WTF are we doing (t)here?
Chia
I have a conflicting and difficult relationship with social media — surely we all do by now, right? Increasingly, holding onto the relationship has become hard to justify. The past year has been a new level of horrific in the social media sphere. We’ve seen things that no human should ever have to see, things that no human should ever have to experience; and yet, we have, and they are. As a result, I’ve noticed a few things in myself that I’m not particularly comfortable with. As a consequence, I’m starting to see it in others. Like a rogue, gelatinous chia teeth wedged in between one's teeth, I can’t un-see it, and I can’t not say anything. That would be rude.
What I’ve noticed, confronted with wars and genocides and bright orange republicans, is that for many posting and reposting has too easily become a coping strategy; to make us feel engaged and participatory. Claire Dederer puts it so aptly in her book Monsters, talking about audience-ship; “This was a very specific way of being an audience — watching something compulsively, as if you could somehow change it or take responsibility for it by keeping your eyes on it. I remembered it from the two Gulf wars, and from 9/11… As if watching could Do Something.” In this particular book, Dederer is interrogating what we should do with the work of monstrous male artists. You can’t argue that what we’re currently watching isn’t the work of other monstrous men.
I told myself earlier this year that I was keeping social media for two reasons;
To promote my life drawing business (its own business account)
To stay informed, on my personal account. To not look away. To keep sharing, keep watching, keep engaged.
DO NOT LOOK AWAY
I’ve looked at it from other angles. You cannot convince me that watching content is Doing Something to contribute. I wish so badly that it was. The posts that shout DO NOT LOOK AWAY bother me, because what it’s really saying is, ‘If you look away, you’ll forget this is happening’. If I need to be looking at our phone — dependant on social media — to remind myself that others are suffering, there’s a real problem. If we need to see blown apart children to believe they are being blown apart, that is a real problem. If we need to see entire camps of people being burned alive to remind ourselves of the horror, that is a real problem. If I do not look away because I think watching is Doing Something — that is a real problem.
I’ve told myself all of the things; oh, but it ensures the content gets viewed by more people, it elevates people on the ground, it wakes people up to the atrocities taking place — well, yes. But then they, like you, like me, scroll on. And the algorithm wins at its one and only endeavour; to keep us there.
Seeing is believing
The fact that real people have to post photos of parents clutching plastic bags filled with the limbs of their murdered children so that we believe them, has made me realise that it’s not a ‘difficult relationship with social media’ I’m suffering from, it’s a difficult realisation. Something is very, very wrong. How horrifically heart shattering to think that these people know the world won’t pay attention to their suffering unless it is shoved under our noses, disrupting our feed; begging us to hear the cries of mothers and fathers and sisters and uncles and neighbours and children and the perpetual sound of fighter jets and crumbling buildings. That they have to hit share, then to discover that yes, we can see it, and seeing it isn’t stopping it. Isn’t this is the real problem?
I’ve seen people say that the world is waking up. I think they mean we’re being made aware of the true nature of colonisation, capitalism, patriarchy, organised religion and power. We can see it. We’re being shown what’s happening, despite that fact that marginalised, oppressed, abused and annihilated cultures have been speaking about this for… ever. On further reflection, it just proves that, when in a position of privilege, only seeing is believing. “This bloody white bundle she hold in her arms, was her child.” Oh, now it’s real. I feel so much shame, an ignorant witness. True engagement has to go beyond watching.
Out of bed action
If watching was Doing Something, multiple genocides, criminals, and wars should have been stopped by now. It has not worked yet. Social media has successfully grasped everyone’s attention; it has shown us the need to act. What it has not grasped is a willingness to act; people do that, by actually doing it. We might repost a thing to make others aware of its happening, and a few other people may be moved enough to repost it again — I want to know, how many of those people actually take action, for real? As in, off the couch, off the toilet, out of bed action. I tell myself that some will. I hope that most do. I know that most won’t. A lot of the time, I haven’t either.
Attending protests generates pressure. Writing to MPs generates pressure. Donating generates opportunity. Paying for a subscription to support independent journalism generates truth telling. Speaking aloud to family and friends generates real conversations that may carry the empathy and respect that is needed to generate real change; of perspective, of heart, of neutrality in the face of injustice. Reposting content generates content, generates more content, generates content, generates more use, more passivity, more paralysis.
War porn; graphic images of violence collected in war zones, often viewed voyeuristically for emotional gratification.
I’ll help us pull that apart a little more, with an additional Google search; emotional gratification is a motivating force that results from the gratifying effects of emotions. The emotional reaction of emotional gratification is itself caused by emotions, resulting in a circular model of this complex interaction.
But what is it motivating?
Posting motivates reposting, watching motivates liking, sharing motivates tapping. This is emotional gratification in action, stuck in loop. For most users, posting what makes us feel sick to our stomach provides the emotional gratification (dopamine hit) we seek, because we can just get it out there and tell ourselves we’re being altruistic for a moment. In the meantime we think we’re telling everyone else watching that we’re concerned about what’s happening. We shout from the couch, from the toilet, from bed, I CARE.
… and then? A puppy playing with a duckling. An ad for beef tallow. The latest goat meme.
This is what’s wrong here; it’s not you or me. It’s what we’re hooked up to. It’s the thing that has us. I ask myself, what the fuck am I doing on this here thing? It is notoriously unreliable, intentionally addictive, unbelievably central to most people lives. And this is the thing that I need to Do Something about — for myself, for my children, and (maybe) for the good of humanity.
Ok, we need dot points
I’ve ditched social media before, and it was fantastic. I lost nothing of any real importance. I didn’t lose touch with the world. I was deeper in it. I went back for business purposes and it hasn’t been worth it. You know what worked best? Flyers and word of mouth! Being good at what I do! Real, tangible, everyday things. And look, admittedly I haven’t performed according to what the algorithm wants in order to boost my engagement to more people, which renders any effort completely void. Also, if you post about a genocide… well. Meta doesn’t like that. Here’s why I’m quitting (again);
Meta. In and of itself, it’s a good enough reason, no?
Social media is the most antisocial engagement strategy that capitalism has pooped out of its vacuum thus far; It’s made people dependant on rectangular devices to ensure their own relevance, to prove their own existence. It’s designed to keep them engaged and distracted, affirming the belief that their businesses, or identities, will suffer without it.
This is the first time that a social system has ensured the ostracisation of people both using and not using it. Cyber bullying and cancel culture has destroyed the lives of many people. Users have been driven to suicide at horrifically young ages. The anxiety of voicing any opinion on social media is felt by many, to the point where most influencers remain neutral on important topics, creating a vapid time warp of GRWM content and get rich quick schemes. And those who choose not to use it?…well, we’re out of sight, we’re out of mind. The system has us so hooked on scrolling, heavy users bias their attention to those they follow, and this disappoints me beyond measure.
People are so inundated with information and opinions, and most are unable to critically assess the information and opinions they’re absorbing. It’s too much. End of story.
Our children’s identities are being violated on social media — yes, even in private accounts.“Earlier this year it was reported that the privacy of Australian children was being violated on a large scale by the artificial intelligence (AI) industry, with personal images, names, locations and ages being used to train some of the world's leading AI models,” writes the ABC, in an article published one week ago. No, thanks. As a parent, I’m not willing to risk it anymore, because I don’t yet know the implications it will have on my kids privacy, autonomy and identity.
I’m really sick of reading (mostly white) people’s rants about the system, and decolonising, and rejecting capitalism, via a platform that ENSURES it’s proliferation. I’m annoyed because I’ve been there, done that, and the hypocrisy STANK. I’m sorry, if you want to actually, in real life destroy and encourage the questioning of those systems — maybe don’t use them to boost your follower count, which you then can’t bare to lose. You see the vicious cycle, right? We have to be brave. We have to risk ‘the following'. I know social media is a resource; it’s a platform to get good messages and good information out there — it’s also a rabbit hole for bad messages and terrible information, and there’s zero accountability and no roadmap.
You don’t get to choose what your kids get fed. You don’t get to ignore the fact that loneliness is an epidemic, and it’s on the rise, particularly in young people. Social media is a low-touch, inauthentic connection base; it’s seriously limited. ‘Followers’ are a symptom of a lost society, seeking something outside of themselves, and people happily capitalise on that dependency. Fact.
Social media is advertising. If you’re a business, you’re advertising. If you’re a private user, you’re being advertised to. If you like certain content, the algorithm will send you more of that kinda stuff, because it’s learning to sell you what you want; whether it’s information, inspiration, items or idiots. We know this. I’m not saying don’t advertise your business, I’m saying let’s call it what it is — a free (for the most part) advertising stream, where the loudest (and boost-est) voice gets heard. If we’re there to share from the goodness of our hearts, or to share with close family and friends, maybe it isn’t the right (nor safest) place to share anymore.
Content creators spend most of their time on a screen. I had a friend who was an ‘influencer’ (debatable) I couldn’t have a conversation with her actual face, because of the phone she held up between us. At all times. “Sorry, just checking….” I’ve had friends who aren’t content creators, and it’s the same thing. They’re hooked. Real time is secondary. The Now isn’t happening, unless we post a photo to say it is.
Like any shitty, one-sided relationship, I don’t know that this amounts to anything worth keeping in my life. To be honest, I feel like I’m kicking a slimy fuck-boy to the curb. And after going back to him multiple times, something has shifted this time — and I think it’s the world. My mammalian brain thinks it may be time to adapt.
I will continue to stay engaged with the real life world by being in it. I’ll continue to show up important causes with my person. I’ll show I care by… I dunno, using human empathy? I’ll spend my time in ways I choose. I’m my own algorithm (terrifying) I follow my fucking self. In a world where other people only exist if they’re there on our screens, I’ll be frolicking in the margins of non-existence. And the world will continue spinning. Do not stop talking about it! Do not stop asking questions! Do not stop caring! There a flowers to be smelled! There are letters to be sent! There are rallies to attend! There is CHIA in everyone’s teeth — what are you gonna do about it?