As silly as it sounds, strangers on the road or houses you pass by aren't human

Social media / instagram / etc allow the other party to feel human to you, at which point you can easily get into the thought of "They're not really better than me, are they? Why is their life so gilded"..

I knew kids with huge houses and rich parents as a kid and I didn't feel more strongly about it than "this house/pool/whatever is pretty cool". Maybe "gee I wish I had every video game console too" at most. In high school too mosy people I knew were materially better off. It never gave me a complex about it. It's just life, almost everybody can find examples of people with more money.

It's quite obvious people do, this is what drives the whole rat race.

> This is ridiculous.

It's not. It's just your daily anti-facebook/social media propaganda. Every day there is something about the "evils of social media".

It's the new gangsta rap or violent video games. The news media spreads fear in order to sell ads.

It wasn't too long ago when the news media hyped up violent videos to sell ads. Violent video games were blamed for everything from school shootings to depression to anti-social behavior and everything in between. It wasn't too long ago that gangsta rap had to have parental advisory notices.

I never bought into this argument that gangsta rap, violent video games, porn, etc have NO effect on our society.

You, yourself mentioned ads in your comment. What is an ad but a type of media? And yet, ads are so effective that they are basically the backbone of many of the largest tech companies in the world.

Clearly media DOES affect our society. It may not be as simple as "listen to gangsta rap -> commit the crimes you heard about in gangsta rap" but there can totally be changes in our behavior which come directly from our media. If this wasn't possible, advertising wouldn't be one of the largest industries in the world.

> I never bought into this argument that gangsta rap, violent video games, porn, etc have NO effect on our society.

I never argued that. So you are building a straw man. Of course everything has an "effect". But it didn't bring society down. That's the point. It isn't the cause of all of societies ills. If the media, people like you and others were right, then society would have collapsed a long time ago. It hasn't.

> You, yourself mentioned ads in your comment. What is an ad but a type of media? And yet, ads are so effective that they are basically the backbone of many of the largest tech companies in the world.

Sure. But ads are media specifically engineered to influence you in a particular manner. Gangsta rap, violent video games, porn, etc are meant to entertain. But I agree, all media influences.

> If this wasn't possible, advertising wouldn't be one of the largest industries in the world.

Once again, I'm not denying that media has influence. Advertising, news media, entertainment, movies, etc all influence to some degree. My point was about the scaremongering and scapegoating of certain things and how overblown it is and how people do it for money and influence.