Do social media sites, and in our case, blogs, purposely or inadvertently brainwash its participants? Does group think affect conformity? Does pigeonholing into hive-like communities lead to a lack of social plasticity? Is social media causing an even wider political gap? Are people being lead around by their noses?

Let's take a look.

is one of the current evolutionary paths of the intersection of psychological research with marketing and advertising. A couple of new videos came out this week that can be used to help understand current methodologies and reduce there impact on ourself and those close to us.

they'd undertake a massive campaign to educate users on how to tell the difference between claims and facts. They'd grace the People with the reasoning abilities to know when something is proven, disproven, or needs more information before deciding its value.

Teach people how rhetorical tricks and manipulative tactics are used on them. Teach people how trolls operate. How to check the sourcing, and whether there is more than one source.

In the episode 'Nosedive' of Black Mirror, people are judged by a numeric rating given to them by their interactions with other people. Poor ratings, or even interacting with other people with poor ratings, can have real-world consequences, such as not being able to get on an airplane.