How do we find our way back?

I'm writing this to no one. I just need to keep saying it.

Social media models, as they currently exist, are homogenizing us. The message they broadcast to every user is to “stay on brand”. Those who can perform this task the most consistently and passionately are the ones who “succeed”, rise to the top, and they become the trusted ambassadors of the Platforms. The spaces stifle the multitudes each of us contain. They surveil us, track us, and train us to surveil and track each other. They make us more predictable, more influenceable, more manageable. They dull our thought, extinguish genuine creativity, and drown out nuanced expression. They dumb us down to trending topics, sound bites, out-of-context quotes, crafted narratives, chants.

AI is the weapon they’ve chosen to captivate us further, and I used the word “captivate” intentionally, meaning “to influence and dominate by some special charm, art, or trait and with an irresistible appeal”, and in my usage I am also resurfacing the older, obsolete definition, “to seize or capture”. They are casting a terrible spell on us, and for those who resist it, they know we have nowhere else to go. The majority is entranced, and we’re running out of tools to break the spell.

Does anyone remember what real community felt like? We were already on a precipice before Covid pushed us over the edge. Yes, many of us still go out, many of us still see friends, but how many of us do those things without reporting on ourselves in the process—reporting our actions, our thoughts, and our locations to the Platforms? Have the generations born after the year 2000 ever experienced the freedom of just being in the world? Unsurvielled? Right now, could anyone have any “experience” in public without being recorded and turned into content? We used to do that, you know. We used to have experiences freely. Now we won’t even let our children experience life without reporting them to the Platforms.

I truly don’t think we remember what freedom feels like. Even since the small changes I’ve made in my social media usage—keeping the apps only on my desktop, for now, until I can leave them completely—I already feel a strange release. I’m realizing how much of my mental energy those spaces drained away. Energy I could’ve been using to reach out, call someone, make plans, create something just because, read, go see art, go hear music, experience culture, experience nature—freely. I’m remembering that my purpose remains, even when it’s just me. I’m realizing how much I’ve surrendered. And I’m watching, clearly, the minds of the people around me rot.

And how many of us have reassured ourselves that we’re a li’l bit superior because we post online less, share our feelings online less, interact less, yet we still spend hours everyday scrolling, scrolling, tapping the reels, feeling sparks of rage one second and smugly chuckling at a meme the next. There's no advantage to posting less, our behaviour still generates all the data they need. In fact the less we post, the better it works out for influencers and AI. This behaviour only affirms our place as consumers over creators. 

And how many of us reassure ourselves that the content we follow is the correct content, the noble content, the important content. It doesn’t matter. Our communities— the places that need our care, our creativity, our passion—are crumbling behind us. Our public spaces, small businesses, galleries, charities, nonprofits, venues… everything is hanging on by a thread.

I want to live. With joy, feeling nourished by my communities and eager for the future. We have to find our way back. I want to live.