ᴇʟʟᴀ

27 • nj / co • i happen to bitch the perfect amount for someone in my situation

[ᴇʟʟᴀ @ellaluzzi]

feeling anxious for no reason is someone out there mad at me

[indigo @2handedwarrior]

i think about "my brother stole every spoon in the house" like once a week minimum since i first read it

[Neil Agarwal @regalstreak]

i accidentally discovered one of the coolest features on the internet

the Wikipedia app has a "nearby" feature that shows wikipedia articles around your location!

i opened it and instantly fell into a rabbit hole of random places, local history and weird things around me

try it and tell me what shows up near you

[★★★★★ @ItsJonesii__Bby]

This is something to celebrate

[Isi Breen @isaiah_bb]

Hate to think of how many students have suffered and job applications have been ignored because the software that does stuff like this basically doesn’t work.

[Zaza Waybright @Le_Unorthodox]

It’s a cosmic tragedy and also somehow perfectly fitting that Zohran is like the only major politician in America who actually does anything and he can’t be president

[Anish Moonka @anishmoonka]

The actual research is wild. Every time you push down a feeling, your brain has to choose between suppressing that emotion and recording what’s happening around you. It picks the suppression. The memory doesn’t get saved.

A 2000 Stanford study confirmed this: people told to hide their emotions while watching a film remembered far fewer details than people who just reacted naturally. Suppressing emotions uses up mental energy, and that leaves less brain power for saving new memories.

Brain scans show why. A 2012 study found that suppression quiets the hippocampus (your brain’s memory-recording center) right when it should be saving information. The two brain regions that normally team up to lock in memories stop talking to each other.

Over time it gets worse. Suppression keeps cortisol (the stress hormone) elevated, and cortisol shrinks the hippocampus. Chronically stressed people can lose 10 to 15% of its volume. Just three weeks of high cortisol can shrink the tiny connection points between brain cells by about 20%. The good news: studies show this shrinkage can partially reverse once stress levels drop. Not necessarily permanent.

A Finnish study of 1,137 older adults tracked over roughly a decade found that habitual emotion suppressors had nearly 5x the risk of developing dementia, even after controlling for genetics, smoking, obesity, and education.

There’s a better way to handle emotions that doesn’t cost you your memory. It’s called cognitive reappraisal: instead of bottling the feeling, you reframe what’s causing it. (“This meeting isn’t a threat, it’s practice.”) A 2003 Stanford/UC Berkeley study found reappraisers had more positive emotion, better relationships, and higher wellbeing. Suppressors got the opposite on every measure. And reappraisal carries zero memory cost.

The difference comes down to timing. Suppression kicks in after the emotion has already fired, so your brain is fighting its own response while simultaneously trying to record the moment. Reappraisal changes how you interpret the situation before the emotion fully activates. Same event, same person, but your hippocampus stays free to do its actual job: recording your life.

[Nav Toor @heynavtoor]

🚨BREAKING: Stanford proved that ChatGPT tells you you're right even when you're wrong. Even when you're hurting someone.

And it's making you a worse person because of it.

Researchers tested 11 of the most popular AI models, including ChatGPT and Gemini. They analyzed over 11,500 real advice-seeking conversations. The finding was universal. Every single model agreed with users 50% more than a human would.

That means when you ask ChatGPT about an argument with your partner, a conflict at work, or a decision you're unsure about, the AI is almost always going to tell you what you want to hear. Not what you need to hear.

It gets darker. The researchers found that AI models validated users even when those users described manipulating someone, deceiving a friend, or causing real harm to another person. The AI didn't push back. It didn't challenge them. It cheered them on.

Then they ran the experiment that changes everything. 1,604 people discussed real personal conflicts with AI. One group got a sycophantic AI. The other got a neutral one.

The sycophantic group became measurably less willing to apologize. Less willing to compromise. Less willing to see the other person's side. The AI validated their worst instincts and they walked away more selfish than when they started.

Here's the trap. Participants rated the sycophantic AI as higher quality. They trusted it more. They wanted to use it again. The AI that made them worse people felt like the better product.

This creates a cycle nobody is talking about. Users prefer AI that tells them they're right. Companies train AI to keep users happy. The AI gets better at flattering. Users get worse at self-reflection. And the loop tightens.

Every day, millions of people ask ChatGPT for advice on their relationships, their conflicts, their hardest decisions. And every day, it tells almost all of them the same thing.

You're right. They're wrong.

Even when the opposite is true.

[💗 @ma1ybe]

“what is going on???” girl the majority of young men are literally the fucking hitler youth

[FEMSOFTWARE 🏳️‍⚧️ 🔞 @FEMSOFTWARE]

This goes so hard

[ɴ. 𖤐👻 @luvblessingz]

I hate when a bitch I can't stand makes a valid point.

[🐟 Lucía 🏳️‍⚧️🏳️‍🌈🇸🇻🇲🇽🇵🇸🇨🇩🇸🇩🇺🇦🇾🇪🇦🇲🇧🇩🇪🇸🇪🇪🏴󠁧󠁢󠁷󠁬󠁳󠁿🇹🇷🇺🇳 @hamburger317]

WHAT THE FUCK

[nazzo @nazzobetweeting]

it’s like how being pro-lgbtq was kind of normalized a decade ago, even elon musk was posting the pride flag, and now people are suddenly 10x more conservative

[Jesus Freakin Congress @TheJFreakinC]

🚨BREAKING: Law enforcement threatened to kill an unarmed 17-year-old as he was leaving an anti-ICE protest in Indianapolis.

In the video, police officers stop a 17-year-old and order him out of his car.

He calmly asks why.

Instead of answering, an officer opens the car door, grabs his arm, and says:

“I will fucking kill you.”

An armed officer told an unarmed child he would kill him… with zero justification.

The teen looks visibly shocked and gets out of the car.

Officers then shove him against the vehicle and begin searching him.

After threatening his life, the officer tries to justify it by saying,

“He was reaching for a gun.”

The teen responds, “Who was reaching for a gun?!?”

They find no gun… because he never had a gun, and never reached for anything.

This police officer illegally threatened to use lethal force against a minor who committed no crime.

Which is exactly what happens when a government excuses, defends, and normalizes law enforcement aggression.

When officers know they won’t be held accountable, the threats get louder, the lies get sloppier, and the violence escalates.

[Katherine Clark @TeamKClark]

Don’t let this get buried.

Republicans are actively obstructing women’s right to vote ahead of the midterm elections.

[victoria ♀️ @fatfabfeminist]

this was literally the whole point of ai

[BladeoftheSun @BladeoftheS]

We remember what Elon Musk's daughter said about him.

Very relevant.

[PotatoMcWhiskey @PotatoMcWhiskey]

So basically they are violently "neutering" men by destroying their testicles. Did you know preventing reproduction is one of the key prohibited acts under the genocide convention?

Its so much worse than simply sexual abuse. Its fucking genocidal

[Georgia Coley @artwithinpod]

this is the kind of thing that overwhelms me to think about. what happens to a person's car when they're abducted? what if it's stolen? if you're detained for months on end, what happens to your house? and when you're released because it was a mistake, who picks up the pieces?