Jorge's blog

Modern smear campaigns: anonymous digital attacks, sensational media lies, and public slander erode reputations and trust.   (📷:empowervmedia) C haracter assassination is defined as the deliberate and systematic destruction of an individual’s reputation or credibility through strategic communicative attacks that target their private lives, values, and core identity. While the human impulse to discredit rivals is as old as the recorded history of the Pharaohs or the Roman Senate, the current decade has introduced a level of scale and precision that has transformed this ancient tactic into a ubiquitous feature of global discourse. In the period spanning 2024 and 2025, the world witnessed a profound convergence of technical capability and social fragmentation, creating a fertile environment for what scholars describe as "reputation politics" . This is not merely a byproduct of internet anonymity; it is a calculated method of power struggle that treats words and images as psych...

A simple adjective cannot contain a broken, complex reality.   (📷:empowervmedia) T he lexicon of professional psychology has increasingly spilled out of clinical offices and research labs, becoming pervasive in mainstream conversations and online communities. This phenomenon, often termed pop-psychology, has been amplified dramatically by social media platforms, which have become fertile grounds for discussing and sharing personal mental health struggles. While the resulting accessibility can sometimes reduce the initial hurdle of discussing mental distress, it often comes at the steep cost of accuracy and nuance, particularly through the use of memes and short, quickly consumed videos . 'Why Pop Psychology is NOT Real Psychology' ▶️2m15s Affliction and Shortcuts The most common linguistic offence involves reducing complex clinical syndromes into simple, negative adjectives that describe mundane personality quirks or temporary moods. For example, it is now common for a p...

Digital dependence is a public health crisis accelerated by platform design exploiting our core personalities.   (📷:choosehelp) T he landscape of modern life is inextricably woven with online social networks, a phenomenon exemplified by the massive scale of global engagement. Today, approximately 4.8 billion people worldwide are actively utilising social media platforms , a figure that reflects the unparalleled success of platforms like Facebook in providing connection and information. Yet, embedded within this massive user base is a burgeoning crisis of digital dependency, known scientifically as Problematic Facebook Use (PFU) or Facebook Use Disorder (FUD). This is not merely frequent engagement but a pattern of functional impairment characterised by addiction-like symptoms: a manifest inability to control usage, the experience of withdrawal when disconnected, the neglect of important real-world activities in favour of screen time, and ultimately, facing significant negative con...