Increasing talk of the dangers of social media, and possible solutions. None of them will work because the…

Increasing talk of the dangers of social media, and possible solutions. None of them will work because the root problem isn’t diagnosed. Sociality is violence. The act of connecting people will always create violence, not harmony. /1 https://t.co/3Tb2pdEPH1

We need much, much less connection. Connection requires the hard, complex work of negotiation of relationship. Not instant ‘follows’ and likes’. We’re obsessed with connection because our cultures are stalled at the adolescent stage of human development. /2

Friendship and connection are a stage of development teenagers go through, where they’re beginning to build a wider network outside their families, in which to embed their identities. It’s a temporary phase. We have it as an entire culture. /3

You’re supposed to move through that phase, towards self-determination, love and ultimately realisation of your individual self. Social media has trapped entire cultures inside that adolescent phase. /4

The deep anthropology of the violence of social relations has been extensively outlined by thinkers like Rene Girard. Our baseline assumption, that connection is an intrinsic good, is lethally wrong. /5

Teenagers know that the constant negotiation of friendship groups and status within those groups is violent, to their emotions and sometimes even physically. That’s the business model of these platforms, now used by all ages. The team sports of groups competing for status. /6

Groups which individuals use to help define their identity. As teenagers do, growing up. Except there is no up now. The process doesn’t end. We no longer progress to the calm doing of adult work, decoupled from status games, group rivalries. /7

Every single problem our societies face is now re-routed through one or more of these status games, which we ridiculously label as ‘democracy’ in action. It’s the schoolyard in action. /end