Convincing a person through facts, logical argument and reasoning and the role of Whatsapp University

[I am sharing below an updated version of my previous post.]

These days it is increasingly challenging to logically argue with a person and drive home a message based on facts and data in my neighborhood and society in Bengaluru, India though all of them are well educated. Many have extended international exposure. All of us now have our own preferred channels of information, and unless one belongs to those channels, they will most likely be unconvincing to the listener. In my opinion some of the main reasons behind this mindset are the following.

1. It is difficult to change someone’s opinion or belief by using facts and logical arguments if that person did not arrive at their opinion through a process of reasoning and critical thinking. In other words, if someone has formed their opinion based on emotions or other non-rational factors, it can be difficult to change their mind using logical arguments alone.
2. People don’t turn away from reasoning because they are just disinterested, they turn away because their survival literally depends on not looking.
3. It is difficult to get a person to understand something when their financial income depends on not understanding it.

I shared my local experience. The same may be true for similar societies in rest of India and few other countries.

In this context the article “Do Facts Matter” is relevant. As stated in the article, facts matter when they support our beliefs and lead to conclusions we like. Information processing by our minds is influenced by goals, emotions, preexisting beliefs and culture. Our inferences will not change just based on raw facts.

One good example of such information channels are WhatsApp Groups in India. A recent study by the Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism at the University of Oxford suggests that the majority of Indian citizens trust the information they receive on WhatsApp.

What can change our informed decision making process? From my personal experience I see that facts or apparent facts driven by extreme external circumstances (e.g. business, finance etc.) and deep rooted emotional triggers can challenge our preexisting beliefs and modify our information channels. It seems that changing our bias and worldview doesn’t necessarily mean changing our belief about something.

We will always continue to believe what we think is right for us. We will keep tweaking and tuning our information channels and sources to suit our needs and beliefs.

As aptly mentioned here, the goal is not to change our belief but to create space for other people to have different perspectives. It is essential that we listen actively, ask questions respectfully, acknowledge differences without judgment or blame, and seek common ground wherever possible.

#LogicalReason #Logic #Society #Information #WhatsApp #WhatsAppUniversity #Facts #Mind #Harmony #Perspectives #Respect

#MastIndia #MastodonIndians

cc: @srijit

@nosherwan

I have echoed similar thoughts earlier. I am re-sharing them again.

Why Hashtags are important for Fediverse?

Two posts from mirabilos and Oliver, in response to a post from Jon Mueller, nicely and informally provide interesting insights about why full search for Mastodon (and rest of Fediverse) is not worth.

Social networking in Fediverse is like a little argy-bargy (talkathon) in a village square or a downtown or a pub or a corner of a road. Here one talks publicly while being fully aware that the content is ephemeral and not archived.

One would not mind being overheard in a local or even remote community. The expectation is that good content will be appreciated and carried forward by humans instead of appearing in a newspaper or getting discovered by searching though archived and persistent databases. There are no third parties monetizing the conversations. In most cases, the conversations are unlikely to have the polish and maturity for a publication.

The above mentioned outlook will help us to appreciate why hashtags are so important to join the right conversations locally or remotely and spread the good thoughts in ActivityPub based Fediverse.

#Mastodon #Fediverse #Search #ActivityPub #Hashtags #Hashtag #Pleroma #Akkoma #Friendica #Pixelfed #Misskey #PeerTube

cc: @srijit, @mirabilos, @oil

@judell

“The one thing I miss from Twitter is being able to have lists that include people I’m not following.”

I was wrong in my previous post. I stand corrected. In Akkoma, one can add, in the list, names of people that are not being followed. However, the list does not get updated or refreshed.

#Lists #Akkoma #Mastodon #Fediverse

@srijit @hhwong

A big 👍 to @charlotte for upgrading this instance to Akkoma 3.7.1 (Akkoma stable 2023.03).

Dosa and idly have always been my all time favorite dish since my childhood. One has to live in southern India to experience the wide varieties of dosas and idlis.

I am sharing the photo of delicious black and red rice Dosa with filling of sweet potato curry and peanut chutney powder. It was served with coconut chutney, tomato chutney and Sambar during my recent visit to Go Native.

#Dosa #MastIndia #Bengaluru #Bangalore

cc: @srijit

@Sheril

Thank you for sharing your insightful thoughts and observations regarding whether facts matter. From your article, I understand that information processing by our minds is influenced by goals, emotions, preexisting beliefs and culture. Our inferences will not change just based on raw facts.

What can change our informed decision making process? From my personal experience I see that facts or apparent facts driven by extreme external circumstances (e.g. business, finance etc.) and deep rooted emotional triggers can challenge our preexisting beliefs and modify our information channels. It seems that changing our bias and worldview doesn’t necessarily mean changing our belief about something. We will always continue to believe what we think is right for us.

As aptly mentioned here, the goal is not to change our belief but to create space for other people to have different perspectives. It is essential that we listen actively, ask questions respectfully, acknowledge differences without judgment or blame, and seek common ground wherever possible.

#Facts #Mind #Harmony #Perspectives #Respect

cc: @srijit

Convincing a person through logical argument and reasoning and the role of Whatsapp University

These days it is increasingly challenging to logically argue with a person and drive home a message based on facts and data in my neighborhood and society in Bengaluru, India though all of them are well educated. Many have extended international exposure. All of us now have our own preferred channels of information, and unless one belongs to those channels, they will most likely be unconvincing to the listener. In my opinion some of the main reasons behind this mindset are the following.

1. It is difficult to change someone’s opinion or belief by using logical arguments or facts if that person did not arrive at their opinion through a process of reasoning and critical thinking. In other words, if someone has formed their opinion based on emotions or other non-rational factors, it can be difficult to change their mind using logical arguments alone.
2. People don’t turn away from reasoning because they are just disinterested, they turn away because their survival literally depends on not looking.
3. It is difficult to get a person to understand something when their financial income depends on not understanding it.

One good example of such information channels are WhatsApp Groups in India. A recent study by the Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism at the University of Oxford suggests that the majority of Indian citizens trust the information they receive on WhatsApp.

I shared my local experience. The same may be true for similar societies in rest of India and few other countries.

#LogicalReason #Logic #Society #Information #WhatsApp #WhatsAppUniversity #MastIndia #MastodonIndians

cc: @srijit

@JonathanMBR

I was sad to learn from your post that Mbagathi river has dried up and wildlife of Nairobi National Park are dying. Nairobi National Park is in my bucket list.

Is it really due to climate change? As per the details shared here, Mbagathi River, like many other rivers in Kenya, is on the brink of drying up due to the rate of population increase in Karen, a suburb of Nairobi city. There is another school of thought which says how a reservoir construction has affected its natural flow regime.

It does not mean that climate change cannot have significant impacts on rivers and water resources.

#MbagathiRiver #ClimateChange #Population #ReservoirConstruction

cc: @srijit

@BrentToderian

In Bengaluru (Bangalore), India most roads are unsafe for pedestrians and cyclists. I would not prefer to ride a bicycle in the roads of Bengaluru since I am scared.

Here it is challenging to ensure safety, dignity & stature of pedestrians & cyclists, who are users of sustainable commute mode. I personally ensure to avoid any discomfort to a cyclist while driving though cyclists are often bullied by motorists with incessant honking.

Yes, I am also aware that cyclists do have to break rules for personal safety. Till now, Bengaluru Traffic police apparently have shown a soft corner towards cyclists.

Bengalureans lead in terms of CO2 offsets and the amount of fuel saved in companies among 100 cities, despite Bengaluru’s lack of adequate infrastructure and mobility for bikers and walkers.

I am sharing three interesting references below.

1. Shaping the future of integrated mobility - AltMo is a climate action platform for quantifying the impact of climate positive sustainable transport choices
2. B.PAC, DULT release findings from cyclists’ survey
3. Number of pedallers rise in Bengaluru, but not enough space for cycling

#Cyclists #Bengaluru #Bangalore #MastIndia #Pedaller #SustainableCommute #Pedestrians #BengaluruTraffic

cc: @mastodonindians @srijit @srijit

What is Democracy?

Democracy only means “rule by the people”. It means nothing more and nothing less. Democracy is not even remotely connected with freedom, justice and peace. Both democracy without freedom and freedom without democracy are feasible. Democracy is greater when individuals vote on those matters assigned to the public sector. On the other hand, freedom is concerned with the relationships among people in the private sector. Freedom means individuals may choose how to interact on a voluntary basis outside the purview of the state.

The Preamble of the Constitution of India includes the term “democracy”.

Although neither the Declaration of Independence (1776) nor the Constitution of the United States of America (1789) contain the word “democracy”, democracy and “rule of law” plainly go hand in hand to form a fundamental idea that significantly influences American administration.

References:

1. Freedom and Democracy Are Different
2. What the Heck is Democracy
3. On Democracy Versus Liberty
4. Slavery and the Constitution
5. Preamble to the Constitution of India
6. What Is a Democracy?

#Democracy #Freedom #Justice #Peace #Constitution

cc: @srijit @srijit

@simplex

“I’ve not seen a single messenger that did not make some questionable security trade offs to achieve full sync.”

Your observation is very interesting. Can you please share more details regarding this observation? Otherwise, you may also share any available web link elaborating this aspect.

#Simplex #Chat #Browser #Desktop

cc: @srijit

@simplex

“desktop - this year!”

Sounds good. Please ensure that the desktop app of SimpleX is not hardwired to the mobile app like that of WhatsApp.

#Simplex #Chat #Browser
cc: @srijit

@johnmu @ktdoggett

I am sharing a rebuttal of this story.

Gideon Lasco is an anthropologist and a physician based in Manila, the Philippines. He dug into the origins of a popular story, attributed to Margaret Mead about the original sign of civilization, since the story immediately aroused skepticism on his part. And the more he dug into it, the more it seemed to fall apart. According to Gideon Lasco there is no reliable evidence that Mead said what has been attributed to her.

#MargaretMead #Anthropology #Civilization #HumanNature

cc: @srijit @srijit

@mohaneds

The probability of Meta deciding to charge for WhatsApp or to limit it in some horrible way is zero.

However, Simplex is an interesting alternative.

@smallcircles

@Roglozor

It is not just about Meta. Meta, Google, Twitter etc. are primarily digital advertising companies. Advertising sales are the primary source of their revenue. There is nothing wrong here. It is a business model. Many of us, including myself, have immensely benefited from Google’s offerings like search engine and YouTube.

Digital advertising companies have to increase their revenue by expanding their advertising offerings and improving the effectiveness of their ads. One way to achieve this is to increase its reach and, thus, expand its user base and markets. If one or all of them conclude that ActivityPub powered social network is a business necessity for monetization, it will be executed to meet the business objectives. In the process, if Embrace-Extend-Extinguish approach has to to be followed for anything, so be it. If ActivityPub has to be dumped, after acquiring users and their personal data, there won’t be any regret.

I strongly believe that Fediverse is here to stay on its own merit and not as an alternative.

#ActivityPub #Meta #DigitalAdvertising #Advertising #WalledGarden #Fediverse #Google

cc: @Gargron @srijit @srijit

@simplex

When can one expect an independent web (browser) based desktop (Windows and Linux) SimpleX app?

#Simplex #Chat #Browser

cc: @srijit @srijit

I am unable to access Law and Other Things due to malware in the site.

The details of malware are available here. I am also sharing the corresponding screenshot.

I request the concerned authorities to take corrective actions.

#Malware #VirusTotal

cc: @apar @srijit