By Meagan Day
I have no disagreement with the central contentions of Benjamin Y. Fong’s recent article “Log Off,” in which he details the ill effects of social media. It seems indisputable that social media enhances narcissism, encourages cruelty, erodes empathy, exacerbates social isolation and atomization, and presents enormous obstacles to left-wing political organizing. Effectively combating the single-minded forces of capital requires heroic feats of solidarity across personal and political differences. The behavioral habits encouraged by social media make this task infinitely more difficult.
My own experience can be summed up as follows: nothing that I’ve experienced in offline organizing spaces has ever made me feel as demoralized as the intra-left acrimony I’ve observed on Twitter and, to a lesser extent, Facebook. And nothing that has ever crossed my screen has made me feel as buoyant, as admiring of my comrades, or as optimistic about the future of our movement as listening to a rousing speech on a picket line or taking in the crowd at a well-attended socialist meeting or hitting the pavement with a big crew to knock on our…
