Social media is ubiquitous.
Human beings are social animals, so it is logical that social media
serves a purpose at some basic level of human need. But with so many different forms available
and the distractions growing exponentially, perhaps it is useful to take a
close look at social media and understand what it accomplishes and what it may
indeed damage in our human social fabric.
In the beginning, there was letter writing. This was the original social media. Before
letter writing the only way to interact with another human being was to engage
them verbally, face-to-face. Letter
writing probably emerged as a way to communicate when people were not close
enough to meet. But as time progressed,
writing a letter became something more than just a substitute for a
conversation – it became a way of expressing one’s thoughts more profoundly and
preserving them.
Letter writing required time and effort – finding pen (or
quill) and paper, addressing some form of envelope or package, and interacting
with some form of letter carrier system.
Thus, a letter was generally not simply a short note, but rather a
thoughtful short (or even long) essay.
After all, every letter had the possibility of permanence, of being a
legacy of some sort. Moreover, the number of letters one could generate was
relatively limited, and it seemed prudent to avoid wasting one’s energy on
frivolous or meaningless output.
When you are speaking in real-time with another person there
is no opportunity to carefully consider the topics at hand and employ all of
one’s logical and emotional faculties in crafting responses. There is simply not enough time. A letter allows one the time and distance to
explore an idea, sorting and weighing all of its components and antecedents,
and finding the best way to articulate the result.
So letters became a way for people to interact with some
depth, and we have volumes of historical letters – love letters, philosophical
letters, letters of scientific inquiry, letters of conviction, humorous
letters. These inform much of the
history of the human race. They are a
wonderful testament to the inventiveness and profundity of the human spirit.
But once the computer entered into our lives, the letter was
soon replaced by email. With the
logistical overhead now virtually eliminated (no paper, no envelope, no stamp,
etc.), the nature of this ‘letter’ changed dramatically. A few words or a phrase could be typed and
fired off with minimal effort. Email took away the motivation to carefully
nurture thoughts and emotions before committing them to pen and paper. It resulted in an exponential growth of
remote, indirect communication, but it also cheapened it.
An email has no aura of permanence, even though it can of
course be preserved and is occasionally a very embarrassing or damning piece of
evidence. Its ephemeral nature and ease
of composition allows us to indulge our laziness. We lose the discipline of organized thought
and careful word crafting. Email is
generally a throwaway.
With the rapidity that has characterized this age of
information, email soon spawned many new digital children – initially texting and various forms of
chatting through messenger services, and later the plethora of social media
that now inhabit our personal devices – facebook, twitter, youtube, linkedin,
snapchat, instagram and many others.
Many of these social media involve a different type of
social interaction than traditional letter writing or even email. Facebook, youtube, snapchat and Instagram all
are primarily photo and video sharing, with some comments, humor and messages
tossed in. To some extent, these replace
and extend the old social custom of inviting friends over to see your vacation
slide show or home movies. It is interesting to recall how painful these episodes were and how often they were ridiculed, yet we now willingly, or let us say, addictively, subject ourselves to an endless parade of photos, memes and videos day and night.
Much could be written about whether the proliferation of
these photos and videos and their subliminal messages and ‘likes’ enhances our friendships, or about its effect on our self-image or
happiness. To the extent that these
media allow us to maintain relationships or re-discover them, they offer some
benefit. But do we really want to immerse
ourselves superficially in so many outside lives – voyeuristically
participating but not truly sharing any of these experiences? I have read studies that indicate that the
addictive nature of facebook and other similar social media leads to depression
and insecurity, as we find ourselves confronted with the dream world of our
peers that often overshadows our own mundane existence.
But to me, the worst offender in the world of social media
is twitter. This form of social media is
the lowest common denominator, the ultimate sound bite, the catalyst and
amplifier of rage, indignation, spite, pretension, and mockery. As opposed to a sincere, careful attempt to address
an issue or develop an idea through an essay, article or blog, a tweet is a
loose cannon, a reflexive and trivial missive, a cynical ploy to get views and
provoke responses. It does not seek to
be thoughtful or erudite, only perhaps clever and provocative.
For politicians and celebrities of all stripes, twitter is
another way to stroke one’s ego – the very thought that thousands or even
millions of people hang on your every word, however banal and self-serving, is
intoxicating. Who are the legions of
followers? Do they have so little of substance in their own lives that they
must grovel in the twitter feed of potentates like peasants at a coronation?
And then there is the ‘fake news’ and the fantasies,
conspiracies and hysteria that seep through social media like poison gas across
a battlefield, sinking deep into the neurotic brain tissue of the masses and
destroying all rational thought and analysis.
Twitter is the ultimate tool of the demagogues and their henchmen. One has only to look at the corrosive effect
of our tweeter-in-chief to understand that twitter is more foe than friend.
Social media is the modern Pandora’s box, the genie that
will never, ever be stuffed back into its bottle. It is, in my view, a recipe of one part
goodness for five parts woe. Is it not better
to nurture a small number of deep social relationships than a surfeit of shallow
ones? At the risk of sounding
curmudgeonly and like a sad voice crying in the wilderness, I say the arrival
of the social media panoply is not cause for celebration, but rather a warning
bell for our society, our relationships and our future.
