Facebook is not about sharing, it's about competing

By Serge Bronstein
8-3-2013

HUMAN COMPETITION and FACEBOOK as a COMPETITION TOOL

Overview

Most people understand that the world is a competitive place. But, in my opinion, competition is behind virtually everything a human being does. Just as Sigmund Freud stipulated that sexual feelings are the innate driving force of everything people do, so is competitiveness. Nature has ingrained competitiveness in all living creatures. Species not only compete amongst each other, they compete with other species as well. However, competition is highly relative, corresponding to Einstein's theory of relativity. Humans compete with other humans for things that are relative, and change depending on many factors.

In humans, competition is present everywhere. Furthermore, people do everything with the subconscious purpose of being better than others. The goal is not to achieve anything specific, but to be better than the next person. If we look at a 100 meter dash. Your goal is not to run the dash in a specific time, your goal is to run it faster than the fastest human on earth, whatever time that human registers. There is a similar situation with wealth. People are not trying to achieve a specific amount of wealth, they are trying to achieve MORE wealth than others. Wealth is a very relative term. For example, at the dawn of the automobile revolution, people owning a car were considered rich. But now, since cars are so affordable, owning a car has lost prestige.

Competition as it relates to Facebook

There are very few places where human competition is as evident as it is on Facebook. Facebook is a great study in human competitiveness and narcissism, which is a characteristic of competitive people. In fact, Facebook is not about sharing, Facebook is about competing.

Let's dissect the anatomy of a typical Facebook post, a photograph showing the original poster (OP) with friends and members of the opposite sex, smiling and having fun on a night out. Through this post, the OP is subconsciously trying to show that they are better than other people, in essence, competing with them. How? By showing that they have more friends with them. By showing that they are affluent, and able to afford good clothing, drinks, a night out. That they are attractive to the opposite sex.

Facebook posts are clearly a competition for likes and comments. Facebook users, as well as their posts, are competing for an audience, and those users that consistently receive more likes and comments are considered "winners", while those who do not - "losers".

Facebook is a brutal competition in popularity. It can bring serious depression and anxiety in those who are on the losing end of this battle. On the other hand, winners receive accolades, people's approval and sense of pride.


It is clear that Facebook's success can in part be attributed to it tapping into the human subconsciousness of trying to be better than the person next to them. Facebook gives people the tool to do so. Virtually every single action a user takes on Facebook is involved in a virtual "popularity contest" that the user gets sucked into and participates in. Whether this was Marc's Zuckerberg original design or came about by accident, it's enabled the company to become a global phenomenon on the world stage.

Future can be predicted if given enough data

By Serge Brontein
8-2-2013

FATE AS A CONCEPT IN UNIVERSE

CAN FUTURE CAN BE PREDICTED?

and

IS EVERYTHING PREDETERMINED?

Currently, the accuracy with which future can be predicted is based on information that is gathered and analyzed. The more information we have, the more accurate our prediction will be.

Let's look at an example:

A person is throwing a ball at a target. Your job is to predict how accurate this person will be. If you know NOTHING about this person, then you would be less accurate than someone who has seen them throw balls at targets for a week and recorded every single pitch, velocity, where it landed, etc. Clearly, having more information let's you predict better.

But, can you predict with 100% accuracy where this next pitch will end up? Practically, you can't. But let's look at it theoretically. Let's say you precisely know the wind speed, ball weight, all of the signals in their neurosystem, chemical composition of muscle fibers, state of every thought in their brain, gravitational pull of moon, etc etc, if you know EVERY single piece of information that would influence this throw, and process it into a computer, you could predict with 100% accuracy where the next ball will land.

Therefore, we can infer, that it IS THEORETICALLY POSSIBLE TO PREDICT THE FUTURE if all relative data that can influence the outcome is collected and analyzed.

Example 2: Stocks

Can you predict exactly where a stock price would be? Practically, no. But theoretically? If you got into the mind of every single person who purchased a particular stock, new their thoughts, bio metrics, mood, thoughts, what they did today/yesterday, who they talked to, what they heard, put it all into one giant computer and processed it, you could predict EXACTLY where that stock price would be.

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From all this, I can infer something else - if we, theoretically, can accurately predict the future, does that mean that EVERYTHING IN THE UNIVERSE IS PREDETERMINED? In my opinion, yes.

Why do I think that? The future is affected by the past. One action leads to another action. The concept of things being predetermined mean that there is only one possible variant on how things will be in future, and that this is somehow set and can't be changed. And this is entirely true. The universe gives an illusion of randomization, where as in reality, there is a set program in place that can be described as a sequence - this happens, then this makes this happen, and so on. We can observe this in science on a molecular and atomic level, and in computers - where, in simple terms, two always equals two, and a program unfolds exactly as its written, and never otherwise (at least theoretically).

Human Insignificance

if you sum up all of the energy expanded by humans in all of history, it would probably not equal the amount of energy expended by the sun in 1 second. this just shows how insignificant anything that happens on this planet really is in the large scheme of things.

Stupid starbucks daytrader guy

people's stupidity never ceases to surprise me. i am sitting in starbucks writing stuff for my movie, and this guy and another guy are talking about stocks. they are clearly daytrading, thinking they can come up with some sort of system to win at stocks. so i ask him:

me:you trade stocks? 
him:yes
me: how long u been doing it? 
him: several years
me: whats your annual return?
him: i don't know.
me: you don't know? you trade stocks for a living and you don't know how much money you make?
well, if i make 1% a day, that is 250% a year (his exact words!)
me: you know the most successful hedge fund manager is soros and he only made about 40% a year
him: well, that's your opinion (annoyed, goes back to talking)

throughout the conversation, he gives me a look of a professor talking to a kid.

Facebook is a bragging machine

facebook has some useful functions, but it's main one is to satisfy people's insatiable appetite to show off and brag about things to each other. it's the same principle behind bmw and mercedes cars, expensive purses, huge houses. these objects, for the most part, serve not too much practical purpose, but are used as "showing off" tools. "bragging" in humans also satisfies the need and want to "put down" fellow humans, to establish that "i am better than you", "i have more friends than you", etc. it's really a crowd, high school mentality that serves to cure the inferiority complex that most people in america possess. they constantly have to prove to themselves that they are not "losers".

i personally conscientiously try not to show off, but have to confess that the urge is often there and i have to fight it

The culture of - look at all these people who have it better than you

i am tired of constantly being bombarded with images/stories of people who have it better than me. it's seriously what's wrong with humanity. people/tv/internet are obsessed with celebrities, sports figures, millionaires, and guess what, all this is making 99% of the world feel bad! and perpetuates feelings of inadequacy, depression, anger, hatred, you name it.

instead of thinking - why am i not a millionaire/pro athlete/celebrity, how about thinking - i am so happy i am not a bum, criminal, in jail, needing a kidney, etc etc etc. percentagewise, you are much more likely to be on the bottom, then you are on top, yet culture does not continuously make an impact on that.

if you look at tv - what do they show? constant shows about rich people who have everything - housewives, kardashians, musicians, dancing with the stars,etcetc. what they rarely show? shows about drug addicts, unemployed, uneducated, people at the bottom.

that's why i like watching russian news. they are not obsessed with BS, they show regular people, orphanages, bums, accidents, european news, etc, things that make me feel good about what i have.

Why are Hollywood movies so bad?

i recently wrote/directed my first film - the aztec box. part of the reason i did it is of how bad, in my opinion, hollywood films are. i thought - surely, i can do a better job with them. now, having some experience dealing with studious trying to sell the film, i understand why the industry is suffering. here are my gripes:

1) influx of new talent is severely limited by narrow vision of those who are at the gates.
 the people at the studious have a poor idea of what a good movie is, and even trying to get in contact with them is nearly impossible

2) lawsuits and legal stuff
 the fact that you can't even send a dvd or script for their review is ridiculous! you get a letter saying they don't accept unsolicitied submissions! if you are a studio, isn't it your job to find good new movies?? so you are just making your job harder by not even reviewing them!

3) people's negativity and unwillingness to help
 try to ask for a favor or a reference! 9/10 people will ignore you. why? i don't know. it doesn't take any effort on their part to do it, but since they've been treated like dirt, i guess they do it to other people now.

those are just 3, i could write more ...