# Shared version of reality There is a dangerous thing going on in the world today. Truth be told there are many, but the one I'm talking about is something which was illuminated for me by the paradigm shifting documentary [The Social Dilemma](https://www.thesocialdilemma.com/). It is an absolutely fantastic piece which sheds light on (social) media's powerful ability to divide and polarize humanity. We enter [the matrix]([[Are we living in the matrix]]) of these platforms' content empire, which are built to sell a product. Specifically, according to Jaron Lanier, the founding father of virtual reality, "**it's the gradual, slight, imperceptible change in your own behavior and perception that is the product**." In other words, changing what you do, what you think, and who you are. Lanier goes on to say it is a gradual change, and each small percentage change is slight, but it's the whole world we're talking about. What this means is people - WE - are being shaped by the technology to become what it wants us to be. This is not dissimilar to what I learned from Alex Hormozi that "what we work on works more on us than we do on it." Next time you get emotionally charged about something, think about that opinion of the world you hold. WHY do you have that opinion about that thing? How is it that you know what you know? If you can't answer that question for EVERY SINGLE ONE OF YOUR BELIEFS, especially those which are strongly held or extreme, I would highly suggested starting back again from first principles and rebuilding your foundation of beliefs from truth and fact, not biased content from the media. I agree with Aza Raskin, inventor of the infinite scroll and co-founder of the Center for Humane Technology, who said "I am personally just as influenceable and vulnerable as every other human about things that really matter...I don't know why I know what I think I know." And this is somebody who helped invent the technology. If this intellectual heavyweight can STILL be fooled, somebody who literally created the technology he is afraid of, what does this say about the rest of us? Especially those who aren't even aware this is happening in the first place? The solution? I once again agree with the documentary. It is a shared version of reality and the truth. Before we can solve our issues, we must be able to first come together and agree on what is real. If we cannot, how can we ever move forward? When two people are not able to speak the same language, communication is nigh impossible. This is the great challenge of our age.