Connections between the virus pandemic and computers: what comes to mind?

I did not read all of your details, but my first idea was that with the increase in social distancing, that computer viruses will increase.

I would ask my now retired science teacher Mal Ware, but he won’t cough up, can’t hack it anymore!

@ucme rim-shot crash and not berry Punny !!

There’s an awful lot of social interplay that I just can’t keep up with. There are 3 different “floating” scrabble games as well as occasional chess games. And my one positive achievement is that I managed to dump DISH, have acquired Hulu instead along with digital antennas for the tvs. Combined with the Roku we virtually have it all for next to nothing. Had it not been for the plague, neither of us would have hung around the house long enough to manage the time to rejigger all the DISH ripoff nonsense.

The comments on social media about the virus magnifies more for me how much people don’t think for themselves and are easily manipulated. Constant links and ideas being passed around and posted as truth that seem like such obvious bullshit to me. The last was the idea the virus was made in a lab, because natural viruses can’t live in every climate. Seems that even people who have lived through polio, measles, mumps, and pertussis traveling the globe for centuries even believe this rationale for covid being lab created. When I point it out, they believe some faux scientist over their own brains.

Social media has also shown me in a blaring way how selective listening is a big problem in our country. Confirmation bias is alive and well in my opinion as I see on social media how people interpret what they are being told.

The editing and reporting being done by TV media and passed around on social media hurts the public. I see it very clearly in my state. My governor (in Florida) is almost never played in full on the cable channels like MSNBC and CNN. I mostly watch MSNBC. They specifically look for the gotcha with him, they also report his actions inaccurately. They propagate misinformation. I do feel he made some mistakes early on, I’m glad it was being reported on, but there is so much inaccuracy and fear mongering it makes the people in my state less safe in my opinion. The majority of the time he is rational, extremely data driven, and as we open our state he has been more conservative in phase one than the federal guidelines recommend.

I think back in the day of balanced journalism we would be safer. The computer and cable age creates more misinformation, more stress, and maybe more ignorance in some ways.

If I understand correctly, Facebook uses algorithms to show us top of page posts we will “like” which means the public has their own ideas and beliefs reinforced to them over and over again.

I do think there are evil players putting out misinformation. My guess is white supremacists and foreign governments. This would not be possible in the same way without computers and internet.

Fear is the useful tool of political leaders, religious leaders, and “news” programming. Every time we are being told to be afraid we should question it, and do our research.

As to the term going viral in the time of coronavirus, for me viral has always meant illness to me, so the term was very odd to hear and say for me, and I almost never use it. It’s like MVP means Mitro Valve Prolapse to me, not Most Valuable Player.

I hope I answered your Q correctly.

It’s a lifeline right now. Letters can’t convey the emotion and feedback that a live meeting like zoom can.

I have noticed that most of the old information sources other than the media like Youtube have been filtering out all the baloney. Fearmongers like Alex Jones don’t pop up in the third or fourth search result when you google something as innocent as “vaccine” anymore. I have mixed feelings about this.

Since we are all paying more attention to the news and can easily fact check for ourselves online the bias that exists is now out front in bold type. I won’t even turn on CNN anymore. I never would have thought FOX news would appear “fair and balanced” compared to CNN or MSNBC. I’m seeing FOX bash Trump now too when it’s justified, which is often. An obvious effort to pull back from their previous over the top conservative bias.