I Tweet; Therefore, I Am

There was a time long ago in which people knew the cell phone as a "cell-ullar" telephone or a portable phone,

and the only people seen talking into these black bricks were goofy business executives. (Don't forget that thick antenna receiver sticking out the top.

) I can remember asking for a pager for Christmas back when the only people I knew were either in my family or lived across the street.

Then, in the seventh grade, without asking--or needing, for that matter--my parents bought me a Nokia cell phone for emergencies or if they needed to tell me something.

Back in 1999, for a thirteen-year-old to have a cell phone would have been something to show-off and brag about. Not for me.

I felt weird having this bulky thing that kept falling out of my pocket (with the slick face cover my parents had picked out).

It was also useless when nobody else I knew had one, except for getting a head-start on my Snake-gaming skills.

Over the years, this 'convenient-for-its-time' device has gone through a huge transformation.

Today, we no longer refer to these devices as mere cell phones; for, they are now "smart phones." And they are in the hands, pockets, and purses of nearly everyone in today's world.

Not long after, the companies manufacturing these pocket-sized computers with a camera phone added another feature.

I can't help but picture a single and lonely employee announce in a joking-but-actually-serious way, "Hey, why don't we make it talk?!"

This low-level employee had a brilliant idea, which they probably gave credit to a random top-level employee who probably didn't have any smarts,

but had a large craving for Steve Jobs' joystick. Whatever the case, our phones now had their own voice.

With the sudden spike in the ratings for tv shows about ghost-hunting, I'm guessing people grew a tolerance--and a subconscious want--for having an unseen entity in their house.

Especially if it does whatever you command of it.

Now, even those who I wouldn't consider "tech-savvy" have the irritating voices of Siri or Alexa coming from a round robotic slave that sits on their kitchen counter,

or even the dashboard of their car.

Along with the phone, a transformation happens within people. And not always for the better...

What many of us with smart phones in our hands or pockets, and/or "Alexa" chilling in our kitchens don't know is that ever since the word "smart" was given to our phones,

they have been suitable for algorithmic behavioral modification.

Anything with the label "smart," is actually a little too smart; at least, smart enough to possess a hidden agenda.

Whether you are engaging with these devices, they are constantly listening and recording everything you say and do while receiving engineered feedback all the time.

We are being hypnotized, little by little, by unseen technicians for unknown purposes. We, the American people, have unwittingly become lab rats.

It's a scary thought, which will make you want to stop reading this, but I sincerely ask you to please press on.

What the corporations that produce and manufacturer our "smart" devices rely on are algorithms. Algorithms that overindulge on data about YOU, every second.

How it measures you are frightening and even infuriating. You are measured by:

* the links you click on

* videos you watch all the way through

* How quick you move from one ting to another

* where you are when you do these things

* Who you connect with online and in-person

* the facial expressions you make

* How your skin tone changes in different situations

* what you were doing before you bought something or not

* the man/woman you swipe either right or left

* Whether to vote

...and many, many more.

All of these and more have been--and continue to be--matched up with similar readings from multitudes of other people through extensive spying.

While drug addicts are left living on the outskirts of an already broken society, those who keep them there are also glued to their phones and computer screens, waiting for their own fix.

They wait in anticipation for their next shot of dopamine from receiving a 'Like' on their Facebook or Instagram page.

Social media has become the new "opiate of the masses." It works no different from that of a drug. We receive the same effect when snorting a bump of cocaine:

The brain uses the same neurotransmitters and receptors when one receives a 'Like,' comment, 'thumbs up,' share, or any indicator that someone has acknowledged your digital presence.

I say acknowledged because seldom does anyone actually like what you've posted if it doesn't benefit them in any way .

Rather, it's more of an acknowledgment, like saying, "Hey, we're still friends, so I care about this too!"

Why have more people succumbed to narcissistic tendencies?

Social media.

Rene Descartes had claimed the most famous philosophical quote up to about ten years ago, known to many intellectuals as the "Cogito, after its Latin phrasing Cogito Ergo Sum," meaning,

I think, therefore I am (which he later changed to "I am, I exist," in his Meditations on First Philosophy.

) However, in the past ten years, Descartes' "claim-to-fame" has become something more innately known and considered 'common sense' to millennial generation and younger,

who could relate more by giving it a piece of what makes them stand out from previous generations: more individuality--a makeover, if you will.

And thus, we have the defining quote of the early twenty-first century: I tweet, therefore I am. (Which I'll go ahead and, like Descartes, change it up to be more accurate: I tweet, I suck.)

The self-acclaimed "philanthropist" and first president of Facebook, Sean Parker, has blatantly stated that "Facebook was developed to get people addicted." The avaricious Mr.

Parker still claims this title is paradoxically still known as a philanthropist?

Even with consideration to his charitable donations, it's no amount to suffice for the damages to society and human welfare in which his company is responsible.

Those algorithms used that these corporations rely on don't know or understand you, yet they know more information about you that you yourself probably don't know.

However, it's not the algorithms that you need to worry about; rather, the corporations that possess all of this information about you.

They know that there is power in numbers.

If a large amount of other people who like the same foods as you are also more put off by a candidate with shit on his nose, then it is likely that you will be too.

The same goes for whenever the best time that you're likely to be influenced.

If you're scared, sad, lonely, or maybe you're happy, confident, and secure, the people known as "advertisers" know when you are perfectly primed for influence.

They seize that moment with a barrage of messages and ads subtly shot at you that have worked on other people in the same or similar situation and also have similar traits as you.

Advertisers are not what they used to be. They are stalkers, trespassers, exploiters, and propagandists that use direct manipulation to control the puppet attached to their strings--You.

We are being controlled and conditioned like dogs or lab rats by clients of big corporations. Until recently, one would have to sign up to be a test subject in such an experiment.

He/she would know being a participant in an experiment but unaware of how he/she were being manipulated. But that wouldn't have mattered, so long as you were getting paid, right?

Now, with taxes, fines, and the cost of living on a steady rise, it's as if we are paying to be manipulated in a massive experiment we did not sign-up for, nor even know about.

I don't care if you believe all of this or not, that isn't my intention. As long as you have read this far, my job is complete.

Even if this sounds like delusional ramblings of a paranoid schizophrenic, it doesn't matter.

This information now lies within you, so when some anomaly or anything suspicious occurs as a result of these devices, you will ultimately see it for yourself.

Don't live under the false notion of "Ignorance is bliss."

Ignorance isn't bliss; It's a disease that only spreads more ignorance. Awareness is freedom. And freedom is bliss.