Joe Rogan | Why We Respond More to Negativity Online w/Russell Brand

Well, it's also that they're doing it publicly. So they're doing it mostly, I mean, if you're, you're either reading comments or you're reading articles. And if you're reading articles, they're just looking for something to be upset about. They watch you and they'll say, okay, is this a viable target? Yes, we got confirmation. What he said about changing diapers or his wife being a better parent is a viable target. Let's go after him. And then they just formulate some bullshit argument about who you really are based on what might've been a throwaway or a concession to your wife or even just a compliment to your wife for being self-deprecating to yourself. It was a compliment. By easily it was. Yeah, but it doesn't, people, they're not looking at things rationally. They're just looking at targets, particularly people that write articles, you know, what's the best article. It's got to be negative. Like one of the things that came out of all this Facebook algorithm stuff is you find out that Facebook realized somewhere early on that the way to encourage engagement is to get people upset. They get way more engaged and they go back and forth and interact with these posts way more if they're upset than they do if they agree with it. If they agree with it, they might give it a like or a thumbs up and say, hey, that's great. And that's it. That's where it ends. But if, you know, someone's talking about, you know, we shouldn't build the wall. We should let everyone in. And you put that on some fucking Trump guys page and they, ah, it's crazy. I mean, you will get thousands and thousands and thousands of interactions. And so Facebook realized that the way to keep people and, you know, they could claim that that it's an algorithm and the algorithm just supports whatever the people are really interested in. But what they're interested in is conflict. That demonstrates my earlier point, which I made up on the spot, that AI is not a neutral thing. It is resourced from human perspectives. Because that is a type of AI, you know, not as complex as what we're going to experience. And I can't even imagine. But what I'm saying is, is it's still, what I want to say, resourced from a human perspective. And yes, of course we are evolved to respond more strongly to negativity than positivity for loads of reasons. And I think that's where we can stitch back to what we were saying about taking personal responsibility through who you are. Like that none of us have to sit on social media going, fuck you, fuck you, I hear you. Like none of us have to do that. We can try and resolve those. I respect that some people don't have any other outlets. They don't have the privileges I have of being out go to support groups where people openly talk about this is the ways that I felt inferior today. This is the ways that I'm trying to become a better man and a better father and a better coworker. You know, like a lot of people aren't afforded those environments. And probably the best shot they got is having a go at someone online. And those people, you know, in a way deserve love and sympathy. But until we, on some level, recognize that we can alter our own behaviors, we can alter our own consciousness. I don't see how there's going to be, well, at least then we can create a terrain upon which a better, better systems can start to flourish. Do you read comments? No, I actually like, I'm too sensitive. I can just about manage to listen to people's replies to my conversation. Like, you know, like, sort of like, yeah, I don't go on to like, I have a like, I work with someone who does my social media and like, she gives me stuff like, hey, I'll respond to these things, put some output on that. Because I don't want to engage with that. I don't want to like walk up and down any street knocking on the door going, do you like me? Do you like me? Do you like me? I don't want to deal with people's responses in various conditions. Well, it's also much like the articles, the way people get a response out of you or the way that people get your reaction is to say something really negative. You look at some, sometimes when people are not that savvy when it comes to social media, some things that, one of the things that you'll notice is they'll interact. And I've been guilty of this in the past before I sort of realized what I was doing, you would only respond to negative things. Like people are arguing with people. Meanwhile, people are saying nice things to you and you ignore them. Yeah, it's because you don't, you don't, you at a certain level, you don't have the physical time. It doesn't exist to respond to everyone. It's not possible. There's no, if you get 13,000 comments on one of your posts, how the fuck does anyone have time to respond to 13,000 people? You can't. And then you have email and you have Twitter and Facebook and Instagram and just, there's no way. It's, there's not enough time in this world. So you would have responded to things that caused the more visceral. Yeah. If I saw someone saying something was untrue, I'd be like, fuck you, that's untrue. But then I realized like, what do you, why? Like, what are you doing? Like this is a new thing for people. There's never been a time where people have had this instantaneous interaction with people, unfiltered, unmoderated, globally. It's very strange to be able to do that and to be able to go back and forth and just, just to be able to give your comments on things, to be able to talk about things. It's very addictive to people. Yeah, that's right. And that's why I'm very cautious with it. I have to sort of set my life out like I'm essentially a monk in a marriage. That's basically where I live. Get up, meditate, do yoga, do exercises. Do things that are positive for you. Watch the way that you're thinking.