I love social media. So why do I hate it? I have met new friends through it, found bands, meetups, even got jobs. Discovered events, courses, films, podcasts, books. Kept up to date with the latest news headlines. Got helpful advice when moving somewhere new. Feel connected to people far away even though I haven’t seen them for years. If it wasn’t for social media, I would probably be a lot lonelier than I am. I wouldn’t have known about as many things as I do today.
And then I haven’t even talked about it as an entrepreneur. I have been able to grow a following for my business and creative projects on social media, too. Complete strangers have become my biggest fans. Some have bought from me, and I have bought from others. I have been able to connect to people in my industry more easily, follow them, and learn from them. I wouldn’t have known about them at all if it wasn’t for social media.
So I love social media. Why do I hate it?
It is too much.
Tik tok brain, they call it now. Doom-scrolling. Dopamine addiction. Why? Because you never reach the last page of this wonderfully exciting novel. This movie never ends. And the machine keeps handing you new chapters. You can’t put the darn book down. They have us by the balls.
Coaches are telling us to create magnetic content. Videos, stories, to post daily. Engage with people, build relationships. Go viral.
We are all content creators now. And we are content consumers. Content, content, content. We flick from one thing to the next, randomly. And even when it’s time for bed, we scroll on our phones, just to ‘relax’.
Time is ticking away, meanwhile we complain we don’t have enough time to make art. To read, to exercise, to go out for a walk.
Do you remember the time before social media?
What did we do with ourselves?
The problem with social media is that it sucks you in and keeps pulling at you, every five minutes, every moment that you are alone with your smartphone. I admire people who say they don’t check it much, or even that ‘they aren’t on social media at all’. I envy you. My curious brain wants to read the whole of the internet. I love social media. But I hate it all the same.
And, of course, if it was just that, time, I’m sure we could somehow tackle this with a healthy dose of discipline and a different type of distraction. There is, however, a much more sinister side to social media, too.
The dark side of social media
Whether you believe in this or not, the fact that smartphones have turned billions of people around the globe into dopamine addicts, is rather convenient for the people in power. Not only can you easily sell tons of products to a willing audience numbed by the algorithm, you can also feed them whatever propaganda you want them to believe. Even more sinister; Meta is now a fantastic tool to quickly and easily find out who is spreading things online that are not in alignment with the government narrative. It is any dictator’s wet dystopian dream. You only have to watch The Social Dilemma on Netflix to understand what I mean. But we still continue.
We live in wild times. On one hand we are more connected than ever. On the other hand, we are more distracted than ever, struggling with anxiety, depression and a general feeling of constant overwhelm. We are disconnected from ourselves and our immediate environment, really. We are slaves to the web.
Is this all social media’s fault? No, it is the society we live in. But the internet and social media, in my opinion, absolutely play a big role in it.
So what is the solution? Going back to 1997, when we just dealt with one email address and a dial-up modem? Or just getting off social media completely, accepting that we then also lose the good things about it? Finding alternative, new platforms? Finding a happy medium?
I don’t have the answers, and each situation is different. Perhaps your business would be nowhere without social media. But perhaps it would not matter to others. I would love to hear your views on this.