#TakingBackSocial
If you know me, you know I like to rustle things up. I want to make sure I’m always asking questions so that what is doesn’t go on accepted simply because it is, esp when something better can be done. With that, I give you my rant, in the style of Dennis Leary, at the state of social media today.
What can I say about social these days??? It’s like sending your straight-A child to college and three years in discovering they’ve started a drug ring to support a gambling addiction begun to pay for the convertible car (you didn’t even know they leased) they totalled, after already blowing through all the money in their scholarship fund (or savings) partying, and finally after coming to terms with all that cuz hey, it’s your kid… they tell you it’s your fault because you raised them without all the things the rich kids already had. And they had to keep up.
I long for the old days when I made friends because I found a hashtag, fell into the K-hole of imagery and accounts posted using said tags, and then setting up a public location to meet these people, and perhaps photo-walk - I know, I’m a little strange and brazen.
I miss the fail whale. I miss meeting people for random reasons (like you have the same dog) at a park and not having it be about exchanging follower count or humble bragging about all the celebs that liked a tweet because you hashtag stalked them for days. Or the days without ads! Or those of 140 characters! Or being in control of your own feed.
I met a woman two Christmasses back, while still in London, at a pup meetup that I coordinated. Here I was hoping she would become a new (also-expatriated-from-the-US) compatriate. Instead, about halfway through the event, she pulled me aside, cornered me and asked how she too could make her dog ‘instafamous’. I about gagged. That’s what this has come to, the lowest common denominator of interactions… barf.
No joke, I LITERALLY no longer see my husband’s posts on Instagram (nor he mine). It’s depressing and we talk about it often. Furthermore, rather than learning about something new from people with similar or different background but unique takes on things that helped to grow you as a person, with used to be the case, you’re now catered to with only the interests that you find agreeable, and don’t evolve you.
You’re spoon fed a shopping experience that at best has the air of cute little stalker Jason Schwarzman in Slackers (smelling your hair and knowing where you are at all times), and at worst feels more like Alicia Silverstone as the babysitter (right Elwes, you know what I’m talking about).
Look, I’m not ‘LIKE’ begging. I don’t care if you all ignore this, but maybe give it the old blue thumbs up if you’ve grown tired too of what once was a beautifully simplistic AND ORGANIC guerilla approach at communicating with othera. Maybe our wants will start to be heard vs. those of conglomerates, mega brands, and Kardashian overload (I’d let them stay for entertainment tho duh). Let’s work on breaking the inter webs ourselves with bringing it back to what it was first about, freedom of communication and information. Just a thought. #NotMyAlgorithm #TakingBackSocial
(The impetus for my anger ball: https://amp.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/shortcuts/2018/jan/29/selling-like-hot-cakes-where-exactly-did-paul-hollywood-get-his-twitter-followers)