaved to Microsoft. The learning curve to use it is steep. I know as I have been on that curve of late. Every step I take is a step toward freedom. Each day the time I devote to the transition away from Microsoft is rewarded with equal savings in time as I escape all the overhead of Microsoft snooping and intrusion.
Thinking for yourself has all kinds of big rewards.
[next week: Looking under the hood]
Thanks for the reference, Roger. I've passed it along to our son and daughter-in-law who have a daughter now in seventh grade. Hope they can get her to read it.