The New Year brings many folks sharing their resolutions. Typical resolutions involve commitments to changes to eating, drinking, exercising, or the appreciation of life’s opportunities. These are all great areas of personal endeavor and I suppose I should attempt improvements in these areas as well. I notice a few folks have identified their social media habits and have made public commitments to change how or how much they use social media. Getting off Facebook or at least reducing engagement seems to be particularly common. Oddly, the folks seeing this as an area of life they should modify make the effort to announce their intentions on the platforms they intend to abandon.
I have thought about my own social media behavior and even before the end of the year I have begun to make some changes. I have used Facebook primarily for commenting on political issues and intend to add limited content after Biden is in office.
First, I remain an advocate for social media. When online technology began to emerge I saw it as a participatory opportunity for all less controlled by privilege and standing. Everyone could become part of the conversation. An interesting by-product of more open discussion is that we have learned some things about each other we probably did not want to know. We have learned that conversations before must have been tempered by circumstance and shaped by present company and now we have witnessed attitudes that were previously hidden. What is that expression – when someone tells you who they really are, believe them the first time (Angelou). Let’s just assume that social media is experiencing some growing pains. Part of the negative reaction is due to limitations of the services – short comments are difficult to generate in a way that leaves open the possibility of misinterpretation (Twitter) and algorithms prioritize content more likely to push people’s buttons and encourage emotional reaction (Facebook). We also contribute in ways that could be improved. We are lazy and too often share with little investment explaining our reasoning (e.g., memes) or take positions of certaining without evidence beyond our own convictions. We want shares and likes, but are offended when someone comments to challenge a statement made. We act as if we did not really want to engage in a conversation.
Resolutions? Here are some actions I will try to emphasize.
When reacting to Facebook posts (or posts on other social media sites), I will do more than like or share. It is important to say something and when appropriate offer evidence (link to reputable source).
I will generate more content for sources other than Facebook. I write blogs now, but I mean social sites other than Facebook. It would be best if this content was unique, but posting the same content in more places would be helpful. Options – Liker, MeWe, Wt:Social, Diaspora. Folks must make this commitment to overcome the network effect (the value of a site increases exponentially as a function of the number of contributors).
I will challenge the ad model. I see two ways to do this. Spend some money to support other sites and content sources. For example, don’t rely on Facebook for news – pay for Apple+ to access newspapers and quality magazines, pay for New York Times online. Use an alternative ad revenue service that is not based so heavily on personal information. For example, Brave, will replace existing ads with ads it sells and this revenue can be used to support content creators visited.
I will distribute my online activity to distribute the information collected about me. For example, assign different search engines to different browsers I use (Google, DuckDuckGo, Bing). Most searches don’t require the best search engine and one can also use Google if a search conducted with some other search engine doesn’t produce satisfactory results. I don’t use an ad blocker because this assumes I have a right to use services and consume content others work to generate without compensation to others. This is selfish and not a long-term way to encourage quality services and content.
I will comment on the posts of others. If social is to be participatory, this will not happen based only on posts and likes. Say something. Argue responsibly with logic and evidence. Explain your support when this seems useful.