What is it that we really want, that we really need, from social media? Let’s try to move away from answers such as “more ways to troll or argue” and “affirmation that I’m cool with 10+ answers to a random post”.
Here I was, sitting in an airport one morning waiting for my flight. I had arrived early, as is my custom, due to never wanting to be one of those people jamming thru an airport to make a flight because I dallied at home or failed to take into account the nimrods in line at security.
Though, I have to admit, the TSA Pre-check might be the best travel investment I ever made. Still, every now and then even in that line you find yourself culled together with those who better resemble a slow-footed bovine instead of using anything close to a human gait.
So I had time to waste. I’d like to claim this is time used productively, but honestly, especially when traveling alone, and knowing there will be a rush to the gate in order to find that last open overhead luggage spot, it’s more about finding ways to not be stunningly catatonic and be ready to sneak….I mean, board….on time.
I defaulted to my new IPhone, having recently made the switch from Android over to the soul-grabbing MAC, thus completing the transition to everything Apple. Hey, it only took about 10 years since completely swearing off the infernal Windows anything. Lady Shannon gets all chops for finally pushing me out of the void and into MAC world.
Any day now I expect a visit from Skynet.
The swiping ensued with a vengeance. Facebook, then Twitter, (I refuse to knuckle under to Elon Musk’s name-changing madness, the rebel that I am), BlueSky, (hey, everyone is doing it), Instagram, (dropped a new picture of Master Broder falling asleep in my lap), Threads, TikTok, LinkedIn, Redditt, Tumbler, even a very brief stop on the disappointment of Mastadon. Well, that was a wasted 5 minutes.
That’s where it hit me. Why was I here? What was I honestly looking for amidst all these posts and preening? I mean, sure, there were plenty of things to read and view, but what was I really seeking? There must be something I was seeking deep down. If not, why would I waste my precious time?
Why wasn’t I using that time to seek out something that would actually enlighten me instead of just spark the pleasure centers of my brain?
Granted, I was sitting in an airport with nothing to do, so this did qualify as “wasted time”. But with the power of a global source at my fingertips, being able to digitally traverse the planet with the touch of a few fingers, couldn’t I come up with something more meaningful than just scrolling like a 5 year old all mesmerized by the pretty colors???
Brain flash. OK, it could have been a tumor, but I survived, so we’re all good.
I wanted substance, I was seeking something of intellectual import, that would make me think instead of just be mentally rolled over. And in all that scrolling and swiping, nothing.
I then went back and looked at hours of posts on my various social media platforms, searching for something, anything, that would answer my initial query.
I found a few things that were interesting, several that intrigued me, and a smattering of posts that might have been fascinating were it not for the fact they were nothing but troll farms plowing about for clicks and clacks.
What I wanted from this collection of world-wide opinions was smart, savvy, educational, interesting, and fascinating conversation. That is what we all need from social media. That is what we have the possibility of reading and reacting to.
However, and I only have personal opinion on this, I would gather about 90% of what’s out there is nothing we really need. Depending on the platform and source, it’s mostly pablum, bitching, moaning, whining, misinformation, trolling, snap attacks, spitting, regurgitation, and nothing that would make two brain cells start rubbing together to create a spark of intellect.
What I received, for the most part, was entertaining, but it wasn’t necessary. It didn’t move the intellectual needle. Granted, I carved out the mental midgets a long time ago on my various social media feeds and continue to edit on a daily basis, so my public domains do contain plenty of exceptionally interesting takes and tussles. Those are the ones I engage and keep handy for opinion.
However, what surrounds all that smart thinking is a level of dreck that could only exist in the spillover pond for fast-food refuse.
Some people just need to put down the device and cease the brain rot. Case in point.
On my flight that day, it was about 2 house 40 minutes getting to my first stop. I was squeezed into a window seat back in the 26th row, a seat I actually chose. Look, I can afford that first-class ticket, but every now and then I choose to just head for the main cabin and save my dinero. Where first class used to be a more civilized gathering, it’s now chock full of self-indulgent and self-aggrandizing “wanna be’s” who do it for the free cocktails and the ability to plug in their AirPods and prove they can ignore everyone. Used to be a great place to meet people, talk business, make acquaintances. Not any more. I just hunker down, bring along a good book or two, check out the in-flight, and drop the rest of the world into oblivion.
I couldn’t help but be fascinated by the guy in the middle seat to my right. Probably early to mid-30s. A flattop haircut that was right out of the 70’s. Salt and pepper beard and an aroma that, again to quote George Carlin, could “knock a buzzard off a sh*t wagon”. For the entire flight, from sitting in his seat to rising in order for exit, his head was down into his phone. Reading, texting, typing furiously at one point, all on Instagram. Last time I checked that wasn’t the place for intelligent conversation.
I get wanting to whip away the time while being imprisoned in a large metal tube for a couple of hours, but almost 3 hours on Instagram? I thought I might be seated next to a mystery Taylor Swift influencer.
Is this what we really need from social media? Do we consciously make a decision to bury ourselves in nonsense minutiae instead of taking the time for something meaningful, something that has the possibility of actually making people smarter?
Why can we not use the power of this infernal Internet for something other than ridiculous pablum that does zero to enrich our own life or that of others?
I have long stated in my various speaking engagements and public/private discourses that the internet is the single greatest tool we have to be the most intelligent society to ever plod across the face of the Earth. Every question, every answer, every possibility to learn exists at our fingertips. Yet all that knowledge is wasted on videos of women with massive buttocks protruding from zipper tight latex, and men with massive buttocks protruding from zipper tight haircuts, all looking for the almighty “DIG ME” moment.
Next time you’re in a crowd, look around and count how many of those in your field of view have heads craned downward, engrossed in those tiny screens. It certainly will be the majority, and often is every single noggin of every single age. We have become mesmerized by what is, in essence, fluff and falderal. Instead of using that time to read or view something that would increase the knowledge of our world around us, we’ve chasing babble. We have allowed these little machines to enslave us to a level of intellectual waste.
Then we wonder why America was recently found to be sliding down the literacy scale or, in simple terms, being duped down to the cognitive level of sheep dip.
The internet, and our so-called “smart” phones, can make us a Hell of a lot smarter. It can make us see the world in a more enlightened aura, and might even lead us to making better decisions and choices. All we have to do is learn how to use it for those purposes.
Videos of cute kids and animals are good for a tidbit, and don’t always have to be the main course. You’ll be surprised at what you can learn, if only you take the time and make the effort.
Take your head and brain out of the Instagram orifice for a short spell and learn about the world around you. You might even learn the difference between facts and propaganda.
But that’s another lesson for another day.
Ed Berliner continues his seemingly never-ending quest to find truth, justice, and something just above the intellectual level of scrambled eggs. He crosses the nation teaching lessons about literacy and truth in media with "Media Intelligence", while also authoring and writing commentary for "The Business Beagle", the email newsletter with a hard focus on business, and "Shakedown Street", the only newsletter delivering exclusive commentary and stories other refuse to note and cover. Join the fun. Grab a parking space.
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