Statement on Social Media

I grew up before texting was a thing but right in the heart of the social media movement. I was a young twenty something when MySpace came online and an older twenty something when Facebook launched. At the time I was too young to understand how these could be massive advertising spam networks, let alone information gathering behemoths that could rival the imaginations of science fiction writers.

To me they were just superfluous. If I wanted to talk to my friend I’d call or drop by. It literally made no sense to me to post something about what I was doing for my friends to see. After all, why would I be doing it without my friends? Unless it was laundry. Though I think that is now a big social media category, with videos and such.

I might have missed the boat in the early days of social media due to ignorance. However I defiantly want to miss it now because I am informed. Having lucked out as an ignorant twenty something I now have the luxury of never getting involved in the first place. Social media has become a place that if it existed in reality would be condemned. Physically and spiritually.

There is so little good that comes from it and so much wrong. For that reason I will never join large scale social media sites like Twitter and Facebook/Instagram. Or any others that supplant them or grow up in their shade. Data harvesting, behavior mapping, setting learning software loose on the actual thoughts and feelings of people isn’t a commodity. Its a way towards control. Any two bit fiction writer can tell you that, and how it ends.