I have not used social media for many years. In fact, this blog is the primary way in which people can keep up with me without being in direct contact. The reason why I quit social media – all the way back in my teens – had to do with its addicting nature. Though I rationally KNEW nothing on those platforms mattered, I still FELT inclined to share everything I did and watch the numbers go up. I decided that I didn’t want to be encouraged to chase that cheap high at the expense of everything else, so I quit, and I did so early, before the platforms really had their hooks in me.
Recently though, I have noticed social-media-like qualities seeping into more and more products and services. I will cover in this post the most surprising one, and explain my decision to leave.
If it wasn’t clear yet by the title, I will be talking about “the news’’. Specifically, I mean updates on geopolitics, typically in the form of monotopic videos around 15-30 minutes. These can take the form of simple journalism, analysis, discussion, it doesn’t matter.
It might at first be difficult to see how these sorts of videos have social-media-like elements, so let me explain. Unlike traditional media – primarily tv news and newspapers – which do not have a way to directly comment (outside of sending a letter to the editor), new-media news does. Whether it is a video or article, whether it is on youtube, instagram, substack, or otherwise, it is possible for you to ‘engage’ with the topic. Secondly, the platforms mentioned above are all algorithmically driven to get you to give AS MUCH OF YOURSELF AS POSSIBLE to them.
Newspaper subscriptions can be predatory – with deals, bonuses, and scummy billing cycles designed to keep you locked in – but the editor ultimately doesn’t care how much time you spend reading that paper. For television news it is slightly different – as these tend to be ad-supported – but the ways tv networks have to collect engagement data (spy on you) and influence user behaviour are much less sophisticated compared to digital media. Besides, while a certain tv channel can be optimized to capture a certain audience, everyone still sees THE SAME CONTENT. In other words, there is no stream of videos specifically designed to keep YOU watching, just people LIKE YOU.
Now, thus far what I have said amounts to the classic “the medium IS the message’’ statement, which is definitely a PART of the problem, but not entirely so. Politicians, companies, and other parasites all know that social-media operates on engagement, and digial-media platforms such as youtube – whilst they have fewer strictly SOCIAL aspects – still thrive on audience engagement. And the easiest way to get engagement out of people is by hijacking our hormonal systems.
I mentioned in the introduction that social media was addicting to me because of the satisfaction of watching the numbers go up. I know that this is a general character trait of mine – and many people I know – and so do the social media companies, who have no qualms about using this weakness against us. Likewise, they learned a long time ago that anger and outrage is much better at getting people to engage than proper journalism is. As such, all the news we see these days – especially when presented on digital media – is deigned to be as emotionally destabilizing as possible.
Even when a particular platform or broadcaster DOESN’T feed on negative emotions and engagement, they still need to report on what is happening in the world. And the politicians and companies they are reporting on will definitely hijack your emotional systems for their own preposes.
Every. Single. Day. I listened to news about how Europe was at the brink of war with Russia, China with Taiwan, the USA with virtually everyone. I heard how Italy – the country in which I live – was on the verge to economic collapse, as is the US, Argentia, actually, perhaps it is the entire global economic system. Radical Muslims, Radical leftists, Radical neo-Nazi right-wingers are all on the rise apparently, and I should be SCARED. And damn it I was.
I truly felt like everting was going down the gutter globally.
And then I left.
I stopped following the news (in all of its forms) as an experiment over the winter holidays. And suddenly, everything seemed a lot more okay.
Not in the sense that the problems were all imagined, but in the sense that the limited set of problems which I was now aware of were now largely ones on which I had actual influence.
Sure perhaps Trump is still “destroying American democracy’’ (from what I have heard by word-of-mouth, he indeed is), but I never had any influence over those events. Nor – do I think – did it particularly help to be more prepared for the future.
Perhaps The EU will go to war with Russia, and when elections come by, referendums are held, or when voices are called for, I will make my stance clear, but until then, I will ignore the aggravating rumour mill and leave politics to the politicians. If war does break out, would I have been more prepared if I heard daily updates on the border skirmishes and ridiculous claims by everyone with access to a camera and an internet connection (very much including the politicians involved)? Perhaps slightly, but I will take that loss in exchange for my sanity.
I am still hoping to find a publication and a medium (I am thinking newspapers) that will let me stay informed without getting sucked in, but I have yet to find one that suits my needs.
Now that I have started looking, I noticed this social-media-like-suction in many other places as well.
Goodreads – the app that I used to keep track of what books I read and get book recommendations – had me chasing my pages-read number (and never actually gave me any good recommendations over 3 years); deleted.
Komoot – an app for hike/trail navigation – has a social-media feature where pictures you take, tips you write, and highlights you make can be seen by other people. If enough people like your stuff, you become an ‘expert’ and start to earn fake-internet-points on a fake-internet-leader board. Komoot is too-useful for me to just get rid of, but I can at least turn off all the social notifications.
Spotify has frankly always sucked, and I have been using it less and less over the past decade-or-so. Now they added AI and direct messaging, perhaps it is time...
Of course, nothing is completely avoidable, and I am no-way trying to hide from the news (or other social-media-like things) at all costs. However, the reduction has made me happier nad perhaps it can make you happier too.
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