Consider Facebook about which I have blogged a lot. After the first couple of years of an unbiased use of Facebook, I started worrying about the platform. In July 2011, I wrote about my love-hate relationship with Facebook. I temporarily froze my account and activities because "There is a kind of creepy feeling and shallow interactions that bothered me."
Shallow interactions to the point where I felt like I was merely an entertainment channel for "friends" who wanted to kill some time. "There are moments when I worry about all this social media network and the internet ..." I wrote back then.
After a few temporary freezes and reactivation, I finally quit Facebook for good more than three years ago.
Even though I don't use Facebook, nor its other popular services--Instagram and WhatsApp--I read and think a lot about how damaging they are to individuals and to society.
When a cousin "jokingly" asked me in a group email conversation "have you decided to join the civilised world of WhatsApp and Insta?" I wrote back bluntly that I am on an anti-Facebook crusade: "FB is a doomsday machine and one of the greatest threats to humanity. FB owns WhatsApp and Insta also."
There's more to read every single day, like this Ross Douthat column in the NY Times.
I agree with Chris Hayes about how social media have warped our minds to think about, and crave, fame.
The internet and social media seem to promise fame for anybody and everybody, and one feels like a loser for not taking up the chance. You too can become famous. For what? Maybe your cat video will go viral and gain 2 million views. Your meme will get retweeted by a celebrity. If you have not become famous it is because you are not putting any effort into it!
You don't care that your momentary fame does not get you a single cent nor a can of beans because, well, you have had your nanosecond of fame. Meanwhile, you have made a couple of tech billionaires gain a few more dollars!
As I wrote in one of my posts, We are fucked, folks.
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