Quit Facebook for two weeks

Which is interesting as, the minute I deleted Instagram, I have gotten dozens of emails from them saying "oh we made it so easy for you to get back on your account from your phone, please download the app". So, I realized that there's an insidious side to it that is also rather logical: in order for these apps to succeed they must be used as much as possible by as many people as possible, and in order for them to drain your life force you need to do something for them. So essentially, without our participation the mindlessness of apps and social media has no power over us. Which is logical but I never thought about it in those terms.

It reminded me of the concept of spirit attachments, where it seems like such an insidious, dark and mysterious thing that happens and that we can't escape from it and it's almost uncontrollable. But much like FB, if we don't engage mindlessly, we won't catch the sickness of the social media. And if we have the "bug" we remain so long as we choose to remain, and the only way out or away from it is to (easier said than done, i'm aware) walk away despite your senses begging you not to.

I thought I would just add some observations to that - but the cell phone provider gave me a very hard time when I requested getting rid of data. At first he kept trying to convince me to get MORE data, then seemed confused as to why I kept insisting, put me on hold for several minutes at a time, and finally gave me a number of dire warnings when we were finalizing everything. All in all, a weird conversation, and that was the same night I deactivated Facebook, which just started sending me notifications through my email even though I've already went back in and highlighted NO notifications during deactivation. Little 'glitches' in the matrix.
 
Then a couple of weeks ago I watched the following video which got me thinking even more about the evilness of cellphones of course, but mainly also about Facebook and social media in general:

Chad had some ecellent and obvious points. Thanks for sharing that here.
 
I think I'm going to take a break from FB and then reorient my approach to it, how much time I spend on there and to what purpose and think of the posting of thoughts and interesting information/truth on FB as one action that I can keep doing to be a "potential transducer(s) of information into chaos."

A: For all forum members: Do not lose heart. Just remember that if you do all you can, yourselves in the future will bridge the gap. You are all potential transducers of information into chaos. Let that information be love/truth. Goodbye.

Q: (L) Alright. Now, there's something else that's been on my mind unless something has a pressing question. What has been on my mind is the apparent futility of doing anything. I'm sure I'm not the only one who feels it. Forum members, group members, FOTCM members... We're watching what's going on in the world, and we feel absolutely helpless and hopeless. It's just gotten to the point where you just sit there in absolute shock and observe events in the world and the complete decline and deterioration. It's so bad, you don't even want to go out of our house anymore. This takes the heart out of everybody, including me sometimes, to do much of anything except to try to just keep on keeping on, encouraging people and helping people as best as we can. I just don't know what else to do.

A: Recall where you were 20 years ago?

Q: (L) Yeah, I was in a very awful state. I didn't have answers. I didn't know how things worked. The thing is, knowing how things work and what's going on... In one way, it's relieving and liberating because you don't string yourself along with false hopes, but on the other hand, it's horrifying.

A: Yes

Q: (Galatea) How do you remain optimistic?

A: It is always darkest before dawn.

Q: (Perceval) Would it be true to say that it hasn't yet gotten as dark as it's going to get?

A: Probably. Recall that this is necessary to awaken those who are still dreaming. Those of you who see and know must be ready to guide those who stumble into the light with blinded eyes. Thus it is necessary for all who do see to remain steadfast and continue allowing their awareness to transmit cosmic energy. Think of it as similar to your activities in Praha, though on a grander scale.

Q: (L) So becoming aware is really an important... Well, lemme ask this: You mean that just being aware is the most important thing that all of us in the group can do?

A: Close.

Q: (L) And being aware includes divesting yourself of your programs and learning about...

(Perceval) The two go together. You can't be fully aware in the broadest way possible without dealing with your own prejudices, biases, programs, etc.

(L) Is that it?

A: Yes

Q: (L) So, working on oneself as Gurdjieff formulated it, more or less, is the means to become transmitters of cosmic forces - even if you're not fully conscious that you're doing it?

A: Yes

Q: (Perceval) The problem is that the world is just descending into craziness. It's a complete and utter farce. For us, it's becoming ridiculous. It's like watching a bunch of lunatics from an asylum out in the street, taking over government buildings, and taking over countries. They're insane. And we're meant to actually, what? Comment on it? You don't comment on it. You don't analyze what they do and try to make sense of it. You just say, "They're crazy!" So that's why we feel like there's no point in even talking about this stuff anymore. But as they said, there are people who don't see that.

(L) There are people who are just stumbling out of the darkness.

(Perceval) In terms of what we do, those conditions of the world becoming ever more obviously crazy makes it easier for us to point out how crazy it is. So effectively, even though it's crazy-making for us, our job is actually easier because it's so obvious! It's easier today.

(L) More and more people are publishing articles about psychopathy, and people everywhere are talking about it. At some point, I guess it will hit critical mass.

(Perceval) These psychos will be their own undoing. Just letting them go wild means they expose themselves and what they're doing to a greater audience.

(L) Well.

(Chu) This is something that’s exercises my mind: sometimes, what feels futile, or this feeling of preaching to the choir - the same people already know, so why do they need the repetition, ya know? I wonder if sometimes we should do a version of the Work for Dummies. At the same time, there's the thing that Gurdjieff said where knowledge is NOT supposed to be spread to all people. So where is the middle ground between helping people who are barely stumbling and struggling into the light, and they don't have time to catch up with 20 years of work, and...

(Perceval) Maybe a lot more people will stumble blinded into the light in the future as things get worse. There may be a point where a lot more people will go, "What's going on?!"

(L) We get tired of saying the same things over and over again, but there's always someone new who hasn't heard it. There's always a reason to be active with new members on the forum, to write things in the same way, or to rephrase things, commentary on SOTT, etc.

(Perceval) Even the people who do know it, they need reinforcing of the message because they're out there in the world surrounded by A influences, let's say.
 
I thought I would just add some observations to that - but the cell phone provider gave me a very hard time when I requested getting rid of data. At first he kept trying to convince me to get MORE data, then seemed confused as to why I kept insisting, put me on hold for several minutes at a time, and finally gave me a number of dire warnings when we were finalizing everything. All in all, a weird conversation, and that was the same night I deactivated Facebook, which just started sending me notifications through my email even though I've already went back in and highlighted NO notifications during deactivation. Little 'glitches' in the matrix.

I think it's quite normal and it happened to me too when I wanted to change to a cheaper monthly fee with less data - I guess those call center guys have some big red warning light on their screen when someone asks to downsize his contract and are instructed to prevent it at all cost. And no wonder: these contracts are pure gold for the providers, because once you sign it let's say for 2 years, they have the revenues for the complete contract in their books, which they can then multiply by investing it, receiving interests and so on. I guess it's a big part of their business model.
 
FB can be a good tool of keeping with friends and close ones that are far away. Not necessarily only news about their whereabouts, but even sharing silly cat videos. It does help with feeling closer. :-)

But then there is this thing where people you don't really know or care about join or remain on your list silent. In many cases they don't agree with you and don't even like you! And yet they stay. :rolleyes: This is a very strange behavior, and that's why I also periodically want to just remove accounts from all social media sites.

But then I consider the above explanation, and how this activity and communicating this way with people I do care about does help to maintain my sanity. :-P And it can be used to share Sott articles, and keep up with the news. It's true that most of the "information" on various social network is nothing but empty calories and noise. But perhaps with awareness and proper intentions it can be kept on a manageable level. Everyone just should know there's.

I see it that way too, that FB can be of help to keep in contact with some folks and sometimes it is nice to see some pictures of old friends and how they are doing.

Nonetheless I use FB very seldom on my phone if at all and the messenger I haven't installed. I switched of also FB push notifications, because this can give me a real headache. With that I mainly use FB on my comp and avoid it on my phone.
 
Interesting that this comes up at this point. For quite a while now I really started to question what exactly Facebook and Co. do to people and maybe even to those who know the trap it can represent.

Then a couple of weeks ago I watched the following video which got me thinking even more about the evilness of cellphones of course, but mainly also about Facebook and social media in general:


Chad brings up some very good points above about cellphones and the "social media" effect in general. So I thought about it a bit more and I think the issue might go even deeper then that. What if Facebook for example, even if you only use it on a PC every now and then and you have the knowledge of its pitfalls, sort of programs people to not care for example? Is it somehow promoting indifference in us? Is it making a lot of things people would normally care about sort of trivial and meaningless?

So we scroll through our feed and what exactly is happing there in us, especially if we do it regularly/daily? Do wet get dull/zombie like? Apart from it becoming an addictive thing, it seems to me that all sorts of "news", be they trivial, horrific, funny, deranged, ugly, propagandistic, mixt with good information in between, get absorbed so quickly by scrolling over a sketchy headline with a picture or video, that it makes everything so trivial and valueless. So it might leave some quite negative effects on people?

I can't quite put words to it. I was also thinking about the C's comment in a session (paraphrasing) that "computers will overpower us" in a similar way something else overpowered the peoples of Atlantis.

And what about the term "social media" itself? Isn't it somehow a bit of a strange phrase? Since when has media been so closely associated with sociality and why? What if it truly makes us unsocial, even if we pay good attention?

And what about the term "Facebook"? It is my understanding that this term was used to describe the superficial nature of the whole concept, since the "original idea" was for everyone to share what they do in daily live, especially every silly little thing that doesn't belong anywhere except at your place.

In newspapers and normal news websites you (still) have the option to only read/view certain things in specific topics that are separated from each other. On Facebook on the other hand, everything gets mixed together and sensationalistic "one headline to the next thinking/acting" get promoted in the way Facebook arranges it for you.

I'm not even talking about the Propaganda this platform is promoting while banning and silencing "evil things" like the truth, one step at a time.

It also seems to me that many other platforms, including news websites, have adopted some of this "Facebook" style, in which everything becomes so fast and meaningless.

I dunno, maybe the whole Facebook thing is a lot more toxic then thought?

I think pretty much related to the above Joe and Niall discuss what is going on on the Internet in general and what it does with us. I also noticed like they did that you can‘t even escape mind numbing nonsense on good outlets like RT and Sputnik. I actually think there was less of that in the past there as well. I keep thinking about the C‘s comment that Computers will overpower us.

 
I think pretty much related to the above Joe and Niall discuss what is going on on the Internet in general and what it does with us. I also noticed like they did that you can‘t even escape mind numbing nonsense on good outlets like RT and Sputnik. I actually think there was less of that in the past there as well. I keep thinking about the C‘s comment that Computers will overpower us.


I'm just so struck by the realization that what actually happened the last 20 years or so with the emergence of the internet, computers, cellphones and the like is such a huge and incredibly successful story of changing so much in our society, most importantly also on the personal/humane level, that it almost begs believe to comprehend the extent of it. I would really like to encourage everyone to closely listen to Joe and Nialls Radio Show above and the points I brought up earlier as well.

The other part of this that makes me so utterly speechless is the utter normality this Internet/Computer thing has become in most lives on the planet today. If you put everything together, the sheer cleverness and you might call it deviant success of this "program?" is beyond believe. There is still an older generation that is not quite so effected by it, but it is dying quickly and is already effected by it.

Here is another video that sort of explains a part of the question I asked above on what the internet in general and social media in particular is doing with our brain and thinking (when you scroll over things, click on something new, etc):

Nicholas Carr – What the Internet is Doing to Our Brains

If that doesn't scare the hell out of you I don't know what does. You could also basically view it under the light of the dopaminergic mind, which is also what he explains. The point he is making is that this is not only a drug pretty much everyone is addicted to nowadays, to one extend or the other, but that the way it is set up and you engage with it, creates a state of mind that doesn't care and is devoid on any deep thinking and problem solving among other things. And isn't that exactly what we are seeing today all over the board globally???

At this point we might want to say that this isn't so black and white and if you have the knowledge you are protected, but frankly I'm not so sure that is the case.

Let's say you know that this or that thing is a hard drug that not only makes you numb and uncaring but also effects your very humanity itself and your interactions with people and life in gerneral. What do you do with that knowledge? Are you really protected from all effects of it if you say "I just use it carefully and sparingly?".

Also the point Putin made a while ago that the internet was a CIA project from the getgo might be a thing to think about. I also find it frightening and surprising that when I first saw the title of Joe and Nialls show about the internet and listened to the first couple of minutes, I thought "Well that isn't a good idea isn't it (shutting the internet down)!" and thoughts like "surely that is a foolish idea, that is simply impossible!". And that even with the knowledge I already had about it's evil effect on so many things (mentioned in my post above)!!! Then I further listened to the show and found myself totally agreeing with the things Joe brought up and thinking about the sheer power this thing has over us. "Computers will overpower us" anyone? I keep thinking that the whole thing might be one of the big trojan horses that was introduced into humanity by some nefarious forces. The thing about this trojan horse that is so scary is that it is so effective that it stares you right into the face everyday and you still don't realize it.

So in the coming days I was rather dismayed to realize how much of an effect this actually has on me (and I'm afraid many of us here in general as well) even though we have a lot of knowledge about it.

I also found it utterly interesting to watch my personal reactions (that also Niall exhibited in the show) to some of the things Joe brought up and proposed which pretty much tried to justify the "benefits" or "impossibilities of not using it" in all sorts of ways, even though just 20 years ago the world was running just fine without it! It is true that this has been integrated into pretty much every aspects of our society and how it is run now, but why is it that we now automatically tend to think it is "impossible without it"? Why exactly is that? What makes us think that this is so impossible when it wasn't so impossible just 20 years ago? And what about the chinese that Niall brought up? Isn't it astounding how they manage to restrict the internet in big parts and they are still doing a pretty darn good job on many many levels? And why is it that even I, who should know better, thought about the Chinese approach to the internet "as not good and wise" just prior to Nialls and Joes Show even know I wrote the post above? Something just dropped like scales from your eyes when I listened to that show.

A little thought experiment on that regard; what would you do if you would just stop using the internet altogether in your daily life? And I mean, not just cellphones but PC-Internet as well? What could/would you do with the enormous recourses of time/energy/thinking that this frees up? How sure are you that you are not effected negatively by it? How much of it has become a habit for you and especially in the way you interact with it and life? What is the first thought/urge that usually enters you mind in the morning? Check the internet maybe? If so, shouldn't that give you something to think about?

Another thing that bears repeating here is the fact that arguably one of the most busiest and positively productive persons on this planet at this point with the name of Putin, still refuses to use cellphones in any way! Isn't that astounding?! And as far as I know he is also not that much into the Internet/PC world himself. Despite that (or because of it???) he manages to literally do the impossible daily. So you can hardly tell me that it is impossible when he can do without it.

On a similar note, there are quite a number of studies out there that clearly show that the mere presence of a cellphone, even far away from you (in another place in the house for example) makes people stupid and anxious. We are not even talking about the radiation here, just the mere knowledge of it being present/available quickly!!! And don't fool yourself that this doesn't effect you. I clearly notice those effects even though I avoid it.

I think what is going on there is that we are slowly but surely giving all our crucial mental resources and capabilities (like deep thinking, problem solving and caring) away to an device, be it a cellphone or computer, connected to the internet. Since we can solve, can get excess and find solutions to everything "just a click away", without any noticeable mental effort on our part, even if this thing (be it cellphone or computer) is not present, we tend to get very lazy mentally. Since, even if you know that you don't have access to it near you, (you don't own a cellphone or computer connected to the internet for example) there is still the safeguard in the back of your mind that tells you "don't worry, if need be, you can excess the information at some point somewhere quickly without much effort". I think this fact alone already makes you not so determent and engaged fully on solving problems within your mind with considerable effort and concentration.

For example; imagine a situation in which you have to discover (hard mental work on finding) crucial information because you need it at this moment to help someone else or find a solution to a deep problem. Now imagine internet doesn't exist at all anywhere on the planet. What will you do and what efforts, both mentally and physically, will you have to make, to find that solution?

Now imagine the exact same situation just with the additional equation that the internet is available somewhere not far away from you if you need it (meaning you don't have it personally but you know that it is easily accessible if you really need to find a solution). Now the question: How inclined are you in this situation to think and work as hard as in the previous case? Is the mere fact that you KNOW a easy way out exist not far away, "just a click away", making you lazy and in fact inclined to get stupid and diminish the capabilities of your thinking apparatus?

Further, in the first scenario, wouldn't you be much more inclined to personally engage with another human being to find a solution preferably together? Like asking someone personally for their input to the situation? In the second scenario, how much of your resources go directly into a machine rather then an direct interaction with another person?

At least for me I realize now how much of an effect this technology has on me, despite the foolish idea "that this can't effect me, because I know better" since I can observe it clearly now that this in fact is not the case and some not so good effects it clearly has on me.

So at the very least I think I have to put some very strict rules into place that diminish the risk of getting effected by it too negatively especially also on the PC-Internet. Some of those rules might indeed be not to use Facebook and Co, and if you do something, like working on this forum, just concentrate on this alone at that moment and nothing else, avoiding the "spring from this to that information quickly" mindlessly.
 
The end result of this technology was easily predictable by CIA based on human psychology and programming-that it will lead to dependency, addiction and in the end thanks to it integration with it and total enslavment. It was then not accidental that all that computer, chip technology as they say was based from left UFO s looking from 4D STS perspective, being played like bees with honey and rats with cheese. In the end what Cs said then about conquering through programming through time makes perfect sense, and it is not that long looking back.
 
Let's say you know that this or that thing is a hard drug that not only makes you numb and uncaring but also effects your very humanity itself and your interactions with people and life in gerneral. What do you do with that knowledge? Are you really protected from all effects of it if you say "I just use it carefully and sparingly?".

Yes, there is a lot ‘wrong’ with the internet and generally I do agree it does more harm than good but in the end I think that there is still a lot of usefulness left in it despite its rather nefarious history as being originally conceived as a CIA project.

The way I see it, the internet is a tool and can be dangerous to the user depending on their awareness of what they are doing and what it involves. It can be compared to a finely sharped chef’s knife. In the hands of a cook (at least a competent one) it lets him perform his work well; however in the hands of a toddler, he will likely injure himself.

Now, I don’t think that saying ‘carefully and sparingly’ is really even that useful when framing one’s interactions. Protection comes from awareness, but not just of the net itself but also awareness of oneself. The question I would be asking is “what do I need to do and how to best achieve this?” To me it’s really about efficiency with time. When one is focused on meaningful work, the internet itself isn’t really all that distracting. If you find yourself easily distracted one can take steps to limit those distractions. And if you are still being distracted then the problem, more often than not, is you. (Things like FB, Twitter etc I would say are trickier to deal with as they are specifically designed to hit those dopamine buttons).

While I’m not saying that it is not without effect (because all things in life have effects on a person), there is always the degree to which it affects you or how you allow it to affect you. It depends I think to a large degree on a person’s attitude and temperament. Those that tend towards addictive tendencies would do well to limit themselves and not get caught up in the mindlessness of it. By the same token, that awareness would indicate to someone that they need to ‘deconnect’ in order to limit the effects, as you mentioned. But I don’t see it as an ‘all or nothing’ scenario as you seem to be proposing.

I do think you have a valid point in that it does take some of the ‘mental effort’ away when it comes to solving problems, but that is only half the equation. There are many ‘solutions’ to be found, but there is also the matter of actually implementing said solution. In that instance you would still need to reach out and get help to do it. Then there are also situations where you need very specific advice from an expert. How many do you know, in person, that are doctors or engineers? No amount of deep thinking will get you an answer because you simply don’t have the knowledge for it, and neither does anyone you know, for example. So it is not always the case that this is so. Instructional videos on YouTube come to mind as a way of gaining knowledge that would otherwise be inaccessible.

Another example where I see the usefulness in the web: writing. For me, knowing that what I wrote might be read by someone on the internet forces me to think carefully and thoroughly as I write it. It is said that writing is a form of thinking, maybe even critical thinking depending on what you want to say. It’s also the closest thing next to speaking in public (and even can be nerve wracking as you don’t really know how what you say will be received). And while I may not always do it well, the act of trying to do that is good for developing one’s faculties, osit. But generally, the bad outweighs the good in quantity, however I'm not so sure that it does qualitatively.

And there is one other thing to keep in mind.... if it weren’t for the internet, none of this would exist. No forum, no SoTT and the information that was channeled from the C’s would have likely only stayed in Florida. :scared:

fwiw
 
I agree that what it comes down to is your awareness of the situation and what you do with it and how far you know which triggers in yourself have to be kept under controö. And in this regard we might want to look at the situation and how it effects us as it is, and if needed, adjust ones behaviour toward it. So what it comes down to is an individual assessment, depending on your own temperament and tendencies, in order to use the internet wisely. It must be assessed individually, depending mostly on your knowledge of yourself and tendencies. I think the idea of "shutting the internet down" that Joe brought up is meant generally, in that this would probably be for the better, for most ordinary people at this point, when you look at the whole human race. Also maybe in regards to what kind of message it sends as a whole, in the way it is currently operated/interacted with by most people.

I think it would fair to say that from the billions of people who actually use the internet, only a very small percentage is using it wisely and with awareness of the pitfalls. It seems to me that most just use it in one way or the other in a way that makes them numb and indifferent.

And there is one other thing to keep in mind.... if it weren’t for the internet, none of this would exist. No forum, no SoTT and the information that was channeled from the C’s would have likely only stayed in Florida.

Indeed! And not only that, but people like Peterson would also have never had the opportunity to share their wisdom with a huge number of ordinary people. But on the other hand, as Joe pointed out, Peterson is helping with things and situation that the internet itself, created in the first place, or at least fueled big time. Then again, at some level one surely would have to conclude that this wouldn't have happened if the masses at some level wouldn't have asked for it. So it might be more like a two way stream.
 
I've just finished Evolution 2.0 and Darwin's Blind Spot and have just made a start on Virolution. It seems clear already that as life evolves into ever greater complexities, organisms utilize what serves them best at any given point. Often it's only through cooperation that the best chances for proliferation can be realized. Have we not been told by the C's that STO understands that self is best served through serving others? Regardless of the original intent of the internet, it's a tool that can be used in the interest many different types of souls progressing according to their particular inclinations, whether those are primarily STS or leaning in the direction of STO because they are slowly understanding the benefits of cooperation as a superior strategy. However, understanding the true nature and origins of things, including the internet, is beneficial. All things should be taken into consideration. OSIT
 
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The op says a lot.

Changing the platform is more easily done than changing the personality.
 
I basically unfollowed 95% of my Facebook “friends”, as well as those actual friends and family who are living and promoting the mainstream media delusion. I mainly just keep it alive so that my friends know that I’m still working on music with my band, and to “geek out” with other guitar-obsessed folks whose significant others don’t want to hear about vintage tubes and over vs under wound pickups. It’s basically become a large guitarist forum and little more.

Stopping notifications and unfollowing pretty much everyone save a few effectively took away the compulsion to randomly check my phone, and all but completely eliminated the frustration factor of engaging with the delusional side of people I actually like.

I do feel lighter!:cool2:
 
However, understanding the true nature and origins of things, including the internet, is beneficial. All things should be taken into consideration. OSIT

Hello there.
I remember the cover of a conspi book talking about the world wide web... it said it was a trap, web, being a trap, like the trap of the spider. But i don't remember which book. :) When you talk about the true nature and origin of Internet, what do you have in mind? :) Thank you.
 
Hello there.
I remember the cover of a conspi book talking about the world wide web... it said it was a trap, web, being a trap, like the trap of the spider. But i don't remember which book. :) When you talk about the true nature and origin of Internet, what do you have in mind? :) Thank you.

Well I was speaking generally. But to answer your question, perhaps this book will help?

Surveillance Valley: The Secret Military History of the Internet Yasha Levine
 
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