Let me ask you a question Michael.
"Why don't we allow advertising for children under five?"
The stock answer, is that under the age of five children cannot distinguish what's "real" on TV and what's not. How could they?
They have no "life experience" to judge what they see against. To them, IT'S ALL REAL.
We ASSUME that children "grow out of this" as a developmental milestone. Like it's a "change in their brains" physically.
It turns out, it's mostly "socialization".
The lesson of "Social Media" is that about 40% of the population cannot distinguish between what's REAL and what's MADE UP.
Show them a movie about "Star Gates" and they will believe that the government has them. Show them a fake video about a big hominid in the woods and millions will be convinced "Bigfoot" is real.
Tell them a story about a guy dying on a cross for their sins and they will build cathedrals in his name.
This is a BITTER reality of our neurobiology. That's what Social Media is revealing about us.
I suspect this is a spectrum aspect of our neurobiology, like most everything else. Some people will believe anything they are told.
These are the "You can fool some of the people ALL of the time" segment of the spectrum.
Some people don't believe in anything they don't DIRECTLY EXPERIENCE. These are your "doubting Thomas's". Say about 20% of the population.
They are also prone to being "conned". Because they BELIEVE in what they SEE. All you have to do is control what they are allowed to see. They often become Zealots because they have no Empathy for those whose life experience doesn't match their own.
The rest of us, the final 40%. We fall on the spectrum between believing whatever we hear or see and doubting everything. We learn to "filter" our experiences into "real" and "unreal" categories and draw a CLEAR Demarcation Line between the two.
The implication of this, is that we NEED Gatekeepers in our societies. As an "outsider" my whole life, who has fought against the stifling power of "Gatekeepers" it pains me to say that.
