Has the Internet made us more paranoid?

The short answer is yes, of course it has.

But first, what is paranoia?

Paranoia is a thought process believed to be heavily influenced by anxiety or fear, often to the point of irrationality and delusion. Paranoid thinking typically includes persecutory beliefs concerning a perceived threat towards oneself. Historically, this characterization was used to describe any delusional state.

Everybody at some point in their life has experienced paranoia, wether its a matter of believing a friend is lying to you about something or perhaps because of something larger and when the reason for your paranoia is proven or disproven, it is replaced by something else like happiness that your fears were misplaced or anger because you were right all along. However, the real problem with paranoia is that we cannot always prove the cause, one way or another.

Before the internet, we had main stream media (MSM) which fed us on an ever increasing frequency, all of the things that were going on; at first locally and over time as our world got 'smaller', globally. Wether it was via a newspaper, radio or TV when ti came about, we were fed the 'current events' that were deemed to be of importance to those doing the reporting. However, the issue with MSM is that since the internet came along, people stopped trusting what MSM told them because they realised that it was filtered, that it was diseminated to the many, by the few and they began to develop the idea that the few had an agenda; which was to control the many. But the internet, that was free! Free of control! Free to express your views and beliefs from the relative safety of your own home and to be able to find the REAL truth rather than be spoon fed by a corrupt system.... or so people thought.

Instead, what they found was an almost infinite number of alternative explanations for things happening in their world and instead of being enlightened, they just became more unsure of what was really going on and thus, became more paranoid.

Learning more & knowing less

The odd guy who lived in your building who would never come out of his apartment and wore a tin foil hat to protect himself from being scanned by aliens or the government, used to be the easily identifiable conspiracy nut. Sure, people would listen to him and maybe even believe him, but for the most part he was ridiculed because of his eccentric ways and would only ever reach a small audience anyway. But one day, that nut got a computer and was able to spread his particular brand of theory to the world but got to remain anonymous and in the process found people like him, people with ideas even more crazy than his and he was in heaven! Then, all of a sudden, he was joined by people sharing his ideas, but not only did they not live in hermitlike solitude like he did but they didnt have the foil hat. One became many and soon, he had an army. With his army, he began to further disseminate his theories and began coining phrases like "wake up sheeple" and pointing the finger at people who did not agree with him and accusing them of spreading disinformation to hide the truth. The end result being that as people gained more information, they were no longer able to tell the truth from fiction and for the greater part, it became a matter of belief, rather than knowing; and that belief (or indeed lack of belief) led to deeper paranoia.

What we will never know..

Because we know our governments have lied to us in the past (because invariably they have admitted it or been outed) we no longer trust them and that distrust comes from them being in a position of power over us. So we look for the alternatives and find solace with people whome we percieve to be at our social ecenomic level, people in the same boat as us for our answers. The problem is, some of those people are telling us lies but because they are not 'the establishment' we believe them over the people who would seek to control us, because it feels safer; "he has no reason to lie to me...". Thus, the truth becomes buried, obscured by the mist of lies and we are no longer able to see the wood for the trees.

Will we ever escape?

To put it simply, no. As long as we continue to act in this way as a society, we will forever be locked in a paranoid dream full of theories and speculations and because we are paranoid, we are always going to believe the worst of people.

But guess what, just because we are paranoid, doesn't mean that they are NOT out to get us....

I could call you a shill for that ending comment you said but I won't, cause you're right. Then I didn't read it all thinking you were a shill. Not making much sense here.
F yeah, I'm so damn paranoid at times it's unreal.
I thought I saw slenderman in the hallway last night, I grabbed the bat in the closet thinking it was end and kissing my sweet bum goodbye. I didn't want to turn around and open the window(I am on the second floor) It turned out to be a pair of pants hanging off the stairwell.

I remember the times a month or two back, that I thought the government was trying to kill me. Thought 15th of March was the pole shift, I'm still here and paranoid as ever.

As someone said recently somwhere - once upon a time we had lots of questions and precious few real answers.

Now we have so much inforamtion (answers) that we have to invent the questions!

The internet may have increased paranoia but it has also made it exponentially easier for people who before would have never known where to begin looking for the truth. It may not provide answers to everything but it sure lets people seek the truth without being the nut next door.

^ that sums it up basically. a thread ending post

Hardly thread ending - he missed the bit that the internet also makes it an awful lot harder to FIND the truth that you may be seeking among all the drivel that it allows to be easily accessed!

reply to post by CanadianDream420


Thanks. I can remember asking 'but why?' when I was very young (maybe 3 or 4). But it wasn't until I discovered the internet that I felt there were people out there that actually cared whether or not I had the answers to my (sometimes odd) questions.

reply to post by Aloysius the Gaul


Anything worth finding is worth the work it takes to find it.

Originally posted by blivey
The internet may have increased paranoia but it has also made it exponentially easier for people who before would have never known where to begin looking for the truth. It may not provide answers to everything but it sure lets people seek the truth without being the nut next door.

I'll admit it, I --am-- the nut next door. And just because you are aware that you are a paranoid does not make that paranoia go away. Meds can stabilize and soothe one but the kookie caramel in the middle is still there.

The Internet has not made me more paranoid, but ATS has. Before coming here I was never exposed to mass conspiracy theory school of thought, wholesale doomsaying and a never-ending train of pontification upon things truly unknown.

Thankfully, we all have the choice to just -click- and mindlessly harvest crops on FarmVille if we don't want to tackle anything that requires thought.

reply to post by Heartisblack


I wasn't familiar with the slenderman you made reference to, so I googled it.

Dammit, something else to be paranoid about............

reply to post by LargeFries


I wouldn't trade the added level paranoia for anything. I would rather be paranoid and prepared than cut off and caught unaware.

reply to post by AtlantisX99


I am afraid I disagree.

Perhaps for the average lump on the log who doesn't have the ability to research and investigate this maybe true, but not for me.

I am concerned about the elite, TPTB, Bildeburgers... Corporate Cartels... and there effect on the US economy and on the world. My specific area of concern is FOOD.

Does this clique of powerful people actually exist??? - Yes

Do they influence/mandate our laws??? - Yes

Are the laws designed to help our nation??? HECK NO!

If I can, I go directly to the laws that were passed and treaties that were ratified. I look at WHO signed them into law and then I look at the patterns and results.

Thanks to the internet I have talked directly to others. Many are in other parts of the USA and the world. As a group we have done a darn fine job of piecing together what has been done to our food supply, by whom and for what purpose.


I am not "paranoid" I am FINALLY AWAKE

Originally posted by blivey
The internet may have increased paranoia but it has also made it exponentially easier for people who before would have never known where to begin looking for the truth. It may not provide answers to everything but it sure lets people seek the truth without being the nut next door.

You are right, but I would say that it DOES provide the answers to everything but it does not mean that those answers are truth.

For example, take HAARP; there are hundreds if not thousands of posts, blogs, forums, threads and articles claiming that it is doomsday device of some sort. But is it? The people who say it isnt could be lieing just as much as those that say it is. I could trawl the internet for years reading every scrap of information about it and be no further foward because it would ultimately fall to what I chose to believe.

For me, I search for these things and read articles because I find it interesting and intriguing as to what people think is going on. I try to apply my own personal plausibility filter to the things that I read and try and take things with a pinch of salt but at the end it is still a matter of belief, because just because I think it's implausible doesn't mean its not true.

As for HAARP, jury's out..

Well, I don't think it has....I do however think it has gave people more ways to uncover the truth. I think people were like this before the net.

I think the governments want us to think it does so when post are made seem strange, then it must be. Then again I still think life is stranger than fiction in the first place, but that is just me.

David Dee

Originally posted by blivey
reply to post by Aloysius the Gaul

 

Anything worth finding is worth the work it takes to find it.

How do you know if you have the truth amongst all the drivel tho??

There's claims for everything ouot ther - often competing ones - there's at least a sdozen different things chamtrails are supposed to do or be, there's 4 or 5 different things HAARP is supposed to be abel to do, is the NWO run by the British Royal Family, Jewish Bankers or Masons?? Or any combination with or without reptiloids? Is the earth hollow or flat....or both? Is Nibiru Elinine or a space ark??

Are any of the above true in the 1st place anyway?

reply to post by Aloysius the Gaul


I can't tell you what the truth is. It is something you have to find. All of the information avaliable on any given topic can't make it true. You have to believe it. After all, it was once true that the Earth was flat and the center of the universe. All it takes is for us to actively and persistently seek the truth and keep our eyes and minds open open to it to find it. And be willing to admit when the wrong truth REALLY is wrong.

You are only paranoid if no one is really out to get you.

The latest research estimates over 2 million criminals are using the Internet to get you.

Your bank information, money, your identity ECT ECT ECT.

And that does not count the non criminal data mining that may cost you a job. or money buying health insurance, ECT ECT ECT.

If the internet does not make you more paranoid then you are nuts. and should be banned from using the internet.

reply to post by Aloysius the Gaul

How do you know if you have the truth amongst all the drivel tho??

As I said I try to look at some primary sources like laws and treaties and then start following threads.

That lets you build up a pretty good picture of what is going on. Bios or better yet Autobiographies are very useful and the interconnections between players.

HAARP Chemtrails ? Well I sure know there are things like crop dusters

reply to post by AtlantisX99


I think it has made paranoia more fun. Made it more of a "group participation in our paranoia" type event and we all know misery loves company so I think it actually eases our paranoia in a weird unexpected way.