This is in continuation from the previous post titled, “Where we are… .” If you haven’t read that yet, I would suggest you to read it first.
In the previous post, I briefly explored where our society stands. In this and subsequent posts, I begin to explore how it came to be.
The influence of media, particularly social media, has been the subject of intense research. While it is widely acclaimed to be the great equalizer, the internet has come to be controlled by a few giant corporations, and governments. The world’s best, highest-paid researchers are typically employed by these bodies, so that they can entice you to spend that extra second browsing their app. Seconds soon become minutes, minutes soon become hours, and now it is the preferred way of communication. Social media has come to increasingly influence world politics [1] [2] [3], including the recent election of Donald Trump in the US and the Brexit vote in the UK [4]
Social media also increasingly restricts us inside our echo chamber [5]. This has consequences in a world already on edge [6]. Furthermore, the world’s largest social media company— Facebook, with over a third of humanity as its subscriber [7] [8], is controlled by a single individual [9] with a troubled personality (who believes privacy is dead [10], while covering is laptop camera with tape [11]).
Social media also insidiously replaces real human contact, emotion, discussion with a machine which imitates one. It replaces conversation with mere connection. It makes us less empathetic, less compassionate. It makes us more disconnected from reality. Do read the seminal work “Alone Together” by Professor Sherry Turkle [12] for a deep dive in this topic, or read one of her many columns on the New York Times [13] [14] [15] [16], and watch the TED talk [17]. There are other interesting resources to explore, like this talk by Allison Graham [18], this argument by Dr. Cal Newport [19], and this account by Paul Miller of a year he spent completely offline [20].
The age of social media also limits the boundaries of our activism. Gone are the days of large public marches, with human beings walking with one another, discussing, protesting, evolving. Come have the days of clickbait activism, designed largely to satiate your hunger for “having done something”. Activism is now judged not by tangible impact, but by how many ‘re-tweets’, ‘facebook-likes’, ‘shares’ your ‘movement’ received. The result — We have more movements, but less successes [21].
So, in a world which is increasingly more ‘connected’, we as individuals are more disconnected than before, and less humane than before.
It is becoming evident how this ties into the larger challenges we face as a species, and the problems we are creating for all life on this planet.
[To be continued…]
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