Twitter, facebook, all of social media, they give us the ability to create microblogs that are both easy to create and to consume, much easier than most other forms of media. They are content providers without actually creating any content! They are media sources without actually paying any of their reporters! Put another way: social media leeches our creativity. It does so with such subtlety that we don’t even notice. This is to say nothing of the time spent, opportunity cost, privacy invasion, and numerous other negative impacts.
Half-baked thoughts are “published” before they have been thought out, vetted, or researched. What could have been a short story, an essay, an op-ed, or even a book became stream of consciousness idea just sent off into the web. Things that could spark real thought and intellectual discourse are lost in the sea of vitriolic regurgitation of talking points that describe most internet arguments.
I am reminded of some trending hashtag on twitter. Something along the lines of “something new generations will never understand.” Sadly I can’t remember where I saw it, maybe the hive mind here can help me give credit, but someone posted that kids today will never understand “having an unexpressed thought.” That one resonated with me. Ever since then I’ve tried to be more liberal with the use of the back button, backspace, discard, and delete.
There are advantages to be sure. And there are costs as well. But let’s be clear on that point: social media platforms are not free services. They take from us our time and ideas, exploit our emotion, our laziness, our ego, our id, and a host of other parts of us.
We would benefit from less posting, less scrolling, and more creating.
