Jason and Alex start the show by talking about a movie The Social Dilemma, a film first played at the Sundance Film Festival. The movie was created by a group of tech mogul executives and others members of the major social media companies. They discussed how we use social media for IDA as a business, but they are conflicted internally about whether or not social media is a good arena to share content based on how it is destroying everything good in our country right now.The average child has a cell phone at age 9, and they are exposed to YouTube and all major social media sites at such a young age, where their minds and opinions are molded. Jason humbly expressed that we are not proclaimed social media experts, but we are investment experts. He also explains that these platforms are designed to distract and reward distraction and keep us hooked. This is done at the expense of our well-being while collecting as much data as possible. They are then able to sell more adds and more specifically tailored adds to people, which makes the end company very wealthy. Alex remembered that the movie pointed out that there are only two businesses that call their clients “users”, drug dealers and software providers. This is mildly disturbing when you connect the two because they are using us as individuals to sell ads to the end “user”.Jason and Alex talk about the democracy dilemma. Political polarization and divisiveness are a direct result of content on these social media platforms that strongly promote fear, greed and drive further engagement.

Jason and Alex tied this to financial media sources and how the truth is boring. They only make money if they can stir up fear and emotions in their listeners or viewers because it causes them to take action. Most of the time, this is not good action, it is poorly timed, and very costly. They talk about how the right way to invest is not meant to be like going to Vegas to get that gambler’s rush, it is meant to be consistent and reliable over periods of time.Jason talks about how there is so much damage being caused by social media because it is further enhancing the political divide that is present in our country.

It is so easy to find information and content that promotes conspiracy, outrage and deception, and these platforms have algorithms that continue to feed more information to the users based on their tendencies. This drives more clicks to make more money at our expense. Alex discusses that the original goal of these companies was to connect people and allow people to congregate no matter where they are geographically located.Jason discusses how Wall Street and the major financial media sources are designed to get people engaged negatively, just like social media sources. Markets and how they operate have evolved over time from the barter system to the efficient markets we have today. Those systems are still necessary, but the toxicity surrounding those systems causesmajor mental health problems for people today. They explain how the biggest companies are making tons of money every day by getting investors convinced that they have all the answers, even if it is not the best way to invest. They invite listeners to send their questions to jason@financialdetox.com or call 877-707-8889.

In this show you will learn about:

• The Social Dilemma- The toxic role of social media in people’s lives
• The social media dilemma relating to democracy
• The mental health issues associated with social and financial media sources