The Real Mind Control Device Is Your Phone, Not Your Face Mask
Why smartphone and social media usage leaves you more vulnerable to mind control than wearing a pandemic face mask
A wave of massive anger welled up in me after reading an ignorant meme posted on an acquaintance’s Facebook feed. Its premise was that wearing a surgical mask during this pandemic was a form of mind control, as it did not completely stop the virus and therefore did nothing for public safety.
Are you kidding me?!
First of all, the meme contained less than 25 words but, as memes go, had no facts or links to educational material on the subject.
You expect me to change my opinion of something based on the equivalent of an adult cartoon? Sorry, no, that’s not how science works.
How is it possible for someone to post on Facebook, presumably from a smartphone, with a grandiose claim about mind control devices without addressing the most obvious of 21st-century mind control devices?
That device in your hand!
In the midst of a disastrous and dangerous pandemic, I felt such false claims about surgical masks must be countered with numerous studies that suggest social media and smartphone usage alter your brain.
Now, that’s what I call mind control.
Defining Mind Control
Let’s come together with a shared understanding of mind control. Here’s the wiktionary.org definition: “Subverting by means of psychological tactic an individual’s control of his or her mind (thinking, behavior, emotions, or decisions).”
The first part of this definition (“subverting by means of psychological tactic”), as it relates to smartphones and social media, is basically summed up with one article. It outlines how social media companies (Facebook, Snapchat, Instagram) knew exactly what they were doing when they programmed their platforms, in terms of using psychological tactics against their users but for their own gain.
The article quotes Chamath Palihapitiya, former VP of User Growth at Facebook, at an event in which “he was responding to a question about his involvement in exploiting consumer behavior. ‘The short-term, dopamine-driven feedback loops that we have created are destroying how society works,’ he explained.”
Just this statement alone is strong evidence to support social media’s mind control of the masses, but I’ll focus on the latter part of the definition — how studies show that smartphone and social media use manipulates each part of the mind (thinking, behavior, emotions, and decisions).
Smartphones & Thinking
This article discusses several research studies done on smartphone use as it relates to cognition. One study says “experts suggest that all of this phone use can have an impact on children’s social and emotional development, that it can impair our sleep patterns, and that it might even turn some people into lazy thinkers.”
Lazy thinkers? Uh oh. That doesn’t sound good. It sounds like the pathway toward creating a high level of susceptibility in people to believe things without doing critical analysis (aka: mind control).
The article continues with this lazy thinker theme
“In fact, one recent study has found that there is actually a link between relying on a smartphone and mental laziness. Smartphones don’t necessarily turn people from deep thinkers into lazy thinkers, but it does suggest that people who are naturally intuitive thinkers — or those who act based on instinct and emotions — tend to rely on their phones more frequently.”
The same article also highlighted research that showed a decrease in people’s cognitive function “whenever a smartphone is within reach, even when the phone is off.”
Now that’s powerful stuff! The mere presence of a smartphone may have the ability to mess with one’s brain. Not sure if I would say the same about my inert face mask.
Social Media & Behavior
If you’ve ever read an entire comment thread on a YouTube video, a popular Facebook post, or any of the president’s Twitter posts, then you already know that social media alters people’s behaviors. We call it trolling — and it permeates the internet. Have you ever wondered why these behaviors may be more inflamed on social media than in real life?
This article highlights the integral importance our environment plays on brain function as it relates to behavior. Social media sites are a fertile environment for messing with our brains as they can hijack certain parts of the brain’s functioning. One such area that can get hijacked while browsing social media is the Ventral Tegmental Area (VTA), responsible for rewarding positive social experiences.
The article’s author Billi Gordon, Ph.D. points out,
“The physiological cues that the VTA uses to determine social status from negative social media experiences are the same as those occurring in our ancestor’s brains when the tribe banished them… But the VTA cannot think; it only read signals and reacts. That’s why people waste hours online arguing about things that have no control over. This response is not about the Facebook or Twitter war du jour. It is about the natural human fear of being cast out to face certain death.”
Social Media & Emotions
Most of the research done on social media’s impact on emotions has been geared towards adolescents since their brains are constantly developing and are extremely vulnerable.
This Mayo Clinic article discusses both the positive and negative benefits of tween/teen social media use. Two paragraphs discuss the potential positive effects. The subsequent six paragraphs highlight the harm that studies suggest social media usage does to teen brains, including damage to their emotional health:
“Other studies also have observed links between high levels of social media use and depression or anxiety symptoms. A 2016 study of more than 450 teens found that greater social media use, nighttime social media use and emotional investment in social media — such as feeling upset when prevented from logging on — were each linked with worse sleep quality and higher levels of anxiety and depression.”
Another study found a link between social media and depression by limiting the experimental group’s social media usage over three weeks and measuring for symptoms of depression before and after.
“At the end of the trial, those in the experimental group saw both loneliness and depressive symptoms decline, with the largest changes happening in those who reported greater levels of depression. ‘No matter where they started off, if they were told to limit their social media, they had less depression, no matter what their initial levels were,’ Young said.”
Smartphones & Decisions
This study published in Frontiers in Psychology specifically investigated smartphone use’s effect on decision making. The researchers found “that there is a relationship between smartphone overuse and decision control, such that smartphone overuse is associated with a higher possibility of irrational decisions.”
To be fair, they did clarify that most of the decision-making issues came from people who frequently used their smartphones:
“The present study revealed impaired decision control functioning in smartphone high users. High users tended to choose immediate reward and later penalty compared to low users, showing a characteristic of irrational decision-making.”
They based their definition of high user on a smartphone addiction test, so it was difficult to discern what constituted a high user. However, based on how often I see the general public buried in their phones — I think it’s safe to say most of us are high users of smartphones these days.
Addiction is no joke
Lastly, even though this deviates from my original intention, I think it’s important to end with a serious note. In addition to controlling our thoughts, behaviors, emotions, and decisions, smartphones and social media are also subjecting us to addiction.
The way that our brains are affected by social media is so powerful that this King University Online article warned of the potential for abuse of social media. Social media was compared to gambling and narcotics which “have the power to rule over the brain’s rewards system in a similar capacity. Social media users should be aware of these parallels to avoid potential pitfalls.”
Here are some articles for learning more about smartphone addiction:
The Truth About Smartphone Addiction, And How To Beat It
If you are unable to control your smartphone and/or social media use, please consider seeking help. Here are some resources:
Smartphone Addiction Help Guide
Treatment for Addiction to Smartphones
Please don’t misunderstand me. Unless you’re truly addicted, I’m not suggesting that you banish your phone or delete all social media. That would be hypocritical of me, as I use both.
What I am suggesting is that we all adopt awareness, combined with critical thinking, when we browse on social media. This mask-as-mind-control-device belief is unfounded in science, and it — quite literally — could harm people’s lives.
So, I will continue to call this meme’s concept a conspiracy theory. And, I will continue wearing a mask to help mitigate the pandemic unless similar science on mask-wearing as a form of mind control is presented to me.
In the meantime, may I suggest we all:
Put down our phones more frequently.
Check ourselves on excessive social media posting and scrolling.
And, for the love of all people, wear a mask when we go out in public!
