Nocial Media
You can post about how your #30DayChallnge is going by tagging @theroompsy on Instagram or by using the hashtag #TheGreenSpace30DC ! Good luck!
Unless you have been living under a rock, you have probably heard about the documentary ‘The Social Dilemma’ that dropped on Netflix this fall. If you haven’t seen it yet, I highly recommend that you watch it – genuinely for your mental health and well-being purposes, if not for your right to freedom and autonomy. And if you don’t know what I am talking about, let me fill you in…
‘The Social Dilemma’ is a docudrama that explores the incredibly dangerous human impact of social media; with tech experts who created the ‘like button’, the ‘endless scroll’ and others alike, explaining their thoughts behind their creations – and the sinister path we are now walking.
“This is checkmate on humanity” - Tristan Harris (Google Design Ethicist)
- [In] The Social Dilemma
This docudrama gets dark very quickly and presents some truly terrifying arguments, perspectives, predictions, realities and consequences of our on-screen activity. I for one immediately felt like throwing my phone out the window after watching. It was distressing, to say the least.
Some of the truths revealed in this docudrama were so disturbing, disgusting, and frightening, that it made me wonder how long we as a species planned on willingly being hoodwinked by these pervasive algorithmic forces. How much longer we were going to let it corrode our mental wellbeing, damage our relationships, warp our self-worth, deteriorate our ability to use critical thought, erode at our attention-spans, trigger disorders and addictions, and cause us to feel increasingly lonely, isolated, and disenfranchised with our real social world. When is enough, going to be enough?
Our dependency on social tech is no doubt a powerful and consuming force, and resistance from it may feel difficult, unpleasant - and maybe at times a little futile, but it is arguably a necessary battle to fight. There is not enough value placed on the importance of “unplugging” – and not just for a day or a week to “detox”, but to actually sign-out and delete the accounts. Keeping one or two for positive or purposeful use may be fine if used with awareness and caution; but having multiple upon multiple apps all owned by more or less the same people, with no restrictions on how often or how deep you are scrolling is simply not good for your psyche, and as ‘The Social Dilemma’ explains, for society either.
Social media is having significant and devastating impacts on our real social world and we cannot allow ourselves to be a pawn in this game any longer. Therefore, this month’s challenge is about being aware and resisting these forces.
Be aware. Be resistant. Unplug.
Will you take the pledge?
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