I don’t see the social aspect in the “social media”. Humans are each left alone in their own devices (pun intended) to scroll on what other humans put out there but they do not meet, they do not interact, they do not socializing with the content creators in any way. On the contrary, humans cut themselves, off from any real social activity and whilst with others in a cafe, restaurant, home, school, they stay addicted and alone in their scrolling.
Worse even, these “social media” give a false antidote to loneliness, perpetuating it rather than curing it. We are not alone when we see so many other people and catch up with what they do in life or what they ate, right? But we do not share, not taste that food in the picture. We do not touch, we do not smell the human putting up the picture. We never meet the kids yet we see so much of their lives on a screen.
The other thing I hate about these antisocial media is the numbness by bombarding. In milliseconds I experience a devasting picture of some rescue out of debris following an earthquake, a baby cat playing the piano, immediately after an AI story about medieval England, some gentle parenting advice, a pure ad and a not so funny content by a micro-influencer and a terrible pseudo advice from a god knows who about avoidants in relationships. How can my poor sapiens brain go through all that in milliseconds? I never process it, I did not even chose that sequence and what am I supposed to do with that content? What is the gain? I have no doubt about the loss though. My most precious asset, time, gone. Wasted. My second most precious asset, ability and be critical of the world and appreciative of its beauty, gone. Numbed.
It is about time we call them what they are.
They are media. A medium for advertising, a platform for our narcissistic selves and a way to avoid our problems or life itself. They are not social and neither are we when on them. Please help me make sense of this one too…
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