Anti-Social Social Media

 

They call it "social media," but it really ain't!

(That's the extent of my daily allotment of folksy verbiage!)

Of course, that is not a new observation.  Contemporary media pundits have been making this observation for some time, so I am not saying anything new.  I guess you can consider this just my personal declaration of social media liberation.  

Well, that is my hope, anyway.  

Now, I don't want to make a claim I can't keep.  This is not my "cold turkey" declaration.  As I write this, I still have a tab open with Twitter, and I just thought of a trailer I really want to post on Facebook.  But here's the thing: like a junkie fighting addiction, I am resisting the urge to run to one of those platforms and make my post.  

This is going to take effort.  😅

So, why am I making this change after years and years of using social media?

Well, as you can tell by the title of this post, I am getting tired of the anti-social nature of social media. Now, what do I mean by that?

Much has been said of the nasty and brutish nature of social media.  The roving mobs of bigots, cranks, and covert political operatives, such as those from Russia who helped elect the current occupant of the White House.  Such villains are definitely out there, albeit, in my experience, you are more likely to encounter them on the more anonymous social media services, such as Twitter, than you are on a more intimate service such as Facebook.  Regardless, those roving mobs of baddies do serve to undermine the very point of social media as they serve to divide rather unify, which is the supposed point of social media, after all. 

But for me, those gangs are more of a nuisance than the real reason why I am getting fed up with social media.   For me, the biggest annoyance with social media is how much of it isn't very sociable at all.  By that, I mean that many people don't use social media as a way of truly interacting with other people, rather they use it as a type of vanity mirror, a poor person's O'Reilly Factor (how the mighty have fallen) or The Phil Donahue Show.  In other words, social media is really just used to spit out opinions with the rapidity of a machinegun and, ideally, have those opinions validated by fawning followers.  It is an isolating ego-trip rather than an expansive social experience.  

This trend has accelerated since people have begun to realize that there is money in them there tweets. (Oops! Looks like there were a few more drops of folksy lingo left in me!) This potential to turn "likes" and retweets into cash has spawned the shady industry of "influencers," people who make cash by shoveling sponsored products at their fans with all the abandon of a late-night infomercial.  This potential for scratch has even created a spin-off industry where people create fake social media accounts and sell them to would-be social media superstars for cash, enabling the buyer to jumpstart their stardom without needing to put in the work.  People often describe Hollywood as a land of phonies, well, it has nothing on the world of social media!

While I can, fortunately, claim that I have never been hurt by these practices, I have noticed that the most popular accounts, those that tweet and post the most are the ones that reply the least.  Sure, when an account has thousands of followers, with hundreds of replies to a particular post, I can forgive that person for not replying to each and every tweet.  That is not what irks me as I follow only a few mega-celebrities for (what should be) obvious reasons.  Rather, I follow small fish in the big pond of the internet, usually "celebs" in a niche hobby.  Here it does irk me as the replies to a particular posting can be numbered a dozen or less, yet you still receive no reply to any comment you might leave.  Such times make you realize that the original poster ("OP" in internet lingo) is not interested in an actual dialogue with his followers, rather he is just using us to provoke a reaction either for vainglorious reasons (i.e., "I'm smart because look at all these responses I get!") or as a stepping stone to greater popularity (i.e., "Look at all these "likes" and replies!  Shouldn't you be following me too? And pay me to be an influencer?!").   

I know this must be the case because I've been guilty of this behavior, too.  When I post something on a social media account, I accept simple "likes" and retweets with joy, and disagreements with annoyance, both for the audacity of having someone disagree with my brilliant posting, as well as because it provokes a needed rebuttal.  This last point is key because I always feel an obligation to engage with my audience (such as it is) whether they agreed with me or not.  I mean, if someone took the time to leave a comment, the least I can do is acknowledge it in some fashion.  Sadly, few others feel the same based on my experiences on social media.  Not only do social media mavens rarely respond to an earnest attempt at dialogue, but they also can't be bothered to acknowledge replies with a simple "like," something that takes little more than the flick of a finger.  

In short, my experience of social media has been one of a one-way street, one where accountholders greedily accept fawning praise in the form of "followers," "likes," and "retweets," but have little time to reciprocate with their fans in even the most effortless way.  

This realization about the nature of social media has raised a compelling point: if the medium is not going to be used in a truly social fashion, why bother with it? 

Honestly, I have no response to that question.  Well, maybe one response: places like Facebook and Twitter do serve as excellent content aggregators.  It can be a pleasure to be able to see content automatically culled from my favorite internet haunts, which is the poor person's equivalent of having a personal secretary clip interesting articles for me to read every day! But in terms of the broader purpose of sharing thoughts and opinions with others, it is becoming clear to me that the so-called "social media" isn't servings that purpose at all.  Perhaps a name change is overdue? Perhaps the "social media" moniker should be ditched for something more fitting like "vanity media"?  

Which brings me to this here blog.  (Dang it!  Did it again!  And again!)  I used to love to blog...until I discovered the "micro-blogging" of Facebook, et alia.  The hook for me was how effortless it was to "share" content on social media platforms, often just a click of a button followed by a line or two of optional text (hence, "micro-blogging").  Simple!  And addictive, as most simple and repetitive feedback loops are.   But micro-blogging is also a tragedy because it lacks the love of writing that blogging requires.  The reason why social media is so popular is that any hack with a keyboard - strike that as I suspect a lot of social media mavens post via their smartphones, so I can't even give them the dignity of using a keyboard! - can start posting his "thoughts" online.  Compare the typical 480-character "tweet" on Twitter to, say, this blog entry that you are now reading.  What's the character count here?  6844, comprising just over 1200 words! That takes effort; a tweet, by comparison, is effortless. For illustrative purposes, this entry is the equivalent of roughly 14 tweets!

Again, this is not a declaration of my independence from social media.  Heck, in the past two days I must have tweeted and posted on social media over a dozen times.  Social media does have its uses, and it can be fun in a non-serious arcade game sort of way.  But as a primary form of writing out my thoughts?  Those days are going to come to an end if I can help it.

(And before you cry "hypocrite!" and point out that blogging is just another form of social media - indeed, the grandfather of social media - I acknowledge that fact. But there is a world of difference between the so-called "blogosphere" and the world of mainstream social media.  Blogging is far less about being a social media "Mister Meeseeks" and more about a chronicle of your well-considered thoughts.  This is precisely why blog posts rarely get the media attention that your average tweet does: a brief tweet is tailor-made for modern media that has no tolerance for anything of any complexity!)

Is this entry something of a rant on my part? Sure is.  But I felt the need to get it off my chest.  Do me the favor of viewing my thoughts less in the light of what is wrong with social media and more in the light of what is right about blogging!  And while I am at it, consider this as an invitation to blog!  If you like to post on Facebook or tweet on Twitter, perhaps you might like to blog on Blogger as well!  It is comprised of a better class of people, after all...