Go to ground.news/nutshell to compare news coverage from around the world and across the political spectrum to get a well-rounded view on important issues.

The most annoying thing is being acutely aware of all of this and seeing it happen without any agency whatsoever.

“Unfortunately, your brain is stupid” I 100% agree. Thank you Kurzgesagt.

Deleted all my social media off my phone. Deleted UKposts as an app. I still have access to it, but I force myself to have to hop on my computer in order to see what I want to. Works like a charm, I’m happier and now I have more time for the things I’m interested in.

also, social media has created an atmosphere where real world issues become incredibly easy to digest and know about, expanding the amount of information that our brains can handle at once. videos about wars, genocide, and other gruesome things that are so easily accessible to people of all ages changes the way our brains grow and think, and can make those who are naturally more empathetic depressed and anxious about the world around us. I grew up in this generation without remembering a whole world without social media, and I can say that our brains are not meant to function by feeling every single negative thing this world has. it’s overwhelming.

"One model that seemed to work well was the pre social media internet OLD people might remember." *SHOTS FIRED* Great video, and I enjoyed the ad at the end.

My mom always taught me that it's no one person's responsibility to fix the world, but it's everyone's responsibility to not make it worse.

it's really terrifying when you realize that you spent a good chunk of your life trapped in a virtual world, i'm not mature enough for the real world, it's frightening to me...

I think the worst thing about social media is when you begin to realize how narcissistic and egotistical people become when they're behind a screen. You ironically see more flaws in humanity despite only seeing people's highlight reels.

Had this problem when I was stuck inside for a few years and didn't really socialize IRL. Then when I got a job and talked to a lot of people I was extremely pleasantly surprised that people are actually normal. Being perpetually online, or even just thinking that the online world is representative of the real one, is such a hellish trap, and you might not even realize it.

I find it absolutely bizarre that parents are willing to put an iPad or phone in a baby's face and let them scroll endlessly through TikTok. I genuinely worry about what this effect will have on future generations.

The curse of the internet is having to know what I don't need to know, and be angry abouth things I don't need to be angry about.

Social media is like a text message, any comments/messages can be misinterpreted because there is no tone. Face to face communication always kept things in check. People dropped friends and family over social media posts and it’s hilariously sad

I can't believe my nostalgia for the old internet is actually justified I miss when each website catered to a niche. It made it so much easier to interact with higher quality content and creations.

I'm glad someone is acknowledging this. Exploring the internet has become more stressful and discouraging to me lately because of people' behavior and attitude, and all the negativity, propaganda, and algorithmic curation that's constantly being pushed.

This is why I deleted Tik Tok and Instagram, only kept snapchat to message friends and only use youtube for informational videos. Once I started spending my time reading, going outside and practicing self care, I found self love and feel smarter.

i think another problem is how, during covid, the internet/social media switched from being something we all use when we want to use it to being something we're all dependent on for work, school, communicating with others, etc. i honestly feel like everything becoming more convenient by being able to do it all on the internet has kinda changed how we live everyday life for the worse

I remember loving forums or sites with "affiliate" banners, you could jump site to site! Social media was a mistake

Social media makes you even angry at people irl, thinking they're constantly biased and against your opinions and makes you be defensive all the time. When you talk to real people in real life in real places, you realize people are not that evil or aggressive (except for some crazy people out there) and you can actually cooperate with them even if you don't share any opinions because they're actually normal people who are not that extreme. Call it facade, call it whatever, but it's safer outside than inside social media.

The worst thing about this is even if you are trying to better society it will only work if everyone is on the same page as you

A drama is currently unfolding in a fandom i love, and i am of the opinion that is widely considered the "wrong one" within that drama. All the fighting and all the opinions were genuinely stressing me out so much... And i don't think UKposts could have recommended me a better video. It genuinely resonates with me so much. Maybe it's because it gives me a logical reason as to WHY I'm so upset about this... But it's like I'm getting closure. So, thanks for making me feel slightly better about this whole thing.

This ending really got to me. I miss the "old internet" so much, even extinct social networks (like orkut) were more community-focused. The internet was supposed to be a giant library, not an endless street market, with everyone shoving products in your face.

i actually really hope the internet "devolves" into its earlier state - connections with people online felt more real, and everything seemed nicer and more passionate. now its a massive cesspool that more often than not makes you angry or sad. maybe we can revive old era internet

Thats why I deleted Twitter, It started to make me very angry and even racist. I kinda miss it now but Im much happier.

Social media always makes me angry especially instegram and UKposts short it's just full of toxic people that try to advertise their political views that I don't give a damn about

Spot on! The internet truly embodies a mix of blessing and curse, all rolled into one. It’s a perfect example of how something can be so incredibly useful and yet so challenging at the same time.

This made me really want to go outside and lay on the grass. I need to smell the earth it's been so long

This is why debate is so important. Logic and reason combined with perspective is the way forward. Looking at both sides of the same veiw.

As someone who grew up with the earlier internet, I personally hated how massive things grew as it quickly turned into things that encouraged all of this.

As a public school teacher, in a district where all the kids have learnt to use a smart device before a pencil, I can tell you that the Internet has messed up today's youth. I've been teaching for 20+ years, and kids nowadays cannot focus like before, get anxiety when separated from their devices, and feel more awkward in their skin due to a sense of reality that is warped by social media. It's terrible to see this shift and makes our lives as educators harder.

This is so true. All this toxicity in this platform has just grew and grew. Long ago, I didn't see any arguments online or anything. But now, it feels like I'm just flooded with arguments. Recently I saw a hater hating on a math video saying "So worst teacher 😒🤮" , starting an argument. I'm trying to avoid too much screen time, and this is so helpful. I should not watch those youtube shorts because it just sucks me in. Thank you Kurzgesagt.

Moving away from mass social media and joining smaller forums like I used to prior to the large social media sites has been so beneficial. Seeing this video helped me understand that decision and makes so much more sense now.

I've been stewing for years on the idea that all of our conflicts are caused by our brains' unbreakable habit of sorting. It was super gratifying to hear this channel describe "social sorting" as an actual thing.

This video somehow managed to change my entire outlook on the internet.

I've been off of social media save for youtube and discord for years, and this information makes a whole realm of difference. Thank you, Kurzgesagt

I need a t-shirt that says “your brain is stupid”

It's kinda nice after hearing for so many years "you're isolated and sheltered in your worldviews" that studies have found the opposite. Personally, I'm regularly taken aback by very different and sometimes radical worldviews to mine on internet websites, comments and social media. It makes sense as when I'm with family/friends it feels like a break as their worldviews feel less deeply contrasting than the internet.

I strongly feel these types of lessons should be taught in school from an early age. People need to learn to examine their own thought patterns and think critically about their own beliefs, biases, and assumptions. They need to learn to think from the "other side" and not take their own positions for granted. They need to learn to be dispassionate and reasonable when assessing what to believe, and who is worth listening to. Make these lessons part of our children's upbringing. My generation is only half as likely to smoke as our parents thanks to institutionalized anti-smoking campaigns and education. In the same way, maybe we can teach the next generation to avoid becoming victims of their own stupid brains.

i find it hard to believe that online filter bubbles don't have a radicalizing or ideologically isolating effect when people i know in real life tell me the absolute batshit crazy shit they believe they saw on their extremely personalized fyp

I'm glad you ended with the note we're all on the same team. I've been in many relationships throughout my years and funny enough, most of the people I've been the closest with are the opposite of me politically. We learn from each other and gain a better understanding of the world, even if we still disagree.

The "old internet" is so important to me because I didn't have many friends as a kid and through a group of people I shared an interest with, that I found from word of mouth and not an algorithm, I manage to spend my adolescent with people who understood me the way classmates hadn't. In addition, this helped me find people from other kinds of families and expand my world view slowly without being overwhelming. I know that if I was born just a few years later, I would have had a much more difficult time managing my own thoughts because I would never have grown up in a community that allows a space to mentally breath and adjust.

I’m so glad this whole issue is getting more well known. My mental health in general has been much better since I stopped caring about social media and internet drama.

Funny enough, I treat people on Discord exactly as I would in real life: polite, friendly, and honest. Not virtue signaling, just saying that some of these are so direct that it still lets you interact as people before other people The best part is that it's reciprocated! At least in the servers I'm in. We mess with each other, sure, but at the end of the day, we make sure that we stay on good terms and keep the online community we're in a net positive.

Amazing - really liked this video. I recall early internet, I was in a couple of forums and internet was quite simple. Today as I search for the best way to say practise music, I get drowned in at least 5 different opposing ways to do it, each with a large following, and it’s mega confusing. I guess I miss the pre internet times where you’d just ask your teacher, parents, best friend and whilst not the ultimately best answer, it was simple. :-)

Something that is also scary is how the Internet/social media is not just built to be addictive (and often people turn to being addicted to the Internet/social media to make up for something they're missing IRL), but they're also getting more and more integrated into becoming necessities for a lot of people. For example, a lot of job searching and maintenance is exclusively done online, and people that would try to avoid being online would also struggle to avoid making a living for themselves in our capitalistic society unless they were online. A lot of students in schools/colleges also turn to learning way more online than in-person, especially since a lot of education systems need a long overdue overhaul.

The worst part is, a lot of people who sees this will likely not recognize that they themselves can/are feed(ing) the issue. I can see huge swaths of people thinking "Yeah, that's exactly whats wrong with them, they lack the self-awareness that me and my peers have!" (The irony will be rich).

I've found that what I see on social media is a reflection of me not the world. Once I got rid of all negativity and only commented and engaged in wholesome content all I ever see is a beautiful world and people on social media

We had so much fun growing up in the 80s in a small city. Kids still played on the sidewalks. Now they dont dare. Toxic culture.

This is precisely why I've lately started to become more social in the real world. The world isn't nearly as bad when you experience it in real life as the social media makes it out to be. I feel like my life has been going way better ever since I reduced my social media consumption. I still use it every once in a while but nowhere near as much as I used to.

Glad you guys explained what I couldn't put into words, the older internet just didn't want our attention it just existed because people liked sharing stuff

Sometimes I think about how much more upset extremities made me feel years before, compared to how today rather than concerned I feel almost only agitated. I hope one day I can come back to being my past self, at least on that plane

I didn't find the dismissal of the filter bubble to be particularly convincing. It's something that holds up pretty well logically, has some heavy investigative reporting behind it, and deserves a bit more explanation than you're giving it. It makes complete sense that the real world isolation is more impactful and perhaps more prevalent, but I think you were too quick to dismiss the concept here. Keep going on this great topic. I've been hungry for more research here for quite some time. Thanks!

I used to think that the main reason why the internet is such a toxic place is because of most people feeling anonymous and that can make people show less empathy and also be more likely to say or do bad things to other people but this video shows much more than that and explains it really well

This video needs to be shown in schools

The internet was thought to save humanity much time and efforts in knowledge and business sides. Socially, it was much praised how it would bring different people together, spreading understanding and peace among them. Now look how it turned into, and sorry how we ended up with such ego-centerizm. Enough how people are losing even common sense and younger generations are easily showing aggression!

This explains really well the phenomenon of "react videos". people don't want to be on the internet alone, they want to share the moment with someone they identify with

The bit about the old internet and forums really brought a tear to my eye. I remember vividly the discussions that were had, and how engaging it was to talk to like-minded people across the world. You actually made friends with the people you engaged with frequently. I really miss those days.

Good thing I never made a Twitter, TikTok, or Facebook account...

Im actually pretty much addicted to the internet and I always tend to leave a comment everywhere . When I see something I don’t like I immediately disagree , yeah , I’m honestly embarrassed but I had to say it . Social media changes people , and even when I’m super shy and introverted in real life - in the internet I feel like I have an complete different personality . I feel like people spend more time online nowadays .. because they don’t know how to spend it in real life .

I'm glad someone is acknowledging this.

It's insane how rapid the internet has changed the world within the last 20 years. That number isn't even a lot when you think about it, especially since the internet has evolved so quickly and continues to do so 😮

Disconnect to connect.

Here are 20 logical fallacies identified in the transcript: 1. Hasty Generalization: The video quickly attributes civil unrest and increased extremism to social media without considering other significant factors. 2. False Cause (Post Hoc): It suggests that because social media usage has increased, it must be the cause of greater political polarization, without considering other variables that could influence this trend. 3. Appeal to Fear: The video uses the fear of extreme political division and violence to emphasize the negative impacts of social media. 4. Straw Man: The argument against "filter bubbles" is set up based on a simplified version of what critics of social media claim, only to be debunked later, which may not accurately represent the critics' full arguments. 5. Overgeneralization: It generalizes that real-life interactions are less ideologically diverse than online interactions without sufficient evidence for all contexts or individuals. 6. Begging the Question: The script assumes the premise that social media inherently leads to extreme viewpoints without proving that social media is the direct cause of radicalization. 7. Cherry Picking: Selects studies that support the view that ideological isolation is rare online, while potentially ignoring studies that might show increased polarization due to social media. 8. Appeal to Novelty: Emphasizes new research that contradicts previous assumptions about social media without critically evaluating the robustness of this new research. 9. False Dichotomy: Implies that either social media is causing ideological isolation, or it is not affecting us at all, ignoring the possibility that its effects could be more nuanced. 10. Appeal to Ignorance: Suggests that because we do not see filter bubbles in certain studies, they must not be a significant issue, which ignores the complexity of how filter bubbles might work differently for different users. 11. Slippery Slope: Argues that the trends on social media could lead to the dissolution of democratic social glue, implying a direct path from online interaction to democratic breakdown without intermediate steps. 12. Red Herring: Introduces unrelated comparisons, like the transition from tribal societies to modern cities, which distract from the main argument about social media's current impact. 13. Circular Reasoning: The claim that brains are "stupid" and not evolved to handle social media is used to explain why social media is problematic, which in turn is used to justify the claim about our brains. 14. Misleading Vividness: Uses vivid descriptions of historical community bonds and their contrast with online interactions to emphasize a point about social media's harm, which may not accurately represent the average user's experience. 15. Moralistic Fallacy: Assumes that because social media could lead to more empathetic interactions, it should do so, ignoring that social media platforms are often designed primarily for engagement, not moral improvement. 16. Bandwagon Fallacy: Implies that because many people believe social media is damaging our democratic fabric, it must be true. 17. Appeal to Authority: References researchers and historical anecdotes as definitive proof without critically evaluating the evidence they provide. 18. Black-and-White Fallacy: Presents the issue of social media influence as either entirely bad or entirely good, ignoring the potential for mixed effects. 19. False Analogy: Compares social media interaction to historical community interactions without acknowledging significant differences in context and scale. 20. Loaded Question: Frames questions in a way that presumes negative impacts of social media, which biases the discussion towards certain conclusions. These fallacies, if unaddressed, could lead to a biased understanding of social media's impact, overly simplifying complex social phenomena and potentially leading to ineffective solutions.

I’ve been saying this for years. Social Media was the worst thing to happen to us. I’d love the 90’s internet back.

I'm an 8th grade science teacher. I showed this to my homeroom class in hopes to make the world a better place. This video explains everything I've ever wanted to put into words about our opposing views as society. Thank you Kurzgesagt. I will always rely on you to keep things real. 143

Seeing this video made me realize I'm very glad I made the choice to never pick a side, I've been saying for years humanity is like a baby trying to swim across an Olympic pool, now we desperately need to get back out of the water and actually learn and grow before we swim again.

I appreciate you make an opportunity to find such a great news site. I like Ground News so much.

I totally agree with this. What I’ve learned after being chronically addicted to the internet is that you can disagree with someone without hating them. I can hate the idea of something but not hate the people who don’t hate it. We kind of just have to understand that everyone is different and there are so many different opinions and ideas that we just have to deal with.

This explains my feeling about why I disliked social media, that I couldn't quite place. I saw people get far, far more narrow minded and even I cannot help but feel I was more narrow minded when I used social media. I quit and I began to flat-out say no, and started digging on two sides half the time. I ended up coming across a youtube channel(not this one) that actually seemed surprisingly wholesome, with its main poster actually highlighting an exact problem I had with some gaslighting trolls behavior, and how they also had contrasting views yet still got along. I came to the conclusion that, in the earlier pre-social media days of the internet that old people like me remember(damn you Kursgesagt! DAMN YOU!), we were happier on the internet because we didn't have to be online 24/7 in the name of some idiots profit. We were happier with smaller communities online.

The annoying thing is that we are all aware of this toxicity and burden, but really we don't take any action just to prevent for some least. This is sad, but also the bitter reality of today. Anyway, we are all under influence of social media, and we cannotdo anything about it unless we assess it in a way that would benefit us.

I disagree with the bubble thing. When I am on youtube my extrem opinions becomes stronger. When i discuss with people at my workplace i get oppinions i never see online

I got rid of all my social media at the beginning of the year. The thing that was my tipping point was 2 things: Realizing that people that talk about finances/economics (I'm an accountant) never know what they're talking about. So I just sat there and screamed into nothing trying to correct every comment I saw thinking that I would some day make a difference or something. That, and the fact that I would never know these people existed if social media did not exist and there's a high chance that I could have been arguing with just a straight up child. I'm 26, and the thought of me getting mad and ANYTHING a minor says online and trying to dunk on them filled me with so much shame, that I just got rid of social media. You don't need it. There is so much to do OUTSIDE of your phone. I think we honestly forget that. If you ACTUALLY look, there's so much free stuff to do, and even more if you're willing to spend some money. Get off of social media. Make yourself happy; you deserve it

Crazy how obvious this was the moment you pointed it out. Of course the problem isn't that we're too isolated, it's that we're too connected to too many people at once, and our brains can't handle it.

How can I have an existential crisis when these animations are so freaking adorable? I feel so….. conflicted.

I literally had this convo with my sister that why dont we see people as individuals and not seperate them in a box just because we had one bad interaction with a specific community and then i saw this

I'm 23 and recently deleted all social media except UKposts and WhatsApp. It's been amazing for my mental health! Social media definitely has its place, but it stopped being worth it for me.

“Unfortunately, your brain is stupid” is probably the most accurate sentence describing mankind I have ever seen Edit: guys, I don’t mean to be that guy, but please stop the civil war in the replies

Ever since social media became popular I've felt there started to be something wrong with people and I couldn't put my finger on it thats i never fully accepted it as normal as most people did Being constantly connected to everything all the time and chasing validation from strangers while also constantly comparing yourself to them can't be a good thing It can be a good thing if you using right and in moderation but most people don't And thats the problem

Hi, first of all your video is great, secondly it make think a lot. I spend too much time on my phone and social media and i was think that too those days, I wanna thank you for that because I was saying my self everything you've told in your video early this day at work. Thanks and count on me to share your video.

This video actually feels so relatable - not seeing social media actually really does make me feel better.

I remember forums. I miss them. A few of them still exist but the rise of social media was simultaneously a great step forward AND a catastrophically terrible development for the internet. The internet itself could probably also have the same thing said of it for humanity in general, but the slightly more separated nature of the early internet made it a lot less unhealthy for our dumb godless ape brains.

i started to write about things and i think that looking at other peoples perspectives and hearing other sides of the story can really help me be more open minded and it even made me realise how even i as a person am similiar to other people whod i thought i wouldnt even agree with! we are all weird human beings! we all have weird system in our brains that makes us who we are and in the end of the day we are all in this small rock we call home.

this also explains to me why it feels so different that i’m young enough that i don’t remember a time before the internet, but old enough that i remember pre-social media internet. at least like mainstream social media and it being talked about like in the news.

A lot of this boils down to my understanding of the internet- when you can’t see a person’s face, they cease to be a person and become a narrative. Pretty tragic really.

"The human brain was not designed to understand the nature of reality" is a statement I wholeheartedly agree with. And yet I believe that understanding is the next step we need to take as a species. The more we see through the primal facade of tribalism and social identity, the more trivial and pointless our biases, bigotry, willful ignorance will become. We are all just scared apes with dangerous toys that we've unleashed (and yet barely understand). All of us need to come together and realize that if we don't "grow up" and evolve past our ancestral past of fear and violence, we will all die out like almost every other creature that has ever walked this planet.

Great work! Thanks for doing this!

I always felt this but kind of brushed it off. This was a good wake up call video. I'm so proud of humans who do the kind of work you do. ❤ thanks so much for this video. I'm sending it to everyone lol

Throughout my entire life, when I first started using the internet I never made a single comment on anything, because everywhere I see and every news I hear from the internet and social media, even in the most simple of arguments I see aggressive, rude, hate speech, toxicity, discrimination, and cyberbullying. I keep seeing how many people are treated so harshly in social media, to people that made terrible actions, accidents, and regrettable mistakes. Once you make a comment, video, or any post about something that many people wont agree, not like, or makes you look like a bad person, you become a target for hate speech, discrimination, and toxicity. For the first time in over 8 years I'm making a comment about something, and I hope that I won't get hated at for making such a personal opinion, having bad grammar, or etc, but if I do then it proves my point. (I'm not only including the internet, I'm also somewhat involving life as a whole.)

I remember someone saying that because everyone is now behind a screen and instead of looking at each other's face directly to communicate, it makes them meaner because there's less repercussion when you say bad things to them and vice versa, whereas if you insulted someone and you see reaction on their face directly, you might be inclined to think more about what you say next

Thank you , i cannot express how much this channel have helped me, our brain needs more of this, less war , tik tok and meaningless conflicts

A phrase that has always helped me recently. (Although I am still human and get angry) "Nothing is one way"

I am so glad that someone with great reach is recommending the 'Old Internet' model. I've been ranting all over the place about how people should be browsing forums and using small websites. I've even used the same explanation that there was less unnecessary conflict because everyone could find their niche, and how things like cancel culture would have no legs since people wouldn't have their whole online life in just one place, and how things like Tumblr getting radicalized (and then Twitter getting radicalized when Tumblr alienated a large amount of their userbase), wouldn't have happened, since people wouldn't have felt social pressure to conform to popular opinion so that they can stay on the site that 'everyone' is using. Way too many people are just hoping for the perfect 'platform' to come along, when in reality you can go and seek out any number of websites that appeal to you, or even set up your own.

It’s so important to be aware of what the Internet does to us as human beings. I know people who basically live on social media and their whole real life views are so abstracted and far from reality. Thank you Kurzgesagt for bringing awareness to this matter.

I'm a Xennial who first started using chat rooms in the 90s and then turned over to forums. Already back then I got partly addicted to it and thought that the tone and expression of views is kinda radical and doesn't reflect reality. I caught myself carrying views which I wouldn't have shared before and it started to scare me. When social media popped up in the mid-2000s I was like wtf this is gonna kill me. I used FB for some while, but then decided to delete it. Except for youtube I'm not an any other social media right now.

I wasn´t even a very active user of social media. I became aware though that it took up too much time, destroyed my attention span and made me unhappy and angry. I couldn´t let it go though. At some point I just managed to stop suddenly for reasons and immediately felt more happy and able to concentrate on work and reading again. I´m never going back :) Unfortunately so many people are still hooked and they look insane to me now.

As an ex-journalist, huge thanks for pointing towards Ground News, it is mind-boggingly useful and the whole polarization of media/society is such an important, yet so very well overlooked topic. Thank you for what you are doing!

Fun internet tip! If people are ever being really crappy to you on the internet, calmly ask them if they feel better having said something like that to you. Won’t work for everyone, but I find that when people are being mean to you online they aren’t thinking of the human that you are. Calling into question their own actions kinda works.

Could one solution be that the algorithms on social media are tweaked to promote less content that are with anger-related emotions? Like promoting the healthy debates, or the open questions, positive and encouraging messages, polite disagreement... while banning (or limiting the outreach of) the more heated comments, personal attacks, insults?

Even when I make some good impression, I can still be excluded from an online community because I misunderstand the fans of an influencer and am suspected of spamming. It's good to have this traditional model of social media, the smaller the better, not too divisive, tough rules. Carefulness is the thing I must learn especially as a social media user.

The other thing with the "old" internet was how shonky it used to be, so the lack of a professional sheen meant it was much easier for people to take things on there with a pinch of salt and not believe the absolute bollocks from it that some do these days