late-stage social media
why I'm (sort of) an internet recluse
I don’t recall ever having Twitter. I haven’t had Facebook for years, recently I offloaded WhatsApp, Threads, and even logged out of Instagram because folks are a mess over there too. I started getting really hateful comments from two prominent influencers (that many of my IRL friends follow) who are very progressive outspoken ‘feminists’. I thought I was doing my bit in the name of community activation by calling them in after I noticed some of their comments attacking other progressives. When the anger came onto me I began to wonder… in their world of mass followers and partnership deals, these so called ‘radicalised’ Instagram stars had either willingly missed the point of liberation, or saw their engagement increased when they began attacking folks who were on their side, advocating for the same movements and rights they were espousing.
My husband says I have an aversion to anything with a whiff of extremism, and that’s probably true. Perhaps my upbringing by -and intimate relationships with- predominately white men have given me a unique perspective on this. Maybe I’ve always been a consensus builder, guess I should have been a diplomat?
When I see people speaking so convincingly, about anything really, even topics I agree with, I get the slightest inkling of discomfort. Though I do genuinely value passion (hi, I’m a Scorpio), the immediacy of the internet and our 24 hour news cycle has pushed us into believing we need to respond vociferously to everything immediately, lest it be swept out to sea by the next wave of topics and perpetual online noise.
One of the things I am enjoying about Substack is I write these posts as brain dumps, then come back when I’ve had more time to reflect and gather my thoughts in way that I can still be proud of during some future date. All of this to say, we are all fallible beings, the future is bleak, and we’ll need each other to get through. Quick insensitive knee jerk responses to folks on the internet will not save us. Thoughtful engagement, time, patience, and understanding will move our society forward. As I heard recently on a beloved podcast, this is not a sprint, or a marathon, it’s a relay race. We will each need to take up the baton at some point, and I can only assume that writing is mine.
Stop arguing with MAGA supporters.
We have a long road ahead and that energy will be better used in advocacy, activism, volunteering, resource sharing, etc. I also discovered after recently signing up for TikTok during the US ban (I currently live in NZ), that a lot of the rage bait isn’t being platformed by Russia or China, it’s mostly US accounts (that’s right folks, the call is coming from inside the house). How can we be focused on all the important work ahead if we’re so busy feeling enraged and spiteful towards everyone, everywhere, all the time, many who very likely don’t even exist beyond an artificially created algorithm.
So let us find community groups, share food, uplift each other. Write, create, rest, then get up and do it all again until we heal this broken world we all find ourselves in. Don’t worry about what strangers on the internet say or think of you, of how many followers or likes you get, just make the things you know would have helped you in your darkest moment(s), and put those things out into the world.
We gon’ be aiight.
I often say, those of us old enough to remember the early days of the internet had such hope for how it would unit us. You could share your thoughts, customs and beliefs with people all over the world in an instant. And instead, algorithms have made it an echo chamber, pushing people further and further to extremes of intolerance. Zuckerberg will be "the first against the wall come the revolution" (am I allowed to even say that in a rhetorical way, without facing the wrath of the social media radicals?)
Wow, loved reading this. I have been doing a lot of thinking on how easily we collectively react to things we see online, and trying myself and encouraging others to try to think and seek more information before going through a knee-jerk reaction to something. The more I do it, the more I find myself able to be discerning, the less I feel compelled to emotionally react to something, and the more I am able to stay focused on my own, hopefully helpful, work. Keeping focus on how we can help, heal and grow instead of giving energy to fear and anger. It’s a long process, but it works. Thanks for sharing. 🙏