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One thing that does genuienly worry me about the modern world is how much "junk" information we are all exposed to. I want you to imagine your mind as a garden and information (words, videos, stories) as plants. Of course, you need good plants like flowers and trees, but you need to be very, very careful which plants you select. Because if you start putting just any old plant into your garden you'll find it will get chocked with weeds pretty quickly, and the whole thing will die. The same is true of information. Mindlessly scrolling through social media is essentially taking random seeds and constantly throwing them around your garden. The whole thing's going to die if you do that. The Norse had a very healthy attitude to words, in that they literally held them sacred and throwing around "junk" information was actually seen as a serious crime. I think people should consciously think through what they're going to read, or if they absolutely must, listen to, before they do it. Whatever you choose to read or think about, I think that at the very least people should make a conscious, thought through decision before they do that. I think it is very dangerous to allow algorithms or social media platforms determine what you think about. We all have a limited number of things we can read or listen to in our lives, we shouldn't be wasting them.

To quote Arthur Schopenhauer

The art of not reading is a very important one. It consists in not taking an interest in whatever may be engaging the attention of the general public at any particular time. When some political or ecclesiastical pamphlet, or novel, or poem is making a great commotion, you should remember that he who writes for fools always finds a large public. A precondition for reading good books is not reading bad ones — life is short.

(To anyone wondering, for the time being I have sadly dropped the "eccentric, whimsical yet somehow endearing" brony persona, and thankfully have shaken off the "END IS NIGH!" Preacher persona. I actually much, much prefer being the "whimsical brony", I honestly wish I could be like that all the time and frankly I think the world needs more people like that, not just me. But there are times when you have to be serious as well.)

A very healthy attitude?

If you made a comment about someone's character, even if it was true, this person would be allowed to penalize you or even get you outlawed. To the Norse, reputation was everything, not truth.

I'm also curious as to what you define specifically as "junk" information. Because I've noticed that whenever you've discussed what people should be staying away from, you tend to not expand on what people should be avoiding.

And yes, you have given the reason of "not wanting to direct them to these things" but to be honest, if you will not explain the difference between what people should consume vs. not consume, it's a bit pointless to make these statements. For example...

Person A: "Hey, stay away from this guy."

Person B: "Uh, what guy?"

Person A: "Can't tell you. I don't want you to seek him out."

Person B: "Then how am I supposed to avoid him?"

You see? Jesus Christ gave people clear examples of what was good vs. what was evil, and he understood that it would ultimately be up to humanity to decide what they wanted to do. By being vague about what exactly it is people should refrain from, you're not actually convincing anyone to stay away from it or making any type of impact.

1. Obviously, the Norse did not have a very healthy attitude on everything when it comes to making comments. But for the purposes of a discussion surrounding "taking words seriously" vs. "not taking them seriously", the analogy is absolutely apt.

2. The distinction between "choosing to read a book on a topic" vs. "mindlessly scrolling through social media" seems to me to be an extremely obvious and important one. Again, for the purposes of this discussion, I'm not going to get into debates with me arguing exactly what topics people should or should not consume. It's why I've completely logged out of all my other accounts on every other social network, so that the algorithm does not dictate what I think about.

As for "making any type of impact", oh believe me, I think I know how to make an impact on people. It's just that I really, really do not want to do it again. I made this post because I genuinely think it might help and if it doesn't have any effect on you, maybe you don't need it, but that doesn't mean that's true for everyone.

Any type of meaningful argument for or against something is going to have examples of what to be for/against.Otherwise it's not a discussion, it is a vague allusion. 
 

An yes, there is a difference between reading a book and mindlessly scrolling, but you also stated that people should be extremely selective about what they read, to the point where you posted a quote about not choosing to read books that are "bad" for you. But you're not explaining how or what it is that is the problem exactly. 
 

This is why people get annoyed, flutter. You made these long posts and statements that ultimately say nothing at all, then evade any type of clarification while acting as though these statements are going to change anyone's mind.

This is literally the EXACT thing you were doing while you were manic, and I'm not fully convinced that you aren't still.

See a psychiatrist flutter. Please.

If I'm upsetting people, I'll stop. I seem to be very good at doing that, lately.

We just want you to see a doctor and get better. I know you have real world commitments, but it should only take a few hours to book and attend an appointment.

"This is a little funny because you seem to spend a LOT more time on the internet than most people here, and in ways that have not been healthy for you, Flutter."

Indeed. So I think I probably understand what I'm talking about in this regard more than most.

"I hope you're spending at least some of that time copying over your stories anyway. Sherb and Sent made all these exceptions to help you out with that using a very glitchy area of the site, and you seem to be just kind of spastically fucking around for entire days at a time."

Believe it or not, I do have real world commitments. Making a few random forum posts is one thing, but once those real-world things are done (and they will be done soon), of course I will get around to the stories.

I wasn't expecting to have a full manic religious breakdown. It's not that I'm refusing to see a doctor, it's that I genuinely have real world commitments that I have been seriously neglecting due to the aforementioned breakdown.

" "and this is how you learn to be like me" is that, to be blunt, right now absolutely nobody wants that. "

Thank you for that, and I mean that very sincerely. Because after that manic breakdown I just had, I am trying quite hard to think about things that make me sad to try and cool everything down. And that is one of the things that actually does make me very sad, because the reason I can't interact with anyone in real life or online is that I know, deep down, that nobody really wants to be like me.

... That's not a bad thing. I highly doubt anybody wants to be like me either. I wouldn't want anybody to aspire to be like me. Most people are happy to just be themselves.

I know I'm being a bit sharp with everyone here, but this topic does really make me sad because I wasted some of my life doing this, and I really don't want to see it happen to anyone here.

I think people should choose topics for themselves that they are interested in, and rather than unconsciously subscribe to forums or online videos guided by algorithms to manipulate their interest, people should read books or at least look up these things manually rather than unconsciously listen or consume them.

Let me guess... You subscribed to a bunch of MLP fan forums and found nothing but porn?

I spend pretty much 0% of my time scrolling through social media, so I think I'm safe. ^_^

Uhh... I don't know. Depends what he means by "junk information". I mean, if he's talking about, "Obama is the anti-christ", "Covid isn't real", "Vaccines give you autism", "The world is flat", "Climate change is a hoax", "5G gives you cancer" and "The Sandy Hook school shooting never happened", then yeah, "junk information" is very much a real thing. :p

Algorithms, as a general trend, might show some good things and some bad things, but the general trend overtime is towards "bad" things, because "panic" just is an easy way to get peoples' attention. I honestly believe that interacting with algorithms, at all, is bad. This, as with everything I am saying, is a long-term kind of thing, because statements like "They can funnel people towards good things just as well as harmful ones, they're just a tool." show me that you're clearly not considering the long term effects of such things. 

And I think Iris is a perfect example of what happens to people who think like this. The blatant, pointless nitpicking which shows me he does not understand even the most basic concept of "metaphor" or "allegory" , the casual mean-spirited insults. Genuinely, the reason why I post this is because I do not want people to turn into this sort of thing. But of course, at this point, I'm just glad I have absolutely, positively changed some peoples' lives for the better, and that I am directly responsible for creating a world with fewer people like Iris in it. My conscience is clear at last, thank God.

"How dare the algorithm show me things I enjoy!" It will slowly, imperceptibly turn everything you enjoy to rot. 

Just, read my Gazette interview when it comes out and watch this video here from someone who understands what I'm talking about ( https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vY2B0b6Gc88 )

I don't think I will be visiting the forums much anymore, you'll all be happy about that. It's like, I actually do enjoy quite a bit of the mocking and insults, like EndMaster's and especially Mizal's because I do think they are actually quite eerily insightful. But people like Iris...this is just levels of utterly infantile brainrot that I can't deal with. And when a brony is calling you "infantile", then you know something is seriously wrong. It's people like him that make me feel like a babysitter, and make me say things like I did before, really, it is.

Iris is a chick. So definitely not a brony.

A pegasister, maybe. But not a brony.

I think flutter is supposed to be the brony in this scenario.

Pretty sure everything Briar mentioned Flutter believes in anyway.

Look, if you're going to go with the infantile, childish, brainrot insults, at least use the word "malodorus", not "odorous". "Odorous" is clearly a neutral term, not technically a term of insult.

See? I've educated you now, for free! I don't expect thanks, but this does help to increase my karma and that's reward enough for me.

Flutter. Lord of the Rings is on the banned books list for promoting witchcraft, paganism, and Satanism.

My Little Pony has been criticized by many Christian groups for magic and featuring LGBQT characters.

Yet... if they see it as junk, does that mean you have to?

What you define as "junk information" isn't what other people perceive as junk. You believing that you have an improved viewpoint and wider field of study over theologians who have spent decades studying their religion and society... well, increased ego is a sign of mania. 

She might be thinking of "odious"

I think you've hit the nail on the head for what I was going to say in far too many words for this particular thread topic, actually. A lot of information is pretty neutral in its alignment and quality, and input of significant depth needs to be engaged with digestion and application of similar or even greater depth in order for that information to really be worth something in the mind of its recipient. It's part of why I've intentionally avoided discussing these ideas with so-called "thought narcotics" and such even though I don't think what he's diagnosed about them is a real thing as much as it is his personal icks bleeding into his idiosyncratic philosophy. I find it exceedingly ironic that Flutter is willing to draw a line around information-- Not specifically false, just "bad", poor quality, contrived-- as something to be avoided, when much of the intended audience, if given the choice to draw that line, would rule out a lot of the storytelling he's used to reverse-engineer his version of Christianity as "junk information" themselves. It's a strange time to play the elitism card.

bruh

More like... "THE END IS NEIGH!"

I really liked this one.