How To Stop Being Controlled By Social Media | Your Tools to Fight Back In The Attention Economy

Do you ever feel like social media is manipulating your emotions? That’s not a coincidence. Platforms thrive on outrage, keeping you engaged by feeding you rage-inducing content. But you don’t have to play their game. 

In this video, we’ll break down: 
- How social media exploits your emotions for profit 
- The importance of media literacy to recognize manipulation 
- Strategies to become a free thinker and curate a healthier media diet. 

Reclaim your attention. Take back control. This is the attention economy, know your clicks, shares, likes, and views are powerful. 

--

Disclaimer about tools: In this video I offer the suggestion to use .gov sites directly, but I filmed this before President Elon got into office and so now I suggest that if you do want to use .gov websites, go into it with the understanding that we have a VP who doesn't see a problem with lying and prefers no fact checking. That's just the reality of the situation. 

JD Vance Justifying being a liar for the "greater good": https://www.tiktok.com/t/ZTFY3eU79/  

Resources & Further Reading: 

Why Facts Dont Change Minds https://jamesclear.com/why-facts-dont-change-minds  

Rage Baiting Techniques You Need to Know about: https://gizmodo.com/10-internet-rage-baiting-techniques-to-know-about-1850615967  

Russia owned influencers: https://www.wired.com/story/influencers-tenet-benny-johnson-tim-pool-russia-propaganda-videos/  

Tools: 
https://www.newsguardtech.com/  
https://mediabiasfactcheck.com/  
https://www.politifact.com/  
https://www.allsides.com/media-bias/media-bias-ratings  
Fav: https://ground.news/  — be sure to check out the browser extension 

Books: 
Media Control by Noam Chomsky 
Empire of Illusion by Chris Hedges American Fascists by Chris Hedges 
Invisible Hands by Phillips-Feins 

Media Literacy
Rate this video 
Media Literacy
Documentaries about Living the Change
Transition Documentaries
Trending Videos
Louis Theroux: The Settlers (2025)
62 min - Fourteen years after his first visit and 2011 film The Ultra Zionists, Louis Theroux meets some of the growing community of religious-nationalist Israelis who have settled in the West Bank.Louis...
Jordan Klepper Charts Trump's Long History with Epstein & Ghislaine Maxwell
13 min - With MAGA and Democrats demanding answers about the Epstein files and Trump denying their existence, Jordan Klepper charts the presidents well-documented history with Jeffrey Epstein and Ghislaine...
Planet Community: A 5-Part Series Exploring Cooperation in Action (2019)
50 min - What happens when people work together to create solutions to the social, economic, and ecological issues we face today? Planet Communityis an exploration of intentional communities that are...
Waste = Food (2007)
49 min - Man is the only creature that produces landfills. Natural resources are being depleted on a rapid scale while production and consumption are rising in nations like China and India. The waste...
Red Path
7 min - "Red Path premiered at the Unmentionables Film Festival in New York, a festival dedicated to breaking taboos and this first year the taboo was menstruation. I truly believe
Why Does Trump Hate Sesame Street?
8 min - Why is Trump so hell-bent on defunding PBS? Its part of a larger plan one where he can control not just what we do, but what we think.
Media Literacy
The Limits of Ally-ship
Subscribe for $5/mo to Watch over 50 Patron-Exclusive Films
Subscribe $5/mo View All Patron Films

 

Your support keeps us ad-free and financially independent

Our 10,000+ video & article library is 99% free, ad-free, and entirely community-funded thanks to our patron subscribers!


Want to double your impact? You can subscribe for $10/mo or more as an extra show of support.