cannabis on social media

From Satire to Reality: Cannabis and the Problem of Social Media

There’s this group called “Reverse Legalization” which is a satirical anti-pot group. Their entire page is filled with unfounded bullshit to the highest degree. One of the more common phrases we see on the post is the idea of “shooting up the pot”.

For anyone who isn’t a “Humperdoodle”, shooting up marijuanas is not a thing. You can smoke it, eat it, drink it and even stick it up your ass…but you don’t “shoot it up”.

This is what makes the page so funny to watch, the sheer heights of their ignorance portrayed through their anti-legalization rants.

However, when this satire is mirrored in reality…that’s when things become weird.

Fox Strategist David Avella’s Slip of the tongue

In a recent clip, David Avella made some talking points about the Californian cannabis industry where he literally said, “We don’t want people lying on the streets just having shot up marijuana…er…with needles sticking out of them…”

At this point, the other talking head interjected “heroin” into the dialogue of which Avella echoed the sentiment.

While this is obviously a slip of the tongue, it didn’t take much for Twitter to mock Avella for the “injecting marijuana” debacle. Even though Avella slipped up, one can only wonder if that lingo might have filtered into his subconscious via sites like “reverse legalization”.

It’s not the first time that an Onion article was quoted by mainstream media, and it wouldn’t be too much of a stretch to think that Avella’s subconscious was trolled by Social Media.

The Social Media Situation

Over the past few months I have been distancing myself from all forms of social media. At first, I decided to “not participate” in any negative news, stories or posts. If someone was being racist, sexist, vile or sharing news about how butthurt they are over “the state of things”; I wouldn’t comment or share the post. I would abstain from engaging.

This immediately increased my happiness levels significantly. However, stepping back from engaging with the content being spewed at me from the cyberverse, it dawned on me how many people are reacting to headlines.

Most of the shit being shared on Social Media are hardly verified. Disinformation is spreading as fast as information and it’s becoming increasingly more difficult to distinguish between fact and bullshit.

Couple that with humanity’s deep sense of laziness, and you’ve got a recipe for disaster.

Your Sensory Bandwidth

Humans, within their base state, have a physical limitation on data intake. By this, I mean that without technology, people can only uptake information based on their senses. Your limitations are how far you can see, hear, smell, and feel.

For thousands of years, our psychological bandwidth were limited to our immediate surroundings. However, with the introduction of smart phones and mobile devices, we now have the ability to “see” all over the world in real time. Of course, we aren’t “experiencing that reality” but we become “aware of it”.

Suddenly, your inner-view of the world around you morphs into a hybrid reality that was subjectively constructed through your choice as you navigated a complicated algorithm. Facebook knows that negativity gets more engagement and shares, and thus, reinforced negative posts if you engage with it.

This fragmented view on reality, impacts you on an emotional level increasing fear, anxiety and a sense of hopelessness. You can see the problems of the world, yet have no power to do anything about it – save, giving it a thumbs up or an angry face emoji.

With the introduction of social media, we dramatically increased our information intake, yet our emotional development is struggling to keep up.

And now with “fake” and “real” looking eerily similar, we are catapulted into a social experiment that no one really knows how it will play out. How many people will believe lies because it ‘looks like the truth’ and more importantly, how would those beliefs influence their actions within society?

Avella might have simply had a slip of the tongue, or he was influenced subconsciously by information that supports his personal narrative. His interactions on social media and the internet in general, created a complex profile that deciphered his digital reasoning and in turn catered content that appeals to his personal narrative.

The thing is, we’re all under the spell of Social Media…except if you don’t have social media accounts.

Stuck in a fly trap?

Like it or not, we’re all being influenced by the little windows that rests in the palms of our hands. Social Media provides plenty of benefits, but also has a very real impact on reality itself. We are being influenced by the information we consume.

The problem with Social Media is that it creates curated content based on your behavior, creating information feedback loops and reinforcing ideas. That’s why it’s vital that we take control over the content we consume.

Always verify sources, do the effort in making sure that what you read is real. This includes everything beneficial about cannabis. He who does not question, will never know. Be a skeptic, be a scientist, do the research and don’t Avella it.

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