This morning I got into a conversation about social media with my neighbor Melisa. It was an especially interesting conversation because we were approaching the issues of social media from very different perspectives. Fundamentally, it seems that Melisa has the same sorts of concern about the affect that social media has on young people who can’t get their face out of their phones. Her points were mostly focused on how much better it is for young people to be part of a community where there is limited social media involvement and more interpersonal connection, especially for young people who are just developing their character and persona. That is so very hard to disagree with and I think we all of this and nearby generations (I am being careful not to lump Melisa with me since she is ten years my junior) remember fondly the benefits of playing hide & seek with friends under the glow of streetlights in our suburban neighborhoods on warm summer nights. We want so much for the younger generations to benefit as we think we did with direct human contact and not get too bound up in virtual relationships that have more subtle and potentially more harmful aspects and influences to them.
The opposing concern I was expressing, which in no way negates anything Melisa was espousing, was that I was concerned about where that will leave the youth of this idyllic and nurturing community that Melisa describes. I know it is hackneyed to say that its a tough world and kids need to toughen up. That is less my point than the fact that social media is no longer a fad, but is rather a critical component of our social fabric. That is toothpaste that will not go back into the tube, it is here to stay with us in whatever form it morphs into. I’m not even so sure it can be easily regulated any longer. Look at what is happening with TikTok. It has all the evil elements working against it, not the least of which is its supposed Chinese espionage and culture war elements. In theory, there is something for both disparate political camps to hate, and yet TikTok will not go down easily. It is liked too much by enough of the population that to kill it is being touted as an infringement of the sacred individual liberty of Americans, and enough people are making enough money from TikTok that the sanctity of American commerce is also at stake.
I find myself thinking about the kids I knew in grade school who were children of a local dentist, who was devoid of a sweat-tooth and forbade his children from eating sweets. At kid ground-level in the hood, those kids craved sweets more than any of the rest of us, and they stopped at nothing to get them in contravention to their father’s wishes. That breach went on to cause other beaches and an attitude of rebellion that ultimately produced kids who were 180 degrees from what the father wanted. That was not something that happened in abstraction, it happened because all those around those kids were allowed to have candy and it drove them mad and wanton. By the same token, I remember the movie The Last Starfighter, about a kid in a trailer park growing up with all the bad influences including an addiction to video games. It turns out that the video game was really an alien test to see who had the eye-hand coordination to succeed as a high-tech combat starship pilot, a skill set that was much prized in the broader universe than the microcosm of Earth.
We simply do not know what the future holds, especially with regard to technology. It is quaint to think that its better for kids to play in the cul-de-sac with other kids and to play with things like wooden blocks rather than spending their time on screens. But it is unclear that doing things like severely limiting kids’ screen time in order to harken back to a time when the. populist sense is that that was needed to make America great again. In my recent efforts to work through the podcast concept, I’ve come to understand better the shape of influencer-based marketing through the exercise. That is not directly a social media process, but the effectiveness of mobilizing and eventually monetizing a targeted podcast strategy relies heavily on advance work and promotion via social media and collateral follow-through after the podcast via social media. There was a time in the days of our youth when print-based and radio marketing was supplanted by TV marketing, and I imagine that there was plenty of. concern that TV would drag down our country’s youth and future into the depths of depravity. Who knows, maybe it did.
We can rail at the moon and try to hold back progress, as much as we may not find that progress to be real or positive. Time marches on and things change. All we can do is embrace it, shape it if we can and be sure to continue to operate with our own moral standards as we know how best to reconcile them with the realities of the new environment. I hate to think that social media, with all its misinformation, disinformation and cavalier approach to virtual relationships and social influence is the way of the future, but it seems to be here to stay at this point. Since time began, certain humans, operating under the rubric of every manner of organized religion, have wanted to stop the clock or even turn it back. Fundamentalism exists in Christianity (Amish, Mennonite) , Judaism (Hasidic) , Islam (Salaism and modern variations), Hinduism (Hindutva), Buddhism, Mormonism and even Sikhism. Modernity has a way of scaring people into extremism and then leaving them stranded from the mainstream of society. Sometimes that’s all well and good, but the proof is there for all to see. Life in fundamental extremism is hard and appeals to a very limited audience, regardless of the underlying religion. Sooner or later, righteous or not, the mainstream has a hard time tolerating what they find to be extreme.
Going along to get along is a hard path to advocate for, but perhaps circumventing social media is less effective than what is warranted. I feel that reform and/or regulation of social media is a must, despite the current antagonism towards it. Mostly, there must be a basis for trust in the veracity of information. Truth is not, nor has it ever been, relative. It is absolute and must not be subject to manipulation. In fact, I believe that very disparity is the single biggest basis for our collective problems. I am prepared to accept that truth can be distorted by all sides if given the opportunity. What I cannot accept is that we can afford to do nothing about that. Since man has walked the earth, all wars boil down to knowledge, some about historical reality, but all about the right to set the historical record to their liking into the future. The only war that may be worth fighting is the knowledge war, and that is now the battlefield of social media.