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It annoys me how people talk about using social media like it's a vice. And a female-coded one at that.

"Spend less time on social media" is trotted out a virtuous in the same way that "not eating a pint of ice cream" is.

Imagine if in the early days of movable type, there were people going around saying "don't read pamphlets, they are full of misinformation"

Social media is the primary way news is disseminated. It is superseding newspapers and TV as the primary vector of mass media. 1/

This entry was edited (4 months ago)
myrmepropagandist
myrmepropagandist  
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We had a really good speaker at our school last year who talked about understanding conflict resolution. Part of an effort to improve student mental health. The only thing I didn't like about her presentation was what she said on social media "Social media? my advice is stay away!" *big audience chuckle from teachers and parents*

And that laugh is because most know we won't *really* stay away. And we admire those who don't use social media like they are training for a marathon. 2/

Michał "rysiek" Woźniak · 🇺🇦
Michał "rysiek" Woźniak · 🇺🇦  
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strong "just say no" vibes right there. :blobcateyes:
myrmepropagandist
myrmepropagandist  
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Is "stay away" realistic advice for young people? Or for ANY people? It drives me nuts that some of the people with the best judgement, the cooler heads, the deeper thinkers, think that just ignoring social media is a solution.

Any format of information sharing can be "bad" yellow journalism, propaganda TV networks. All media present an opportunity to control the public will and so all media can be put to dishonest uses.

3/

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myrmepropagandist
myrmepropagandist  
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If I thought that "Social Media" meant using X or Facebook... I might agree with "stay away" But, that isn't the whole universe (we know that here, but who else knows?) and these are the kind of people who should know!

In the future social media will be media. The end.

What will that be like? We are building it now. Please for the love of God we need smart people to participate in this project. 4/4

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Chris Dolunt
Chris Dolunt  
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@zens @spockrocket Monetization of all physical space wrecked our society - if you don't have a car and money, there's nowhere to go, and nothing to do. The Internet was an escape because they couldn't monetize virtual space, until they figured out how to monetize the users.
@Luci for Chai Tea @Goober O'Beale
silverwizard
silverwizard  

@myrmepropagandist I always point to Plato's big oil' rant about how cue cards will be the death of the youth because writing is newfangled and bad

http://classics.mit.edu/Plato/phaedrus.html

@myrmepropagandist

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Jeremy
Jeremy  
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@silverwizard As always with Plato, there's a lot going on there. It's kind of a pet peeve of mine when people take Plato as being against writing and story telling when he was such a master of both. Rest assured, Plato was aware of, and fully intended, the irony of a literary and rhetorical work criticizing literary and rhetorical works.
@silverwizard
Hypolite Petovan
Hypolite Petovan  
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@myrmepropagandist This reminds me this dialogue line in Bridgerton (2020) season 1 episode 1:

Lady Portia Featherington: And, Penelope, put down that book at once. You shall confuse your thoughts.
@myrmepropagandist
myrmepropagandist
myrmepropagandist  
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@zens

Social media is the only place left and it's a KEY space for LGBT, minority, or even just deeply nerdy teens who feel like no one understands them.

usenet saved my life as a teen.

I had to spend the summers deep in rural PA and my only social options were Bible Summer School and family.

I also had a macintosh and a dial up modem and AOL.

Talking about math, and politics and science with people all over the world shaped who I am.

@Luci for Chai Tea
Chris Johnson
Chris Johnson  
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@cwdolunt @zens @spockrocket That’s the right viewpoint and attitude I think. Actually I think it’s even bigger: if we don’t figure out how to take back physical space, civilization will cease to exist in the long run. Note: such lack is unevenly distributed; at its worst perhaps in suburban and rural America, the opposite In other places.
@Luci for Chai Tea @Chris Dolunt @Goober O'Beale
Chris Johnson
Chris Johnson  
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@zens @edgeworth I can’t help but feel that there are a bunch of individual and societal mental health factors at play here. Modern western societies are all negating or manipulating basic human needs and cognitive flaws for more profit, worsening the inherent ignorance we have of ourselves—instead of gently holding and helping people to be their best selves.
@Luci for Chai Tea @edgeworth
edgeworth
edgeworth  
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@cxj @zens Yeah I think that's probably part of it.

I keep thinking lately about Alvin Toffler's Future Shock and (if I remember correctly) how he talks about people becoming more nomadic because wage opportunities aren't as local as they used to be.

So that nomadism means we typically move away from the families and communities we grew up with, and need to constantly adapt to new local cultures that we move into. (Granted, sometimes this allows escaping bad situations, so there can be some benefits)

Online communities seem like an opportunity for people to re-establish a sense of belonging, but there's still something about the community of place and physical presence that online lacks, and might be a vital part of belonging that we inherently need as human beings

Also I think of a post title I saw on Metafilter recently: "Prefer the problems of community to the problems of not having community"

@Luci for Chai Tea @Chris Johnson
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