“They implant ideas that we don’t have”

On. On. On. Still up. Inch and eyes on the screen. Infinite scrolling prevents us from detaching them and we follow the flow of content with our eyes under the influence of a visual hypnosis. “On the one hand it slows down our critical thinking, on the other it sedates everything in our memory“, he explains to Fanpage.it Simona Ruffinocommunication and neuroscience expert. “Every stimulation creates a cognitive product, an opinion on a fact, a political candidate, we do not pay attention but we store”, is a background voice that insinuates itself and then becomes real in our head, meanwhile we Let’s change your mind without even realizing it.

Socials are not only making our brain rot (C0me wanted to remind us of the University of Oxford in 2024 by choosing as a word of the year Brain Rot) but they are also manipulating it by exploiting our bias, planting ideas, visions, opinions, “and all this happens without realizing it“.

Black or white, social networks exploit dichotomy, in this way they filter reality and manipulate our brain?

The platforms are managed by people who write an algorithm. This algorithm is able to change perception, our thoughtsis a powerful toolwe saw how much during the elections in the United States, just to give a recent example.

Where does the manipulation start from?

I would say from binary simplification, which is given by processes that start precisely from an excessive simplification that Reduces to black or whitewho is good or whoever badly, is a way of seeing the reality that avoids complexity to take refuge in dual thought, which is simpler.

And that pushes towards polarization.

Yes, the algorithms build bubbles, anyone who comes into contact with their arguments will look at them and will amploy the algorithm that will re -propose, this in addition to creating polarization makes sure that one is made partial and therefore manipulated reality.

Everything starts from binary simplification, which however has much older origins than social media.

Of course, binary thought starts from our brain that wants to make the minimum effort to obtain the best result. Face the complexity of the world would entail a cognitive loadthe complexity is tiring, it serves an effort of attention for decoding, so to survive the human being he got used to reason by categories.

So are the social networks made to manipulate our brain or vice versa?

Let’s say that our brain is ready to be manipulated. Not only that, in contemporary society manipulation has fertile ground because we have disaying to think.

Explain to be better.

It happens because the world is proposed to us in a simplified way starting from the political discourse. Think of the advertising of aesthetic products, they show you the first and after, all the effort and sacrifice is not part of the narrative, because complexity would make you give up.

And then there are cognitive bias …

Exactly, which are the basis on which communicative manipulation is built. Each of us tries to validate information based on framing, based on culture or information it already has. Also because it is enough to use certain words to guide a speech it is easy to trigger feelings of fear, anger or pride. Just change a word.

Can you give me an example?

Even now in Italy migratory phenomena have been told as invasion. Then one thing is if we read migratory flow, quite the opposite if we hear the word invasion, because it gives us one ‘negative semantic association, A dissonance is activated, which pushes towards fear, distrust.

From the example that made me it is evident that our bias are also exploited on a political level.

Of course, bias are precious tools for consent And punish the fragility, the fears. Manipulative communication is used to activate a fear and then offer a solution with easy words.

Is the same strategy also implemented for fake news?

Yes, also because the dynamics of manipulation they are never used for ethical purposes. In the case of fake news, reiteration becomes a persuasion component. Make an evaluation error, then feel that news again, and thus build a reality that does not exist. You believe it even if it is a non -slip reality: it happened for example with the antivax during Covid.

Real facts are also manipulated.

Yes, almost everything we look at, 90% of the time is not as it seems. We are immersed unconsciously In the disinformation to such an extent that we are no longer able to notice it.

And there are no way out?

Culture and knowledge. To have the freedom to understand reality it is necessary to have more points of view, not to be stuck in simplifications or bubbles, because reality is a very complex thing.

The manipulation is also powered by the tools. According to neuroscience in front of a screen our critical thinking slows down. Explains what happens to me?

Of course, when we shake our feeds, on average they are between 9 and 12 hours, do you realize?

Yes.

Here in this period of time we carry out a compulsive activity that lowers our critical knowledge capacity. It is a natural gesture, we almost do not notice the fact that we are shaking but our brain collects all information.

Can we talk about visual hypnosis?

Somehow yes, because not only slows down our critical thinking, but Everything remains in our memory. Each stimulation creates a cognitive product, an opinion on a fact, a political candidate, we do not pay attention but we store. If I hear one who says the Italians first, it is a background voice that insinuates itself and then becomes real in our head. So it does enormous damage because we change your mind without even realizing it.

Who is the main victim of this process?

I would say the deep people that we are all a little. It makes us reflect that first the deep people was classified by intellectuals such as that part of the population who lived in the bowels of the territory, with a low schooling. Today it is different, because the social context has changed through social networks, the profound people, let’s say that in this phase it is that group of subjects who have fewer tools, therefore that they have less culture, which have less literacy. But in the end as I said we are all the deep people. I too who work in this area are not immune to manipulation.

The University of Oxford has chosen as a word of 2024 Brian Rot. The brain that rotates by looking at the social networks. Will there be permanent damage?

There are already, today the numbers tell us that the new generations are more difficult to build a logical thoughtto understand what is written in a text, to contextualize, and the artificial intelligence that weakens our ability to learn is taking over. Without we realize We lose cognitive skills every day.