None of us is as dumb as all of us.

Social Media rots your brain.

I don’t believe anything anymore.

I rarely believe what I hear, what I read, or what other people tell me. I barely believe the things I see with my own eyes. Life is saner this way, and I’m growing comfortable with not knowing.

I got an extended, albeit unintended, exercise in “not knowing” these past few weeks when our internet connection was wiped out. For about a week the temperature here rose to 40F degrees causing the massive snow and ice dams on our roof to begin to slide.

And slide…

Crashing down, the snow took out our dish, every snow dam John had installed last spring above the doors and roof vents, and our “experimental” gutters, too.

The trellis suffered a crack as well, when a large sheet of ice slid onto it suddenly. The rest we chopped into smaller bits from below with a shovel as it slid, saving the trellis. A risky but worthwhile operation, it turns out.

Overall, I think we went three weeks without an internet signal. We never did get anyone to come way out here to fix it, but we finally got a real human being on the phone who helped us realign our dish.

When I became connected with the world again I learned that, apparently, social media was aflutter with rumors of “something in the chicken feed” that was stopping chickens from laying eggs.

I say apparently because I don’t have a social media account. Yet, rumors of the “poison chicken feed” reached me, too.

The stories seemed worrisome at first but, the more I saw, the more questions I had. The “poison feed” accusations seemed based on unrelated fears these people already held. They took these fears and ran with them. Other people followed. The saga continues…

This swirling escalation of panic reminds me of something that happened last fall: The Mystery of the Spying Helicopter.

Last October, a strange helicopter began flying at a very low altitude over our farm. The craft had a long stick protruding from the front and was flying in a grid pattern over the area. This went on for days.

John and I eyed this invasion of our quietude with suspicion as it crossed the sky - east, west; west, east - over and again. It flew low - invasively low - at 150ft or so above our house, our land. Above us.

Up to our elbows in dirt, blissfully digging potatoes, we monitored this intruder’s rhythmic pattern. What did it want? We’re not that interesting... yet, it persisted.

East, West. West, East.

Finally, I decided to break the ice and waved. I swear it reciprocated with a friendly, mechanical tilt as if to say, “I’m okay, you’re okay.” But was it? Was it all okay?

That evening, I duck-duck-go’ed all the applicable keywords and phrases I could imagine for this odd helicopter with the “red pole”, “with extension arm”, with “monitoring device/arm”…. My lengthy search returned images of refueling arms, military helicopters and unrelated planes until finally I came across our personal Unidentified Flying Object.

It was a USGS Survey helicopter.

I decided to go straight to the source. I sent an email asking USGS what they were doing repeatedly flying their helicopter over our property. Surprisingly, they answered almost immediately. Here’s the message (with locations redacted for privacy):

Scientists with the U.S. Geological Survey and the (state) Geological Survey are partnering to image geology using airborne geophysical technology as part of the USGS Earth Mapping Resource Initiative (Earth MRI) project.

Flights will begin on/around Sept. 23, 2022, and continue through November until winter weather impacts safe aircraft operation and data quality. If needed, the data collection will resume in June or July of 2023 when weather is again favorable for surveying. Flights will be based out of assorted regional airports.

The USGS is contracting with Precision GeoSurveys and EDCON-PRJ to collect the data in (these counties).

Thank you for contacting USGS, we hope this is helpful.

U.S. Geological Survey
Science Information Services
Toll Free 1-888-392-8545
You can contact us live on Webchat Find us on Facebook and Twitter and see other USGS social media accounts.

Well, that information was certainly helpful. Of course, it led to a host of other questions regarding the government’s intentions for any minerals they might find beneath our property, but at least it explained the helicopter.

Unbeknownst to me, while I was talking to the USGS, rumors were flying on Facebook. Theories ranged from helicopter-flying tax assessors, to illegal marijuana crop hunts, to wing shooting bear hunters. One person even suggested it was an electric plane and the long pole was the plug.

After reading some of the wildest theories, it was tempting to create a Facebook account just to add to the speculation: Maybe it was a cattle fart monitor to combat climate change, or a flying Covid detector and the long pole was to…. well, you get the picture.

Humorous as it was, though, it wasn’t worth engaging the mob. Nor was it worth trying to share the truth - and boring reality - that our UFO was simply doing a USGS survey.

Truth has no place in the perpetual Junior High that is Social Media.

If you can’t tell, I’m staunchly anti-social media, not least because I value my privacy but also because I believe group-think is dangerous. Social media platforms are akin to those group-projects in school - the bane of every introvert’s existence - in which every A-student is guaranteed to earn no more than a B, and every C-student, no less than a B. From this celebratory cesspool of mediocrity, Social Media was born.

Or was it the Pentagon? An aside…

If you didn’t already know, Facebook launched on Feb. 4, 2004 - only a day after the Pentagon’s DARPA project LifeLog closed. If that’s not odd enough, here’s a breakdown of LifeLog’s goals and objectives from Wikipedia:

LifeLog aimed to compile a massive electronic database of every activity and relationship a person engages in. This was to include credit card purchases, web sites visited, the content of telephone calls and e-mails sent and received, scans of faxes and postal mail sent and received, instant messages sent and received, books and magazines read, television and radio selections, physical location recorded via wearable GPS sensors, biomedical data captured through wearable sensors. The high level goal of this data logging was to identify "preferences, plans, goals, and other markers of intentionality".

…It sought to “find meaningful patterns in the timeline, to infer the user’s routines, habits, and relationships with other people, organizations, places, and objects, and to exploit these patterns to ease its task". 

How many people will see the connection between DARPA and “Facebook” and dismiss it - not because it isn’t true, but because it conflicts with what they want to be true? Like wing-shooting bear hunters in helicopters.

Social Media is group-think on steroids and our culture (the media, education, medicine, entertainment, politics) is beholden to Social Media trends. So-called “decision-makers and leaders” are led by popular opinion via algorithm. How much of what we’re shown actually reflects our personal values? More importantly, what percentage of our values is being shaped by what we’re led to believe is popular?

“The Pressure to entertain, to sell ourselves, and never be visibly anxious keeps ratcheting up.”

Susan Cain, Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World That Can’t Stop Talking

Individualism has given way to identity politics; character to personality. When the spotlight turns to whomever answers first and loudest, as opposed to those providing thorough information, popular sources become questionable.

Few thoughts expressed today are interesting, much less inspired. Because that culprit Social Media is constantly at our fingertips feeding us its collective opinion, very few circulating thoughts are original.

Originality takes time. It requires silence and reflection. Silence enables our ability to connect dots and see patterns that lead to understanding. Without silence and time to focus, we become menial “multi-taskers”, doing many things at once, poorly.

“It’s not that I’m so smart. It’s that I stay with problems longer.”

Albert Einstein

So back to the chickens. Remember the chickens?

I don’t discount that there is something fishy going on with the food supply, chickens included. John and I have been anticipating shortages and preserving and storing food for more than two years. Tell me something I don’t know.

There is clearly an egg shortage and the reasons behind it are many, including:

• Chickens are being killed for testing positive for avian flu. Whole flocks are eliminated if even one chick “tests positive” - using dubious testing methods like PCR.

• Poultry producers are not being paid higher prices for their product, despite increasing input costs. Their incentive to produce is, understandably, waning.

• Lastly, hundreds of food production facilities are being hit and mysteriously burned to the ground all over the country. Really Graceful has done a great job compiling an accurate summary here.

Despite all these factors, I still don’t believe the chicken feed has been tainted with a diabolical poison. Common sense tells us that corporate greed will always take something out of its product before it will put something extra in. Putting in costs more than taking out.

Isn’t it more likely that the feed manufacturer has cut the percentage of protein required for egg production? Likely, this reduction of protein is negatively affecting the chickens. The price of protein has gone up (I’m sure you’ve noticed) and manufacturing companies (especially Nestle, the company in question) still need to show a profit.

Additionally, many of these chickens seem to go right back to laying once their food is changed or they’re allowed to free-range. If they’d been poisoned, this wouldn’t be the case.

So, I don’t believe the chicken feed rumors. I think people are getting caught up in the excitement of gossip and reacting emotionally rather than acting logically. It happens.

“That was exactly what happened—the conformists showed less brain activity in the frontal, decision-making regions and more in the areas of the brain associated with perception. Peer pressure, in other words, is not only unpleasant, but can actually change your view of a problem.”

Susan Cain, Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World That Can’t Stop Talking

If you’re wondering whether I’m encouraging you to ditch Social Media, the answer is and always will be, YES!!! But I know that probably won’t happen. At least not entirely.

Maybe just turn it off after a set time, or set your browsing to some other inviolate schedule. Whatever you choose, set aside some quiet time for solitude, reflection and the cultivation of wisdom - far from the maddening crowd.

Listen to your conscience, research different points-of-view, and come to your own conclusions. Be brave. Be skeptical. Even if it means becoming a little less popular.

“Whenever you find yourself on the side of the majority, it is time to reform (or pause and reflect).”

Mark Twain

And if you find your resolve too weak to resist the pull of group-think, you can always resort to other means.