17 September

Why social media is dangerous. 1) It creates fake social lives that people then consciously and unconsciously compare to their own. This creates enormous stress and anxiety, as the relentlessly happy and fun posts clash with the actual lives people live. It also sets up imitative rivalry, ‘you went to London? Well here we are in Rome.’ Etc. 2) It encourages the idea that we’re all equal, on all topics. This dissolves trust in society, in every area. It doesn’t matter that somebody may have decades of training and experience, their voice is said to be equivalent to every idiot and their opinion. 3) This collapse in trust leads to conspiracy theories, about everything. Because people don’t understand what they’re seeing, and won’t trust the people actually responsible for that thing, they invent conspiracies to explain it. Americans invented social media. Many Americans (including the platform owners) have a pathological hatred and distrust of their own institutions. These platforms are now spreading that paranoia to the whole world. While at the same time returning us socially to high school, comparing our social lives to each other all day, every day.