JD Photography

Growing up I would hear my parents talk about necessary evils, or the lesser of two evils. I feel like social media has become a necessary evil, and an individual’s platform choice is probably because they feel it’s the lesser of the evils.

As you can tell I’m not a fan of social media. Gone are the days of Farmville or Mafia Wars, where I would loose friends because of those games and the spam messages asking for lives. Now I lose friends because of political rhetoric. I do miss the days of using social media to plan outings, parties, and game nights. That’s when I had fun with social media, it kept me engaged social with my friends so we could hang out… in person… in real life… not online.

Maybe those days are gone and the political propaganda is the new social media norm. Maybe that’s why I have disdain for the platforms now is because I hate how it has decided friends and families and has taken us away from in-person meetings because they want us to stay as plugged in as possible. 

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.”

The new reality is that in social media, and with our reliance on big tech, we are have little control over what they take from us. What we can do, I think, to take power back is to unplug, when possible. Engage personally.

If we want to make significant changes I think everything comes back to money. Boycotts work. We want to protest the price of gas, organize and carpool or don’t drive. During the lockdown of COVID the price for a barrel of oil was near zero. Granted, that wasn’t an organized movement but it shows what mass unification can bring about. 

Online movements are trendy, but the real work has to be in person. You want change figure we need to figure out a way for people to listen, and that’s with dollars signs.