Saturday, July 5, 2014
Seven Per Cent
According to a recent Gallup Poll - that's the number - 7% - of Americans "trust" Congress ... I find that believable ... how 'bout you? Let's re-phrase that down to an individual ... what that basically says is I almost never believe my member of congress ... for me that's true ... "my" congressman ... I don't believe him at all ... my senator one I believe over 70% of the time ... the other I believe 0% percent of the time ... what are your numbers?
Wednesday, July 2, 2014
A Hard Past ... A Difficult Life ...
Do you know anyone ... including yourself ... that given an incentive ... is unable to describe their lives as "difficult" ... do you know anyone that is unable to empathize with the hardships of others based on their own hardships?
Monday, June 30, 2014
Fake Posts By Facebook
Jokingly, about two years ago, I suggested that the technology at facebook would lead to facebook posting phony posts ... posts that, based on your profile and where you clicked and what you "liked" and key words in previous real posts ... posts that "sound like" something you'd post ... now comes this following story ... was my joke so far-fetched?
What happens when "your words" are no longer your words?
What happens when you're reduced to less than a number?
I really am curious ...
http://www.businessinsider.com/facebook-study-emotional-states-transfer-2014-6 (pulled on 6/30/14)
Facebook's data scientists conducted a massive experiment where it messed with people's feeds and proved that longer-lasting moods, like happiness or depression, can be transferred across the social network.
The company tweaked the Newsfeed algorithms of 689,003 unwitting Facebook users, so that people were seeing an abnormally low number of either positive or negative posts.
In a recently published study, the scientists say they found that when people saw fewer positive posts on their feeds, they produced fewer positive posts and instead wrote more negative posts. On the flip side, when scientists reduced the number of negative posts on a person's newsfeed, those individuals became more positive themselves.
"Emotional states can be transferred to others via emotional contagion, leading people to experience the same emotions without their awareness," study authors Adam Kramer, Jamie Guillory, and Jeffrey Hancock write. "We provide experimental evidence that emotional contagion occurs without direct interaction between people (exposure to a friend expressing an emotion is sufficient), and in the complete absence of nonverbal cues."
This idea is interesting in and of itself, but the AV Club's William Hughes also points out that the study highlights something that most users probably don't think about: By agreeing to the Facebook's Data Use Policy when you sign up, you're automatically giving it permission to include you in big
psychological experiments like this, without your knowledge.
Facebook says it does research like this experiment to figure out how to make the content people see on Facebook as relevant as possible. A spokesperson sent us the following comment:
"This research was conducted for a single week in 2012 and none of the data used was associated with a specific person’s Facebook account. We do research to improve our services and to make the content people see on Facebook as relevant and engaging as possible. A big part of this is understanding how people respond to different types of content, whether it’s positive or negative in tone, news from friends, or information from pages they follow. We carefully consider what research we do and have a strong internal review process. There is no unnecessary collection of people’s data in connection with these research initiatives and all data is stored securely."
(Hat-tip to Rami Ismail who tweeted the study.)
Read more: http://www.businessinsider.com/facebook-study-emotional-states-transfer-2014-6#ixzz369MRjz8h
What happens when "your words" are no longer your words?
What happens when you're reduced to less than a number?
I really am curious ...
http://www.businessinsider.com/facebook-study-emotional-states-transfer-2014-6 (pulled on 6/30/14)
Facebook's data scientists conducted a massive experiment where it messed with people's feeds and proved that longer-lasting moods, like happiness or depression, can be transferred across the social network.
The company tweaked the Newsfeed algorithms of 689,003 unwitting Facebook users, so that people were seeing an abnormally low number of either positive or negative posts.
In a recently published study, the scientists say they found that when people saw fewer positive posts on their feeds, they produced fewer positive posts and instead wrote more negative posts. On the flip side, when scientists reduced the number of negative posts on a person's newsfeed, those individuals became more positive themselves.
"Emotional states can be transferred to others via emotional contagion, leading people to experience the same emotions without their awareness," study authors Adam Kramer, Jamie Guillory, and Jeffrey Hancock write. "We provide experimental evidence that emotional contagion occurs without direct interaction between people (exposure to a friend expressing an emotion is sufficient), and in the complete absence of nonverbal cues."
This idea is interesting in and of itself, but the AV Club's William Hughes also points out that the study highlights something that most users probably don't think about: By agreeing to the Facebook's Data Use Policy when you sign up, you're automatically giving it permission to include you in big
psychological experiments like this, without your knowledge.
Facebook says it does research like this experiment to figure out how to make the content people see on Facebook as relevant as possible. A spokesperson sent us the following comment:
"This research was conducted for a single week in 2012 and none of the data used was associated with a specific person’s Facebook account. We do research to improve our services and to make the content people see on Facebook as relevant and engaging as possible. A big part of this is understanding how people respond to different types of content, whether it’s positive or negative in tone, news from friends, or information from pages they follow. We carefully consider what research we do and have a strong internal review process. There is no unnecessary collection of people’s data in connection with these research initiatives and all data is stored securely."
(Hat-tip to Rami Ismail who tweeted the study.)
Read more: http://www.businessinsider.com/facebook-study-emotional-states-transfer-2014-6#ixzz369MRjz8h
Saturday, June 28, 2014
I wanted to make a difference ...
I wanted to make a difference - for goodness -
So, I spoke loudly into the microphone
To everyone
... and I only made a fool of myself
.... no one said anything - good
I wanted to make a difference - for goodness -
So, I turned to my neighbors and co-workers
and spoke loudly in the public forums available
To my neighbors and co-workers
... and I only made a fool of myself
..... no one said anything - supportive
I wanted to make a difference - for goodness -
So, I turned to my closest circle and family
and spoke less loudly ... to them ... directly
... and I've heard - from my closest circle and family
..... I only made a fool of myself
......... no one said anything - supportive
I wanted to make a difference - for goodness -
I spoke loudly to myself
and I made a difference
No one saw it
... but I made a difference for good
So, I spoke loudly into the microphone
To everyone
... and I only made a fool of myself
.... no one said anything - good
I wanted to make a difference - for goodness -
So, I turned to my neighbors and co-workers
and spoke loudly in the public forums available
To my neighbors and co-workers
... and I only made a fool of myself
..... no one said anything - supportive
I wanted to make a difference - for goodness -
So, I turned to my closest circle and family
and spoke less loudly ... to them ... directly
... and I've heard - from my closest circle and family
..... I only made a fool of myself
......... no one said anything - supportive
I wanted to make a difference - for goodness -
I spoke loudly to myself
and I made a difference
No one saw it
... but I made a difference for good
Thursday, June 26, 2014
It is an odd thing, I find, the things I post on facebook that get lots of response and those that get no response ... there is a pattern ... and it is not encouraging toward individuality ... it supports homogeneity ... which, I think, is the opposite of political correctness ... weird, huh?
Sunday, November 17, 2013
The Animals’ School – By George Reavis
A Story About Recognizing Your Strengths
They adopted an activity curriculum of running, climbing, swimming and flying. To make it easier to administer, all of the animals took all of the subjects.
The duck was excellent at swimming. In fact, he was better than his instructor. However, he made only passing marks in flying and was very poor at running. Since he was so slow in running, he had to drop his swimming class and do extra running. This caused his webbed feet to become badly worn, meaning that he dropped to an average mark in swimming. Fortunately, “average” was acceptable, therefore nobody worried about it – except the duck.
The rabbit started at the top of the class in running, but developed a nervous twitch in his leg muscles because he had so much makeup work to do in swimming.
The rabbit started at the top of the class in running, but developed a nervous twitch in his leg muscles because he had so much makeup work to do in swimming.
Saturday, July 20, 2013
The Will To Fail
I was reading a Norman Vincent Peale book when I happened upon the phrase/concept "The Will To Fail". The following was retrieved from http://18mind.com/mind/wake_up_and_live_the_will_to_fail on 7/20/13 ... the video of the 1961 Katie Lee song was retrieved the same date on youtube and in about two and a half minutes, with humor, portrays and explains what the concept may look like in action ...
Furthermore, we first experience and then later turn to realize the process of growth in ourselves. The individual, emerges from childhood into adolescence, from adolescence into maturity; and at each of these crisis we find that the activities and interests of the old period are being replaced by those of the new, that Nature is preparing the organism for its new role in the world, is actually reconciling us to the new demands on us by showing us pleasures and rewards in the oncoming state which will replace those we must abandon.
The Will to Fail
December 28, 2008 by gus
FROM the disciples of Schopenhauer and Freud, of Nietzche and Adler, we have all become conversant with such phrases as the Will to Live and the Will to Power. These phrases, representing---sometimes to the verge of overstatement---drives of the organism towards fulfillment and growth, correspond to truths of experience with which each of us is familiar. We have seen children struggle to make themselves and their personalities felt; as young people we have contended for a chance to try our own emerging forces; after long illness we have felt the tide of returning strength in our veins. We know that any average man caught in unfortunate circumstances will put up with poverty, distress, humiliation with conditions which an onlooker will sometimes consider as much worse than death; and that only the presence of a will to continue living can account for the tenacity with which a man in such circumstances clings to the mere right to breathe and exist.
Furthermore, we first experience and then later turn to realize the process of growth in ourselves. The individual, emerges from childhood into adolescence, from adolescence into maturity; and at each of these crisis we find that the activities and interests of the old period are being replaced by those of the new, that Nature is preparing the organism for its new role in the world, is actually reconciling us to the new demands on us by showing us pleasures and rewards in the oncoming state which will replace those we must abandon.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
