We have digits

A few years ago, Tunku Varadarajan, who used to write for the Wall Street Journal--when it was a respectable publication before it became a Faux-News-wannabe rag pretending to be a newspaper--wrote in a tongue-in-cheek commentary on why Indians love Facebook: "They take to it naturally and with great passion. It allows them to do two things they love: Tell everyone what they are doing; and stick their noses into other people's business."

As one can imagine, Varadarajan's commentary was not well received by Indians. 

But it is not only Indians who tell everyone what they are doing and stick their noses into other people's business.  On Facebook everyone is an Indian.  As a New Yorker cartoon memorably summed up a long time ago during the very early days of the dot.com era, on the internet, nobody knows you are a dog!

It has been years since I deleted my Facebook account after temporarily suspending it.  I don't imagine human behavior having changed for the better in Facebook and Instagram and whatever else that kids and adults alike seem to enjoy.

If anything, the recent years of Twitter have convinced me that human behavior has worsened with social media.  People like the former President knew how to tap into this base human instincts inside us and rose to power.  The rabid humanity is forcing one of my favorite columnists and Twitter pundits, Charles Blow, to withdraw from Twitter.  Blow writes:

Social media is full of hate speech, bots, vitriol, attack armies, screamers and people who live for the opportunity to be angry.

For people like me, that meant half my time on Twitter on any given day could be spent blocking and muting accounts. It’s not because I’m fragile or averse to opposing views, but rather that much of what I was seeing clearly crossed over into hostility and sometimes harassment. I can’t even count the number of racial slurs that have been directed at me, or attacks on my sexuality, or allusions to my family. And, of course, there is the occasional threat of violence.

It is not difficult to imagine what Blow is describing.  In this post in April 2018, I quoted Tristan Harris who said:

Social media was supposed to be about, “Hey, Grandma. How are you?” Now it’s like, “Oh my God, did you see what she wore yesterday? What a fucking cow that bitch is.” Everything is toxic — and that has to do with the internet itself. It was founded to connect people all over the world. But now you can meet people all over the world and then murder them in virtual reality and rape their pets.

Blow has received threats, even to his life.  He writes that by pulling back, he is "slowly returning to me, the person, and away from the persona."

Who are we, and what is social media doing to us humans?

Tish Harrison Warren joins a long list of people who worry about the increasing digitization of life, and wants us to reconnect with material things:

We are made to enjoy the physical presence of other human beings. We are made to enjoy rainstorms or sunshine or walks in the woods. We are made to enjoy touchable things. We cannot escape or overcome this need through technology. Our attempts to do so go against the grain of our deepest human needs and longings.

This gregarious hermit has been living such a life--out of choice, and without any remorse.

Warren adds:

Claims that we can fundamentally alter how human beings have learned, lived and interacted together in essential institutions and activities like education, worship, friendships, dating, communities, work and parenting without large unforeseen social consequences smacks of the hubris and reductionism.

So, what should one do?

We have to be cautious and wise about introducing devices into our lives that fundamentally change how humans have interacted since time immemorial. We have to plunge ourselves primarily into the natural world and embodied human relationships, with all the complexity, challenges, inconvenience and pain that entails.

I hope you will think about that.