On Social Media Scrambles And Using It Responsibly
With Twitter’s digital blood in the virtual waters, those who surf the world-wide web suddenly have plenty of alternatives popping up. But what - if anything - actually makes social media valuable?
Hello, friends,
Last week, we talked about Pride Month, and how - despite its difficult ending - there are plenty of reasons to keep fighting.
Today we’re going to switch gears and talk about something different - or, as we’ll find, something a little bit related to Queer issues insofar as it’s related to any other issues! Today, as the title no-doubt suggests, we’re talking about social media. As hard as this may be to believe, we’re talking about the value that social media can bring to the world - and, of course, some of the prices paid for that value.
In keeping with how I try to do things, we’re going to start with positives. Don’t worry, we’ll touch on negatives afterwards. But with that said, we’ve talked about Twitter before, so you know where I’m coming from with this image.
The Upshots Of Social Media
Let’s start with access to information of vital public interest.
First and foremost, for better or worse (and it can be much worse), social media grants us access to information from virtually any source within instants of that information being recorded. What does that mean? It means that if there’s a breaking news event, it’s probably somewhere on social media. If you’re reading this, there’s a good chance you found it, and/or me, via social media. (For what it’s worth: I wouldn’t necessarily count Substack as social media per-se, as it’s more like a traditional blog and/or publication outfit; but Notes is more like it, with far more room for back-and-forth.)
For the first example, let’s look at how social media can jump-start political ch ange: There’s a whole Wikipedia entry about social media and the Arab Spring, although there’s debate about just how influential it was. Next example: At what I’ll call Twitter’s peak (in my opinion, Feb 2020-About when Elon bought it), virtually every news agency on Earth seemed to have a Twitter account, as did numerous emergency information agencies such as the National Weather Service’s Boulder branch. All it takes are a few seconds to type “#Earthquake” into Twitter and get a litany of people reporting damage and data alike. It was, and to an extent still is, the largest news information ecosystem on Planet Earth. While it’s fair to say that “Doomscrolling” can get the better of some of us, by-and-large this access to information saves lives. On the r/WorldNews subreddit, there’s been a daily pinned thread dedicated to the Russian invasion of Ukraine since before the war began, back when “Nothing’s going to happen” was a popular, if wrong comment.
Next, let’s move on to the discoverability of more personally-relevant information.
Social media is a place where people of all backgrounds can share their experiences. This means that, by and large, people who are exploring something about themselves can get plenty of insight from those who have been in similar situations. The easiest go-to example for me is a person who is Queer and trying to discover something about themselves. They can, with relative ease, find people whose backgrounds match theirs and whose experiences they can learn from.
Looking to join the military? You can read plenty of first-hand accounts of what to expect in the real world, versus what you see in movies or on newsreels. Looking to understand your religion a little better? There are definitely practitioners of your faith online, ready and happy to share what they’ve learned. Looking to understand some other part of your identity, such as maybe your ethnicity? There are going to be plenty of people out there that tell their tales. You might have to do a little digging (and we’ll get to what horrors you might find), but chances are you’ll find something that helps you in this quest for personal development.
Last of all, let’s talk about discoverability of interests, artists, and the like.
As you’ve no doubt figured out given how you likely stumbled upon this article, social media has become a huge part of every artist and creator’s means of promotion. It isn’t hard to find an author that writes something you’d like on social media, just as it isn’t hard to find a musician that composes something ear-pleasing, just as it isn’t hard to…Well, you get the point in principle, so here’s an example.
There’s a writing charity I’m a volunteer for called WriteHive. I help run the weekend write-ins on our year-round Discord, and I volunteer for the yearly conferences. I got pleasantly mixed-up with WriteHive through the Hashtag-Writing-Community on Twitter. I would never have known about it - and about literally dozens of really awesome people I met as a result - if it wasn’t for social media being a thing that exists and is accessible.
So if I’ve got all these positive things to say about social media, but I’m only about a third of the way done with this article…What’s going to be in the negatives.
Among other things? Nazis.
The Pitfalls Of Social Media
Let’s start with the worst of it, shall we?
Hate groups seem to do really well in an environment where anyone, including terrible people, can share their ideas - especially ideas built around lies. A person who is deeply questioning their identity and their future might well be drawn into hate speech and worse. This hate-group outreach can have real-world consequences. For evidence, I need only point to the way that social media was used to help develop the January 6th attack on the United States government. While it was nice that the treason-President was subsequently banned from many platforms (and ‘forced’ to create his own), the damage had already been done. The Proud Boys, The Oath Keepers, and other Fascist organizations disrupted, but did not prevent the peaceful transfer of power.
Even notwithstanding real-world assaults, social media can be a dangerous place. There’s a concept called the “Pewdie-Pipeline” which suggests that “edgy” humor (often not really humor, but more like insults) can lead to people getting far-right, dangerous voices inserted further and further into their algorithms, exposing people to negative voices.
Ahh, but what’s an algorithm? For those who don’t already know, it’s basically a complex set of calculations that the social media platform you’re on uses to take your past viewership data (what you select, how long you watch, what you like/subscribe to, etc) and come up with new things to recommend to you. This can be beneficial; if you look up an article about a movie you like, it’ll point you to other, similar articles about that movie! But sometimes it’ll take you to controversial, even harmful content. If you watch a couple videos about guns, for example, it might take you to a “gun enthusiast” who spends a significant amount of time talking politics, not guns. Maybe those politics aren’t bad, but maybe they are.
If it sounds like this is letting someone else control what you watch, in a way it kind of is. Even if all you do is follow left-leaning accounts that talk about positive stuff, you’re likely to get more of those things shoved on your plate - unless your choice of social media is one that’s devoid of any algorithm whatsoever! Some social media platforms only show you those you follow, and even then only show you things in chronological order. Of course, this in turn can lead to you seeing thirty things by the same person in a row, effectively making you an audience for all of their views, positive or negative.
There’s also all sorts of the usual, old-school AOL-era internet warnings: Anyone you meet online could be putting on some kind of mask. Maybe they’re just using a fake name to protect their anonymity for good reasons, like maybe they want to advocate for Queer rights while working in a state that allows discrimination against us. They might be using a fake name to try to scam you out of your money. They might even be pretending to be someone else so that they can trick you into meeting in person and doing you harm - sadly, one such story hit the world just yesterday. With that warning out of the way, I have to say that, as someone who as a teenager was part of the first generation that regularly met up with online friends in real life, I’ve mostly had good experiences. I’ve definitely been catfished before! But I’ve rarely found myself in bad circumstances.
Social media can also lead to unhealthy lifestyles. Some More News, one of my favorites, just dropped an episode about weight loss in society, and within it they discussed the role of social media in encouraging young people, especially young girls, towards disordered eating. Even as “far back” as 2018 there were significant amounts of bullying on social media. The more anonymity that a platform allows, the easier it is to be disrespectful and cruel towards people - although, to be fair, a lack of anonymity doesn’t necessarily stop people.
Lastly, social media can be, well, a drain. We’re there for an exchange of information, but sometimes you end up seeing twenty tweets from the same person all promoting various articles, books, or whatever. Hell, you probably saw this article on social media - although I try not to spam my feed with my own content. If you aren’t getting stuff you’re interested in, purging unhelpful follows can be a time sink nobody wants to buy into.
So What Should We Do With Social Media?
Some say we should regulate social media better. This is a risky proposition, as any regulation comes with some degree of censorship. It’s hard to trust the government with that responsibility under the best of circumstances. Thusfar, for the most part, social media has regulated itself - with limited, if any success, given how hate speech has proliferated and Jan 6th happened.
In the end, like most tools, social media’s positive or negative efficacy depends on the user. The platform you choose can dictate what sort of information you come across. The accounts you seek out and follow will largely determine your experience, although algorithms might algorithm stuff you don’t want into your feeds.
But social media is a tool you can use to make your life better. You can make new friends, discover new artists you wouldn’t otherwise have discovered, and get answers to your most burning questions.
Just…Expect that it might cause a little burning in its own right, too.
As far as platforms I’d recommend…I honestly don’t have one. Twitter is the old King slowly losing its grip, but all of its successors - Mastodon, Spoutible, Threads, BlueSky, Tribel, Post, and so many others - have their own flaws that might be make-or-break depending on what you plan to use social media for.
Facebook is the older-still Emperor that the King reports to, but it’s done more to purchase its ideas (like buying Instagram and forging Threads by the hand of so many ex-Twitter employees that Elon Musk is threatening to sue them) than it has to forge its own path forward.
Lastly, I guess if you forced me to make a recommendation, it’d be Discord. While my editor once said “Discord is a cop” in reference to the fact that it records everything in text format (and maybe audio, that’s still up in the air), well, hey! It records everything so you can’t be mis-attributed. It functions more like an old-school AOL Chat room network, has great voice chat features, has good DM features, and is all in all very useful and very user-curated. However, since that’s more a “chat program” than “social media,” its inclusion is…Spurious.
I also use Tumblr as a place for almost-strictly talking about art stuff. I rarely post The Progressive Cafe there, but I post my writing stuff there.
If you’re so inclined, I’d suggest you experiment. I’d also suggest that at the very least, if you have some significant online presence on one of them, you “reserve your space” on many of them - that way, nobody tries to impersonate you. (Yes, someone tried to rip me off on Twitter) I’d suggest not getting married to any of the newcomers until you’ve really got a feel for it.
Most of all, take care of yourself. Be smart, be safe, and don’t be afraid to mash the block button.
In Other News
This one might have deserved its own article, but Planet Earth (you know, that place we all live) reached its hottest ever recorded temperature - and it was pretty much every day this week. We’ve talked before about technologies that might mitigate climate change.
The Lieutenant Governor of North Carolina, Mark Robinson, suggested that people read Hitler quotes. And Mao. And others. The context is the now-infamous quotation of Hitler that “Moms For Liberty” shared, so in case you were wondering if that’d make it better? It doesn’t.
America’s latest batch of military aid to Ukraine includes cluster weapons. (DPICM) While I am far from a military expert, it’s my understanding (Note: I am having a hard time finding a source for this other than occasional mentions in the https://www.reddit.com/r/worldnews pinned threads) that Ukraine’s intended use of these weapons is to disassemble them and use each bomblet in conjunction with a drone to drop them, rather than to use ordinary cluster munitions.
Another anti-Queer Republican lawmaker is accused of sexual harassment towards his male co-workers. Since we’re past Pride month, I’m more comfortable with the new-old saying: “Not a drag queen.”
Thank you for reading The Progressive Cafe. If this article has helped you, please consider signing up for our mailing list. This article is by Jesse Pohlman, a sci-fi/fantasy author from Long Island, New York, whose website you can check out here.