In this episode of The Misanthropic Life, we discuss how easy it is to manipulate the algorithms that feed us content on the various social media networks. SHOW NOTES: Smarter Every Day YouTube video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1PGm8LslEb4 Article on fake engagement from ABC news Australia: https://www.abc.net.au/news/2019-03-30/farming-for-likes-fake-social-media-engagement/10944078 Financial Times article on facebook and changes in their structure RE privacy: https://www.ft.com/content/be723754-501c-11e9-9c76-bf4a0ce37d49 https://www.ft.com/content/828e50ac-2ace-11e8-a34a-7e7563b0b0f4 Financial Times article about NY AG saying it's illegal to fake engagement: https://www.rt.com/usa/450382-fake-social-media-engagement-illegal/ Yahoo article on teen who faked photos to gain likes: https://www.yahoo.com/lifestyle/teen-photoshopped-private-jet-louis-vuitton-bags-fake-wealthy-influencer-135401599.html The Misanthropic Life podcast is an informative and ironic look at modern life. It is a show about two millennials struggling to understand their increasingly divided and ever-changing world. We discuss society, culture, technology and the pressures these forces are exerting on the individual today. Follow us on twitter @mislifepodcast if you have feedback or topic requests. You can also email your feedback to info@themisanthropiclife.com. Thanks for listening! Website: http://misanthropiclife.com Twitter: http://twitter.com/mislifepodcast iTunes: https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/the-misanthropic-life/id1450778685?mt=2 RSS: https://www.spreaker.com/show/3313628/episodes/feed

In this episode of The Misanthropic Life, we discuss loyalty and autonomy. How you were raised to engage with these concepts has a huge bearing on the way you relate to friends, co-workers, romantic partners, government, etc. SHOW NOTES: Original Instagram post by Esther Perel: https://www.instagram.com/p/Bu1iYbFhubC/ The Misanthropic Life podcast is an informative and ironic look at modern life. It is a show about two millennials struggling to understand their increasingly divided and ever-changing world. We discuss society, culture, technology and the pressures these forces are exerting on the individual today. Follow us on twitter @mislifepodcast if you have feedback or topic requests. You can also email your feedback to info@themisanthropiclife.com. Thanks for listening! Website: http://misanthropiclife.com Twitter: http://twitter.com/mislifepodcast iTunes: https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/the-misanthropic-life/id1450778685?mt=2 RSS: https://www.spreaker.com/show/3313628/episodes/feed

In this episode of The Misanthropic Life, we discuss asynchronous or un-synchronized relationships. An asynchronous relationship is what you call any relationship that is a one-way or one-sided relationship. Social media encourages this form of human interaction but that interaction is a lot less "social" that it might appear. SHOW NOTES: Psychology Today Article: https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/behind-online-behavior/201408/the-psychology-behind-social-media-interactions Huffington Post Article: "Why social media isn't social" https://www.huffpost.com/entry/why-social-media-isnt-social_b_3858576 The Misanthropic Life podcast is an informative and ironic look at modern life. It is a show about two millennials struggling to understand their increasingly divided and ever-changing world. We discuss society, culture, technology and the pressures these forces are exerting on the individual today. Follow us on twitter @mislifepodcast if you have feedback or topic requests. You can also email your feedback to info@themisanthropiclife.com. Thanks for listening! Website: http://misanthropiclife.com Twitter: http://twitter.com/mislifepodcast iTunes: https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/the-misanthropic-life/id1450778685?mt=2 RSS: https://www.spreaker.com/show/3313628/episodes/feed

In this episode of The Misanthropic Life, we discuss Hikikomori, a word used in Japan to describe a group of people who live life away from society; a prolonged social withdrawal. First noticed in the 90's and thought to be a fad but today has grown to an estimated 700,000 people in Japan. SHOW NOTES: FRANCE 24 English report on Hikikomori: https://youtu.be/oFgWy2ifX5s Psychiatry and Clinical Neurosciences: Development and validation of the 25-item Hikikomori Questionaire(HQ-25); A.R.Teo, MD, MS, J.I. Chen,PhD, and T.A. Kato, MD, PhD https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6221010/#!po=0.925926 The Misanthropic Life podcast is an informative and ironic look at modern life. It is a show about two millennials struggling to understand their increasingly divided and ever-changing world. We discuss society, culture, technology and the pressures these forces are exerting on the individual today. Follow us on twitter @mislifepodcast if you have feedback or topic requests. You can also email your feedback to info@themisanthropiclife.com. Thanks for listening! Website: http://misanthropiclife.com Twitter: http://twitter.com/mislifepodcast iTunes: https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/the-misanthropic-life/id1450778685?mt=2 RSS: https://www.spreaker.com/show/3313628/episodes/feed

In this episode of the misanthropic life, we discuss how pseudo-scientific ideas have long been used to justify the worst human behaviors like racism, eugenics, and genocide. One of the most transparent of these justifications is the idea that your potential has more to do with your genetics than anything else. SHOW NOTES: Term/Definition of Biological Determinism: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Biological_determinism Where to watch Gattaca: https://www.justwatch.com/us/search?q=gattaca FBI Rapid DNA System: https://www.washingtonpost.com/crime-law/2018/12/13/fbi-plans-rapid-dna-network-quick-database-checks-arrestees/?noredirect=on&utm_term=.f4f121b32839 https://www.fbi.gov/services/laboratory/biometric-analysis/codis/rapid-dna Crispr Babies: https://www.statnews.com/2018/11/28/chinese-scientist-defends-creating-gene-edited-babies/ YouTube video of geneticist and Dr.Jiankui explaining the procedure: https://youtu.be/th0vnOmFltc The Misanthropic Life podcast is an informative and ironic look at modern life. It is a show about two millennials struggling to understand their increasingly divided and ever-changing world. We discuss society, culture, technology and the pressures these forces are exerting on the individual today. Follow us on twitter @mislifepodcast if you have feedback or topic requests. You can also email your feedback to info@themisanthropiclife.com. Thanks for listening! Website: http://misanthropiclife.com Twitter: http://twitter.com/mislifepodcast iTunes: https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/the-misanthropic-life/id1450778685?mt=2 RSS: https://www.spreaker.com/show/3313628/episodes/feed

In this episode of the misanthropic life, we discuss how privacy is being eroded by social media and internet connected devices. So many things rely on having a private space apart from the world and we are losing that space so quickly it makes your head spin. The Misanthropic Life podcast is an informative and ironic look at modern life. It is a show about two millennials struggling to understand their increasingly divided and ever-changing world. We discuss society, culture, technology and the pressures these forces are exerting on the individual today. Follow us on twitter @mislifepodcast if you have feedback or topic requests. You can also email your feedback to info@themisanthropiclife.com. Thanks for listening! Website: http://misanthropiclife.com Twitter: http://twitter.com/mislifepodcast iTunes: https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/the-misanthropic-life/id1450778685?mt=2 RSS: https://www.spreaker.com/show/3313628/episodes/feed

In this episode of the misanthropic life, we discuss the interesting world of cognitive biases. Have you ever seen someone judge another person for behavior they engage in themselves? This is called the "attribution effect". It is the tendency to attribute someone else's behavior to an internal characteristic, and excuse your own similar behavior as circumstantial. Show notes: Fundamental attribution error: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fundamental_attribution_error How Cognitive Biases Influence How You Think and Act: https://www.verywellmind.com/what-is-a-cognitive-bias-2794963 Thinking Fast and Slow by Daniel Kahneman: https://amzn.to/2GCmR1y The above is an amazon affiliate link. If you buy the book through that link, it gives a little bit back to us. Thanks for your support! The Misanthropic Life podcast is an informative and ironic look at modern life. It is a show about two millennials struggling to understand their increasingly divided and ever-changing world. We discuss society, culture, technology and the pressures these forces are exerting on the individual today. Follow us on twitter @mislifepodcast if you have feedback or topic requests. You can also email your feedback to info@themisanthropiclife.com. Thanks for listening! Website: http://misanthropiclife.com Twitter: http://twitter.com/mislifepodcast iTunes: https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/the-misanthropic-life/id1450778685?mt=2 RSS: https://www.spreaker.com/show/3313628/episodes/feed

In this episode of the misanthropic life, we discuss the definition of family. This is a hotly debated topic today with many wishing to exclude families that don’t fit their "ideal" of what a family should look like. But is there an ideal family? Each era and culture has had a vastly different take on what family means. This argument, like so many other cultural battles will have repercussions for generations to come. Show notes: Enculturation: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enculturation Marriage Rate Declines and Marriage Age Rises: http://www.pewsocialtrends.org/2011/12/14/marriage-rate-declines-and-marriage-age-rises/ The Sociology of Children by William Corsaro: https://amzn.to/2DzqodV Centuries of Childhood: A Social History of Family Life by Philippe Aries: https://amzn.to/2E8WpLn The two books above are amazon affiliate links. If you buy the book through that link, it gives a little bit back to us. Thanks for your support! The Misanthropic Life podcast is an informative and ironic look at modern life. It is a show about two millennials struggling to understand their increasingly divided and ever-changing world. We discuss society, culture, technology and the pressures these forces are exerting on the individual today. Follow us on twitter @mislifepodcast if you have feedback or topic requests. You can also email your feedback to info@themisanthropiclife.com. Thanks for listening! Website: http://misanthropiclife.com Twitter: http://twitter.com/mislifepodcast iTunes: https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/the-misanthropic-life/id1450778685?mt=2 RSS: https://www.spreaker.com/show/3313628/episodes/feed

In this inaugural episode of the misanthropic life, we discuss an extremely important topic; how superhero movies are getting much more adult narratives than they used to. In the last 10 years we have gone from Batman refusing to kill his most terrible enemy to actually attempting to murder his strongest ally. Why? What has happened in our culture to warrant such a violent shift in one of our most cherished stories? We discuss the reasons behind this change and what it means for the future. The Misanthropic Life podcast is an informative and ironic look at modern life. It is a show about two millennials struggling to understand their increasingly divided and ever-changing world. We discuss society, culture, technology and the pressures these forces are exerting on the individual today. Follow us on twitter @mislifepodcast if you have feedback or topic requests. You can also email your feedback to info@themisanthropiclife.com. Thanks for listening! Website: http://misanthropiclife.com Twitter: http://twitter.com/mislifepodcast iTunes: https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/the-misanthropic-life/id1450778685?mt=2 RSS: https://www.spreaker.com/show/3313628/episodes/feed