Wetitok and Us |我們與心智病毒
Recently we read two articles about Wetiko:
Wetiko and the Strange Beauty of Opportunity | by Mindy Amita Aisling | May, 2024 | Medium
Meet The Mind-Virus: Wetiko. It all started with writing post after… | by B | Jun, 2024 | Medium
Both articles also describe an ancient and terrifying virus — Wetiko. This virus is so old that there is no Wiki, and it should even have been forgotten long ago. However, if you take a closer look, you will find that not only has it not disappeared, but it has become more powerful, so powerful that it has penetrated into almost every corner of the world.
The good news is that it’s only supposed to infect humans, so there’s no place for them, maybe not yet.
According to the book Wetiko in a Nutshell —
A contagious psycho-spiritual disease of the soul is currently being acted out en masse on the world stage via an insidious collective psychosis of titanic proportions. This mind-virus — which Native Americans have called “wetiko” — covertly operates through the unconscious blind spots in the human psyche, rendering people oblivious to their own madness and compelling them to act against their own best interests. Wetiko is a psychosis in the true sense of the word, “a sickness of the spirit.” Wetiko covertly influences our perceptions so as to act itself out through us while simultaneously hiding itself from being seen.
Wetiko bewitches our consciousness so that we become blind to the underlying, assumed viewpoint through which we perceive, conjure up, and give meaning to our experience of both the world and ourselves. This psychic virus can be thought of as the “bug” in “the system” that informs and animates the madness that is playing out in our lives, both individually and collectively, on the world stage.
So how did this virus spread among us in large numbers? Yes, it spread in large numbers because of the large number of spreads. This is not a typo. The reason why Wetiko can infect us in large numbers is because of the large number and communication ability of new media.
The general lack of patience among modern people and its impact
In today’s era of information explosion, people’s general lack of patience has become very obvious. This phenomenon affects people’s reading habits, the way they consume information, and their overall ability to think.
Changes in reading habits
According to a study by Microsoft, the average attention span of modern people has dropped from 12 seconds in 2000 to 8 seconds in 2015, a trend that has led to changes in people’s reading habits. According to the Association of American Publishers, e-book sales fell 7.5% in 2020, while audio book sales rose 16.5%. This shows that people are more inclined to obtain information through listening to books in fragmented time, rather than spending a lot of time reading complete books.
Changes in information consumption patterns
In terms of video consumption, people’s tolerance for video lengths is also shortening. YouTube’s internal data shows that in 2020, the average time viewers watched videos longer than 5 minutes was only 60 seconds. Statistics from the short video platform TikTok show that the average length of videos on the platform is about 15 seconds, and the average length of videos watched by users every day reaches 52 minutes.
Thinking vector node shortening
Lack of patience directly affects the shortening of thinking vector nodes, which means that when people engage in in-depth thinking and analysis, they skip many key thinking pause points, causing the thinking process to become more superficial. Research shows that long-term use of social media reduces the density of gray matter in the brain involved in deep thinking, making people more inclined to obtain information simply and quickly rather than taking the time to understand and analyze it deeply.
For example, when the PMI index (Manager Purchasing Index, used to measure managers’ views on the economy) becomes worse, the next node is to think about the possible recession, followed by unemployment problems and falling commodity prices. The next step is whether the government eases the situation by lowering interest rates and releasing liquidity. The next step is whether bond prices fall and yields rise. Then companies can operate with lower financial costs, and finally generate some excess profits, which then drive employment and consumption. , causing the stock price to rise. Perhaps the stock price will not wait until the final stage, but it is absolutely impossible to rise when the PMI continues to decline.
However, those of us who are infected with Wetiko cannot think about so many nodes. We only have 8 seconds of concentration and 15 seconds of tolerance, so we only see the rise in bonds and stock prices, and then enter trading orders via app swiftly — buy, buy, buy. Sure enough, they all went up.
Impact on individuals and society
For individuals, this phenomenon affects learning ability and creativity. Patience and sustained focus are key to learning new knowledge and skills, while lack of patience can lead to learning gaps. For society, this phenomenon may affect the quality of social decision-making. When the public is more inclined to accept simplistic and emotional information, the space for rational discussion and in-depth analysis is compressed, which may have a negative impact on policy formulation and implementation.
Summary
We don’t know if the situation will get better or get crazier. Lack of mind and intelligence is what we are worried about, but even we are having a hard time constructing the thinking nodes of this article. I may have to slide a short video to soothe my poisoned brain.
By the way, does Wetiko sound a bit like We tik tok?
近來我們閱讀了兩則關於Wetiko的文章 :
Wetiko and the Strange Beauty of Opportunity | by Mindy Amita Aisling | May, 2024 | Medium
Meet The Mind-Virus: Wetiko. It all started with writing post after… | by B | Jun, 2024 | Medium
兩篇同樣描述了一個古老的可怕病毒 - Wetiko。這個病毒古老到沒有Wiki，甚至應該是早該被遺忘的，但仔細了解就會發現，它不僅沒有消失，還更加強大了，強大到幾乎滲透到世界每個角落。好消息是，它應該只會感染人類，所以沒有人的地方，或許還沒有。
根據Wetiko in a Nutshell一書的描述
Wetiko是一種具有傳染性的靈魂心理精神疾病目前正在世界舞臺上通過一種巨大的陰險集體精神病在世界舞臺上集體上演。這種被美洲原住民稱為「wetiko」的心靈病毒通過人類心靈的無意識盲點秘密運作，使人們忘記了自己的瘋狂，並迫使他們做出違背自己最大利益的行為。Wetiko 是一種真正意義上的精神病，是“精神的疾病”。Wetiko 暗中影響我們的感知，以便通過我們表現出來，同時隱藏自己不被看到。
Wetiko 迷惑了我們的意識，使我們對潛在的、假設的觀點視而不見，我們通過這些觀點來感知、召喚並賦予我們對世界和我們自己的體驗以意義。這種精神病毒可以被認為是“系統”中的“蟲子”，它為世界舞臺上個人和集體生活中正在上演的瘋狂提供資訊和動畫。
那麼這種病毒怎麼會大量的傳播到我們之間呢? 是的，就是因為大量傳播所以大量傳播，這並不是打錯了，Wetiko之所以能夠大量感染我們，就是因為新媒體的大量與傳播能力。
現代人普遍缺乏耐性的現象及其影響
在當今信息爆炸的時代，人們普遍缺乏耐心的現象已經變得非常明顯。這種現象影響了人們的閱讀習慣、信息消費方式以及整體的思考能力。
閱讀習慣的變化
根據Microsoft的一項研究，現代人的平均注意力持續時間已從2000年的12秒下降到2015年的8秒，這一趨勢導致人們閱讀習慣的改變。美國出版商協會的數據顯示，電子書的銷售額在2020年下降了7.5%，而音頻書的銷售額卻上升了16.5%。這表明人們更傾向於在碎片化的時間中通過聽書獲取信息，而非花大量時間閱讀完整的書籍。
信息消費方式的變化
在視頻消費方面，人們對影片的容忍長度也在縮短。YouTube的內部數據顯示，2020年觀看者對於5分鐘以上的視頻持續觀看的平均時間僅為60秒。而短視頻平台TikTok的統計數據顯示，該平台上的視頻平均時長約為15秒，而用戶每天平均觀看的視頻時長達到52分鐘。
思考向量節點的縮短
耐心的缺乏直接影響了思考向量節點的縮短，這意味著人們在進行深度思考和分析時，會跳過許多關鍵的思考停頓點，從而導致思考過程變得更加表面化。研究表明，長時間使用社交媒體會減少大腦中涉及深度思考的灰質密度，使得人們更傾向於簡單、快速地獲取信息，而非花時間深入理解和分析。
舉個例來說，當PMI指數(經理人採購指數，用以衡量經理人對景氣的觀點)變差的時，下一個節點則是思考可能來臨的衰退，接續才是失業問題與商品價格下跌，接續則是政府是否透過降低利率與釋放流動性來緩和，再接續才是債券價格下跌殖利率上漲，然後企業可以用更低的財務成本營運，最後產生些許超額利潤，然後帶動就業與消費，導致股價上漲。
或許股價不會等到最後階段，但絕無可能在PMI持續下滑時上漲。不過感染Wetiko的我們可無法思考這麼多節點，我們只有8秒的專注，15秒的容忍時間，所以我們只看到債券上漲跟股價上漲，然後輸入交易訂單 - 買、買、買。果不其然都上漲了。
對個人和社會的影響
對個人而言，這樣的現象使得學習能力和創造力受到影響。耐心和持續專注是學習新知識和技能的關鍵，而缺乏耐心則可能導致學習的斷層。對社會而言，這種現象可能會影響社會決策的質量。當公眾更傾向於接受簡單化、情緒化的信息時，理性討論和深度分析的空間被壓縮，這可能會對政策的制定和實施帶來負面影響。
小結
我們也不知道如此狀況會否得到改善，還是更加瘋狂。缺乏心智是我們所擔心的，但就連我們對於建構這篇文章的思考結點都有些吃力了，我可能要去滑一下短影音來舒緩我中毒的大腦。
對了，Wetiko是否聽起來有點像We tik tok呢?
