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I’m conflicted, as I get older, with how much Big Tech runs my life. First think I grab after I put on my glass is my cell phone to see who has tested me or called and left a voicemail. I rely on social media to tell me what the conversation of the day is, and how my friends feel about said issue. It’s become impersonal.

I’m what the kids would call an OG, original gangsta, when it comes to Facebook. When I signed up it was still a student only social media platform, and you had to have a .edu email address to signup. Back then it was about connecting socially, at least with my friends. Where are we meeting up Friday night, who’s having a party on Saturday night? There was Mafia Wars and FarmVille too, but that’s a whole different subject.

My friends and I connected outside of the virtual world but coordinated schedules through the virtual platform. It was great!

Over the years you could see it changing. I saw more ads than I saw my friends sharing and inviting. I saw more people posting political propaganda, when I didn’t even know they were into politics, I knew other stuff they were into. I person we would talk about life and family and dream, but never politics. We were knowledgeable but not to the point we would ever open it up to Facebook.

I started seeing less of my friends. I started seeing less posts. By the time I got hacked out of Facebook I had lost all meaningful contact with friends I shared years of my life with. What I was seeing was more advertisements, more propaganda, and more things that made me angry.

Johann Hari writes in Stolen Focus Why You Can’t Pay Attention – and How to Think Deeply Again, “It was explained to me that whenever something is provided by a tech company for free, it’s always to improve the voodoo doll” (a virtual replica of ourselves). “Why is Google Maps free? So the voodoo doll can include the details of where you go everyday. Why are Amazon Echo and Google Nest Hubs sold for as cheap as $30, far less than they cost to make? So They can gather more info; so the voodoo doll can consist not just of what you search for on a screen but what you say in your home.”

That technology and business model is the same for social media. They make money the more you’re on their platform. How can they keep you hooked? Make you angry, you’re more likely to stay engaged if you’re upset about something.

“This is the business model that built and sustains the sites on which we spend so much of our lives. The technical term for this system – coined by the brilliant Harvard professor Shoshana Zuboff – is ‘Surveillance capitalism.’’

The systems we’ve been trained to rely upon are capitalizing on our continued use.

I’ve been wondering to myself, “can we go back?” Can we go back to where social media was fun and engaging outside of the site? Can we be social creatures again and not just virtually social creatures? Can we have discussions in person and not through IM or comments?

I believe we can. I don’t have a blue print yet, but my mind is racing for a cure. I believe there has to be something better or we will be doomed because the powerful loved the money and power too much to care what happens there are no dafe guards on Big Tech.