I was reading an op-ed in The Seattle Time called "We Should All Know Less About Each Other." It argues that social media, as oppose to making the world an more open and connected place, essentially reinforces our own echo chamber and has been slowly breaking down social peace that is often a by-product of us tolerating other people's views....simply because we do not know about them. The author features a study that shows how they got Democrats and Republicans to follow social media accounts, without their knowledge, of members of the opposite party. What they found was that instead of becoming more tolerant, people only be more radical about their own beliefs. In other words, it shows that you cannot really break down that echo chamber. We are effectively only mimicking the small town, tribal communities humans have lived in for a millenia.
Another thing it mentions is how conversations between people that would otherwise be fruitful are shut down prematurely. Citizens from a local town the author spoke to said they had stopped talking to people because of their views online.
This is one of the reasons I don't mindlessly scroll. I often find brilliant tweets then look for the account only to be put off and not want to engage with the person anymore. It's not a nice confession but an honest one. This is one of my biggest contentions with social media. I'm curating humans like perfect collection of dolls that reflect back to me what I want to see when in the real world I've always been able to have friends who I really disagree with yet want to continue engaging with them.
Social media has always been a challenging terrain for me. I use to have accounts with thousands of followers but, at the bottom simmering with discomfort, was my need for privacy. Ok, I am not big on sharing photos, but the privacy of my likes, dislikes, preferences, points of view, whose audience was once reserved for people that knew you, love you, or at the very least, could tolerate you.
The current rage about Elon Musk taking over Twitter is very bizarre, as if our other media conglomerates aren't also owned by billionaire oligarchs? I'm of the opinion Twitter is not some sort of human townhall, like Musk is saying but the discontents of everyday human life that found an outlet. I don't believe it's healthy for the human mind to be so connected to constant stream of problems. News, perspectives and ideas are presented but nothing gets solved. It's a roller coaster of emotions where you feel depleted at the end yet the platform has now learned more about you and will use that data against you. It's a breeding ground for separation and has fueled propaganda that has had real-world effects.
So yes, we should all know less about each other, less about our problems. We should be more connected to what is going on around us, our neighbours, our local community. Thee benefits social media has brought has not outweighed the myriad of mental illnesses it's created in addition to the cultural degeneracy it promotes. Social media is just a tool is not argument. Just like saying money is just a tool. But unless you are the one designing international monetary economic policy or social media censorship laws we are facing now, then we have to care about its long term effects.
I guess this rant is just to say that perhaps my intuition against these platforms now has some credence, that my time building a life outside of the metaverse(yes, we are already living in it) will bear a better life than the unending search for validation and success in a world that doesn't really exist. I grew up in a pre-2012 world(this is the date I feel this started going downhill fast) and life was infinitely less depressing. Hanging out with my friends on the street at 9pm reciting poetry, randomly(or telepathically) bumping into people and catching up or even travelling and not having a single experience captured on camera.
This world is withering away and I want to hold on to it even if I can feel it slipping from my hands.
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