The Myth of Social Media

Social Media. Hell of a thing, isn’t it? Not really, no. But also yes very much so.

The thing of it is though, Social Media isn’t what it claims to be, at all. Now, as a way of introduction I’m gonna go ahead and say I remember the BBS days, the Usenet days, LiveJournal, MySpace, and right into this modern era of things. I will not, however, say “Things were better then,” as a dismissive hand wave.

They kinda were, but not because of the normal reasons people say that sort of thing. I mean things weren’t “better then” and if they seemed that way it’s because, in my case at least, I’m a white guy so my struggles were all on easy mode, and the less information you have of the world outside of your corner of it, when you’re younger doubly so, the easier it is to not see the reality of the world. So let’s take that all into account.

But Social Media. You know it wasn’t called that for a very long time.

No one on any BBS I ever hung out on called it that. Or on LiveJournal. It simply wasn’t a term. So where did it come from?

Social Media is the term The Media came up with. And they had a very specific meaning in mind. It’s media – a thing they beam at you, but designed in a way to fool you into thinking you aren’t being fed their line of bullshit.

If everyone has a voice then it isn’t controlled, right?

Except.

There’s always that little creeping “except” in there, huh?

Think of it this way: Traditional Media wasn’t called that by normal humans. It was a term designed to make you feel nostalgia toward older systems that were much better at monetizing you.

“Aww don’t you remember the glory days of appointment TV and radio when we could easily tell when you would turn in, and who you would be, demographically speaking, so we could force you to watch advertising and make a shit ton off of your time in exchange for some entertainment? Don’t you miss it? It’s traditional!”

They’re (still) not as good at monetizing newer forms of media, and until they are, they will lament the loss of “traditional” things. Once they nail it though? Pfft that’s old boring stuff. The new exciting thing is where it’s at! Now watch this ad, and pay for this thing.

So Social Media. Once they found a way to get news there, to get their TV shows and movie ads there, to push product – well then it became Social Media out of the blue. It became a thing they wanted to use, to sell things to us, in ways that they hoped we wouldn’t notice, would just accept, and would happily sit with.

And we did, and do. And that’s fine, to an extent. Look, I like a lot of TV shows, and if the price I had to pay for watching my fave shows was sitting through a few ads, that was acceptable to me. Sometimes the ads were fun, or even had a product I wanted. I just didn’t have a choice.

So Social Media. My BBS didn’t have ads. LiveJournal didn’t have ads between posts. No, it wasn’t until that shit started to become common that we gained the new term.

Subtle, isn’t it?

Not really.

Used to be you could get on the internet and scream into the void. You could find services and sites where that screaming was read by other people, who were also screaming, and maybe you screamed together. Formed friendships, and relationships. Learned things. Interacted with whole groups you never could outside of the internet.

Has all that gone away with Social Media? Of course not! Has it even increased because of modern Social Media? For good and bad, it sure has.

But like watching TV, there’s a price. There are ads. There’s Doomscrolling – holy shit we had to invent a term for what the firehose that we get now does to your brain. It didn’t used to be that way, though. What changed?

The realization you could monetize not just a site, but the users of that site as well, on an individual, targeted, level. The firehose isn’t natural, it’s a crafted way to keep you hooked in and getting more. Always more. Because more means more ads, too. More means more chances to get money out of you in both obvious and subtle ways.

Social Media isn’t social. It’s crafted by the same people who brought you “The Kraft Television Hour.” We are the product, and they monetize our own need to scream, now.

Is there a way out? A way back? Something to do about it?

Fuck if I know. But I’ll tell you this much – anything that can change the course of that river, big or small, has to start by seeing and understanding the river you’re standing in.

I’ve been standing in these internet waters a long time, thirty years now, and they get stranger, and dirtier, and better, and worse, all at once at faster and faster speeds.

We need to learn to adapt faster than they do, because otherwise we drown.

And they’ll sell us the water we die in.