I’m Sorry, Dave. I’m Afraid You’re An Invasive Species Now…

In a recent discussion over dinner with a client, the inevitable topic came up – unchecked, unbridled and rampant change in our culture because of the internet.

When this particular topic comes up, it can appear in many forms – texting while driving, extreme divisiveness, trolling, livestreaming acts of violence, pervasiveness of pornography, disseminating private information, foreign and domestic propaganda through social media, etc.

But this time it came up “in general.” Meaning, there wasn’t a catalyst of, “too many people are texting and driving nowadays, yada, yada, yada…” it came up all at once. The Internet in general was being placed on the table of conversation as being a Pandora’s box – from which, the released contents have an overwhelmingly negative influence on cultural change.

Wow. And I just came for the Margaritas and nachos. So, this was a lot to take in…

There it was, though… the undeniable reality that the fruits of the internet like rapid advancements in collaboration, research, medicine, nanotechnology, Artificial Intelligence, self-driving cars… were coming in tandem with the amplification of very real and very dark human issues like addiction, bullying, gluttony, rage…

The knee-jerk reaction is to ask, “What can be done about it?”

I mean, we can ask the Internet politely to leave. Or at the very least ask it to clean up its act, but I’m pretty sure that’s not going to go anywhere.

The immediate focus on solving this problem became laws, regulations, demonizing the technology, etc. Which we batted around for a while until one of our clients said, “the people.” And went on to explain that it’s not these tools and apps and websites that are the issue. It’s the people.

And darn it, that client was right…

Here we have all of this advancement and access to things that never existed before. And just like Prometheus’s gift of fire to mankind, the Internet can be used for good and evil alike – but it’s a whole new evil we were and, in many ways, still are unprepared for…

It’s like Lord of the Flies. As a society we’ve been dumped on a new island. Free of rules and regulations. Free from social norms. Free from perceived constraints. But most of all, freedom from accountability. Freedom of acting from the shadows to flame, to divide, to bully, to whatever…

So far, nothing really new there in terms of that perspective, but the new realization is that this freedom seems to have activated an “invasive species” of “awakened” personality types.

Like Manchurian Candidates, many in society and possibly even you, have become triggered and activated a deep, dark personality type within yourself:

  • The Didjagima Tribe Member – as in, immediately following up a communication with a secondary form of communication different from the first and adding no value…
    • Example – calling someone immediately after you text them and saying, “Did-ya-get-my… text?” 
  • Neros – any politician, corporate leader, or team leader that engages more focus to tweets, online reviews (Glass Door, Yelp, Google, Facebook, etc.), and basically personal-image-related items out of vanity, instead of addressing legitimate, substantive issues with products, services, policies, etc.
    • Examples –
      • Social Media Expert to CEO: you have a 2-3 recurring themes in your bad Glass Door reviews, “Lack of support from upper-management,” “Hate providing our clients with poor customer service,” and “CEO is vain to a fault;”
      • CEO: How can we push these reviews down on the results page so people can’t see them?
      • SME: Well, it would seem like there is enough direction provided here to work on the actual issues. It will take time, but the good reviews will replace the bad. We can start right now and in a few months…
      • CEO: Yeah, yeah, we can do that later, but what I mean is like can we get a team from India to write good reviews? Like, “Upper-management has really taken company to the next level.”
      • SME: Or, like, “Best CEO I’ve ever worked for…”
      • CEO: Well, yeah, sure heheh… but can we do the India thing?
  • Trolls – most people recognize this one, but it is a person that intentionally flames and starts fights with people online for the purpose of amusement or self-gain. They usually focus on trying to get an emotional response out of someone and will go to great lengths to lie, exaggerate, and fabricate if necessary as well as bring in completely unrelated topics to illicit a response.
    • Fun Fact: Trolls are largely to thank for what has become known as Godwin’s law or Reductio ad Hitlerum which is essentially, “the longer a discussion grows, the likelihood increases that a person attempts to invalidate someone else’s position by comparing their views to Hitler.”
  • Campers – This subset of trolls is also activated by the freedom of being able to set people against each other on message boards or spread discord and/or disinformation, but they usually focus on a specific individual, message board, or other narrow communication channel.
    • Examples – they will consistently show up in a specific politicians twitter feed or they may hang out on pro- or anti- vaccination blogs to attack individual people or ideas – or – they may camp in a specific and narrow (geo-based or community-based) website like Nextdoor and attack all opinions that differ from theirs within their larger, but still local, community.
  • COSers (pronounced like “poser”) – Comforted by creating their own, custom echo-chambers to surround themselves with only like-minded opinions (which is the equivalent of sticking your fingers in your ears and going “nyah nyah nyah nyah…”), these folks create what they believe to be private “safe” spaces to vent and share both legitimate points and disinformation and usually cannot differentiate between the two. The COS part comes from Get Smarts “Cone Of Silence” where a private space is created and information shared in that space is not meant for anyone not in the COS.
    • Example – likely any group or forwarded email that you receive from a family member over the age of 65 that references politics, social issues, and stories referencing an generally accepted and respected individual like a doctor, teacher, professor, policemen, social worker recanting an “actual instance” with minorities, millennials, people on welfare, liberals, conservatives, usually occurring in Florida or Texas.
  • Berks – people that want to believe something so badly that no matter how ridiculous and far-fetched a statement or article is, they take it for truth and circulate it or reference it. Often times these are people reacting to disinformation or clickbait, other times media outlets and newscasters get sucked in because they want the attention and ratings that will follow in association with the information.
    • Example – Headline: ‘Breatharian’ couple claim to live without food and only survive on ‘the universe’s energy.’… Result: Berks believe it, Berk news outlets spread it. (Oh, yeah, that actually happened. Legitimate news outlets circulated that. Real people believed it.)

The above is just a small, small sample of invasive species that are not aliens from another planet. They are not a physical creature or beast that crossed an imaginary line… They are a newly awoken us:
America 2.0

Florida has been plagued for years with Burmese pythons. They’ve tried everything to reduce or eliminate that population in the everglades. To no avail… So, Florida drew a line in the sand and said, “this is our Home” and hung a “No Burmese Python” sign out front, announcing to the world that Burmese pythons are not welcome… But it was too late, the pythons were already inside the house.

It’s hard enough to fight any physical invasive species at the onset. When you discover them already inside your home, in droves, it’s even harder. Just ask Florida.

How are we supposed to combat an invasive species that isn’t physical. How do you fight that when it’s a manifestation of a personality type. Something that has been activated inside of you? Or someone you love?

I guess you can just ask America 2.0… but I’m sure you’re going to get some hotly divided opinions.