Do you want to escape “the tyranny of now”?
In exploring the “tyranny of now” I realized how conditioned we are on social media to give into the feeling of immediacy and into the highlighting of current events. If the “tyranny of now” is an issue we are only encouraging it through the use of social media platforms, like Snapchat, and now Instagram stories, to share moments that demand an immediate reaction because they don’t last longer than twenty-four hours. As this behaviour becomes more common we are effected in the way that we process information and share news.
Author Alain de Botton believes that we consume too much information, always ready to take on the next big thing and then forget all about it before the end of the next day, ready to move on. We are encouraged by social media to believe that if we don’t consume and learn the narrative right away our ability to connect with the people around us will be hindered. Understanding what goes on around us and in our world through keeping up with current events is important so that we can discover new perspectives and gain an understanding of our place in society, but because there is so much content to consume we are not often given the chance to think about the new and current events, their weight, connection to us and their circumstances. This can be seen especially in the case of Snapchat. Users, brands, news outlets, etc., produce content on a daily basis to be broadcasted for 24 hours, and that’s it. If you miss it, you miss it and if there was something that you thought was important yesterday, there is something more relevant and more important today.
Honestly, examining these social media platforms in light of “the tyranny of now” has made me feel quite cynical, especially because it causes me to be critical of such a popular app, one that I use on a daily basis. However, looking at social media through this critical lens is not something that I often do. Upon deciding to explore this prompt and the question being asked, “how can social media users escape the ‘tyranny of now’”?, I wondered whether or not this is something that we, as social media users, want to do. Do social media users want to escape the “tyranny of now”? With the popularity of Snapchat and the adoption of the concept of stories into Instagram, it’s no wonder that Facebook is working on introducing stories too. It seems as though none of us social media users are bothered by the disappearance of content and the daily turnover of its relevance. Furthermore, I wondered whether the “tyranny of now” really exists in social media as it is supported by devices that have the ability to record and the memory to save. It has been drilled into our minds that everything you post online lives forever; it isn’t possible to know who has taken a screenshot of your post or downloaded a picture before it was deleted. The “tyranny of now” is contradicted in our ability to reference back to things that we have saved and that information that lives in immediacy has the ability to live forever.
The “tyranny of now” is a critique of the way that we consume information and it is easy to find yourself defending it’s effect on individuals, especially when it comes to the personal use of social media (you would know if you’ve ever tried to explain the purpose of Snapchat to your parents), but this behaviour has transferred into the way that we receive news and how new is reported. This is especially true when news is reporting on social media components, for example when information is being shared by political leaders is shared through Twitter. We have been trained to share right away, even if we aren’t in possession of all of the facts, so that we are a part of the conversation and are not excluded from what may turn out to be monumental. If we protect ourselves from “the tyranny of now”, how do we remain included in a society of quick information turnover? So, I ask you, do you want to escape “the tyranny of now”?
