The smartphone and social media have together created a continuous self-referential feedback loop that has…

The smartphone and social media have together created a continuous self-referential feedback loop that has replaced reality. Gigs, pandemics, travel, bodies, news etc. - all created now by imitative rivalry inside this self-referential loop. 1/5 https://t.co/s3q6t8TXPY

Reality is now just fodder for this hypersocial process. It's not the devices that are addictive, it's the imitative rivalry they afford. We're hyper-social now, sociality on steroids. What's important isn't going to the gig or travel location. 2/5

It's feeding it into the socials, via the phone (preferably in real-time), to say 'here I am, at X'. Imitative rivalry. Most of our political events now are confected in this same way. The socials create some semi-hysteria using some political actor or event as fodder. 3/5

The political actors and commentators react to this, also on the socials, in that continuous feedback way, back-and-forth, creating an escalating spiral. A vortex of self-referentiality. Humanity is now stuck inside these self-referential social bubbles. 4/5

Mistaking them for reality itself. Reality has been hijacked to feed social imitative rivalry, a perpetual game to gain social status, then imitated by others, who want to share in that status. Endless team sports, between rival teams vying for status. 5/5