The you-can-count-on-it-ness of the tabloidian overshadowing real sh!t
It’s been a little over one month since I took a complete break from social media. I don’t miss it, and I am certain the ecosystem doesn’t miss me.
This is the second time in just over a decade that I’ve been on a hiatus of this duration. The spirit of this separation, though, is not the same. I deactivated my accounts rather than simply choosing not to sign on/open an app. In this way, I am absent from the space and my connections, and the space and my connections are absent to me.
I can only describe the build up to my departure as a compelling, addictive, yet logically unsustainable slow drip of exposure to a boundless, hurtling destructive force.
An auto-replenishing supply of bad news made worse by inflammatory dialogues in the comments. Pointless and unwanted suggested videos offering nothing of value or enrichment. Abundant misinformation paired with the new norm of breaking and remaking rules with no consequences or accountability. The almost-organic adoption of—or at least acquiescence to—artificial intelligences. Sh!tty humor, sh1tty behavior that some find humorous, othering, and the you-can-count-on-it-ness of the tabloidian overshadowing real sh!t.
For the forseeable future, there is no “me” in social media.