Not My Type of Dope, Not My Type of Porn

Or, why I am moving away from social media and donating to the ACLU

I have come to understand that social media is the cocaine of the 21st century. Its products are fueled by outrage — the more, the better. Its owners need to keep the products’ users enraged in order to maintain the value of their property. An enraged user is an engaged user. The higher the number of engaged users, the more valuable the property.

In terms of worth, it's not that talk is cheap; it's that talk needs to have millions of ears on the receiving end to be valuable. Once a person has an audience of millions, any blabber from that person's mouth or keyboard becomes valuable. When all that matters is quantity, blabbing about the betting spread on the next Red Sox game is as valuable as blabbing about the transgressions of ICE on the streets of LA. In fact, there is a good argument to be made that blabbing about the betting spread on the Red Sox game has more utilitarian value to the listener than reporting on ICE shenanigans, unless, of course, the receiver happens to fit ICE’s target profile. The only people who make money on ICE are the private detention centers, and they don't really care what's being said on Facebook. Yet, there are significant profits to be made by people from any walk of life wagering for or against the Sox. But, I digress.

At one time, complex discourse had value. To be considered thought-provoking was a compliment. These days, in the mainstream of social media, most discourse does not provoke thought because the quality of thinking informing the discourse just isn't that good. Thought-provoking discourse tends to be complex. If something is hard to understand, in the world of social media, it’s often ignored. Enraging a user is easy. Twiddling with a user’s emotions is the low-hanging fruit of public speech. Twiddling with a user’s thinking is hard work for both the sender and the receiver.

Social media, those websites, and applications that were sold as a way to foster more and better connections between the people on the planet, has become, for the most part, the present-day Colosseum. They’re essentially pornographic in the sense that the content arouses the user; it goes to the id of a human’s personality. There’s little reasoned debate, just discourse that never gets beyond the level of a “less-filling/tastes-great” beer commercial argument.

It wouldn’t be so bad if the platforms were benign, but they're not. They are powerful, ever-present, and controlled by very rich individuals who understand the power of money and the consequences of not having enough of it. Preserving wealth becomes paramount.

So, I will be moving away from mainstream social media, even in terms of my consumption.

It’s not that I am giving up. Quite the opposite. We are in dire times. The leaders of the MAG7, the people who control the operational foundation of all the social media platforms, have shown their true colors. Now it's all about Plan B.

I will be hard at work keeping food in the refrigerator. I need to survive to be effective. I will also be working on my Plan B for when the whole show goes south once AI-driven robotics really kicks in and the size of the unemployed population becomes unsustainable under the current system.

Additionally, I am acutely aware that the planet is continuing to heat up, and catastrophic weather events are becoming more frequent. Solving the problem requires hard thinking. But, sadly, those who can actually do something about it don't. It's too hard; instead, they talk about the Epstein Files. (What an arousing thought. I wonder if there are any Playboy centerfolds of naked women in them.)

However, this does not mean that I am putting my head in the sand and hoping that it all goes away by itself. It won’t. I will continue to read verifiable news sources and listen to thoughtful opinions from all perspectives. I will continue to write and publish on this site. Effective action still counts.

Being effective outside of social media is possible. The late David Graeber's thinking about effective action for resistance is to make the opposition irrelevant. Journalist I. F. Stone was blacklisted from the mainstream press corps in the 50's, yet he persisted. I find both to be powerful examples of how to be effective during these horrendously difficult times.

We’re in for a bumpy road ahead. Taking action matters. One step I've taken is donating money to the ACLU, and I encourage others to consider doing the same. Unlike political donations—which can seem as if one is buying the right to have a say in their government, a notion that is completely antithetical to the ideal of a true democracy—supporting the ACLU actually strengthens democratic principles by funding an organization that protects constitutional rights for everyone. You’re not buying your civil rights. You are paying an organization to protect them, which, in a way, is not that different from your local fire department. So, give now. Don’t wait.

In terms of social media, I’ll still be wishing people happy birthday and acknowledging their art and achievements. I will also be posting videos and photos of my trusty pet dog, Willie. But, as far as feeding the beast that social media has become, those days are over.