…would be for Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram to all go out of business. Shuttering Twitter especially would finally silence The Orange Russian Menace in the White House and starve him of the attention his malignant narcissism demands. It might also go a long way toward restoring some semblance of civility in society when the ignorant among us no longer have such a ready venue to spew that ignorance like monkeys flinging feces and make it that much more difficult for foreign actors to influence our elections.
(I used to respond to at least the particularly egregious tweets by the Shitgibbon, but then I realized that any response—positive, negative, or neutral—simply feeds his sociopathy. So I've stopped. "Do Not Feed The Trolls" is a perfect strategy.)
I know people say, "Facebook is how I keep in touch with my grandchildren!" or "Twitter is how I stay abreast of events in the world!"—neither of which were apparently possible before the advent of these platforms.
I think social media in general—once a fun, positive way of bringing people together—has become a scourge. We've become so addicted to the release of adrenaline and noradrenaline from being outraged at what other people are saying or doing online that we can't tear ourselves away from our devices long enough to remember that there is real life outside the confines of our screens. Nope, we have to tap-tap-tap that vein.
And as I recently reminded Ben—after he was called to the carpet professionally because of something he posted on Facebook—not all the "friends" in your social media circle are truly your friends, or even have your best interests at heart.
I quit Facebook nearly 5 years ago and it took months for the itch to reactivate my account to go away. Nowadays I go onto Twitter maybe twice a week for only a few minutes at a time before I'm overwhelmed by the overwhelming stupidity of humanity on display. (But TBH I do enjoy the comedic antics of the residents of Vaca Muerta Estates so I keep it around just for that.) While I have loved the photography on Instagram all these years, I'm ready to drop it as well because it seems that lately all I do there is block bots and unwanted ads for crap that wouldn't sell from a Sharper Image catalog.
So if all those "services" dropped off the face of the earth tomorrow I'd undoubtedly go through a bit of withdrawal and I might feel a small tinge if loss at not being able to easily ogle handsome men showing off their impossibly toned bodies in trendy worldwide locations, but my life would go on.
Your thoughts?
I've never used instagram or twitter, I don't like IM. Facebook is ok if your friend list contains ONLY people you know. I blame so called smart phones for the complete downfall of polite society. and will never own one. A phone is a phone. not your whole life.