It is reasonable to assume that every physical phenomenon can have its corresponding psychological effect to a person experiencing it. For instance, sleeping is a way to rest the physical body, but we know it also affects our non-physical needs. Therefore, there is a difference between physically sleeping and feeling rested.
When we apply these reasonable assumptions about the physical and psychological nature of a person to other phenomena, we see that our psychological being permeates what we normally only see as a physical encounter.
For instance, when a retail shop sells you its goods and you pay to obtain the goods, a physical exchange of money occurs. A physical profit is gained by the store and by the buyer. The store gains money and the buyer acquires the physical item. But, a corruption to this ordinary physical exchange can also happen. Think of profiteering. A retail shop can manipulate prices so that its side gain unfairly more from an exchange with a consumer. The consumer in this case loses rather than gains.
But what about psychological exchanges? Say for instance you go about your daily business then you see on your social media feed manipulated content designed to provoke negative psychological reactions you would not normally feel at that point. Can this not be considered intrusive, unfair, psychological profiteering? Who gains from such an interaction and who loses? We know social media is a causative factor in many adverse psychological conditions, especially for the vulnerable and young population. They say, "think before you share". But are social media users given the fair benefit of having the mental capacity to thoroughly think before they can act? Or is someone obviously profiting with an unfair psychological advantage? We know the answer to this. But maybe what we know is just the tip of an iceberg.
How are we to defend ourselves from obviously existing covert, manipulative, intrusive, psychological profiteering? Social media detox? Thinking before sharing? Think of a poisoned water stream or of historical events where drugs were covertly spread to certain communities. These are physical attacks. How were those communities supposed to have defended themselves?
I want to protect myself from psychological attacks that we know abound everywhere these days. They affect us in our online interactions and spill over to our physical lives. The physical and psychological are intertwined. So I share these opinions to defend my own mind. They say "think before you share". But, maybe, it should be challenge any idea, whether you share or not. I personally would not buy into any hype that easily. I will defend my opinions but I will be reasonable about it. Most of all, I would hold on to enduring values and try everyday to live up to high ideals, because just as clean air and clean water keeps our body healthy, a clean heart keeps our mind sound.
