This is probably one of the hardest blogs I’ve written as it’s really going against the tide of the times and it’s not easy reading! I don’t want to put any of you who choose to read this under pressure, but I couldn’t not write it either! On a plus note, John and I read just this morning (10th October 2020) that there is pressure for social media networks to knock off algorithms that users would choose to opt in to, so maybe there is some light coming. It comes off the back of a tragic story of a dad who is blaming Instagram for the suicide of his 14 year old daughter who had been watching self-harming videos. It can be a very dark world….not the internet, social media.
For some strange reason, I really love watching the Jurassic Park movies! I wouldn’t say I have an obsession with dinosaurs, but maybe I have! Anyway, I think it’s movie 2 when a couple have lost their son and they go searching for him on dinosaur island! As the mum is running at one point, she runs into a paraglider and gets tangled in the strings of it. She fights to free herself from the strings. If you’ve seen it, you’ll be able to picture the scene. For me, social media is a little like this. It can feel like a tangled web especially if you have numerous accounts!
Recently, I watched the much talked about ‘The Social Dilemma’ (Netflix) It had a huge effect on me and, from the minute it finished I knew I wanted out. I can’t recommend watching it highly enough.
My Twitter and Instagram accounts were deleted the same night, simply because I hardly used Twitter. Instagram, although I preferred it, didn’t have the same grip as Facebook – ‘grip’ being an appropriate word! Why that is, I don’t know. And it may not be your experience, but for me, the afore mentioned were fairly easy to delete and I can honestly say, it felt very liberating and I don’t miss them at all.
Facebook, however, was, I thought, going to take some plotting and planning – why? Because I do do a lot of stuff on there. Video ‘preaches’; Women’s groups -I lead one and am a part of another, our church interacts on there, (even more-so since lock down), ‘everyone’ is on there; we live stream our church on there and so on… So, I began to ask the question is there a better way to do all these things without the grip of Facebook.
I watched Social dilemma again before I wrote this as I wanted to take it in once more as there is a huge amount of information. I wanted to take some notes and then pick out the poignant ones for me and for you if you’re interested.
I have also just finished reading, for the second time, ’10 arguments for deleting your social media accounts right now’ by Jaron Larnier.
After absorbing these two resources twice, in my opinion, I am left with no option but to delete my Facebook account. Right now, I can’t see any positives that can outdo the negatives, but I will say here and now, that if that changes, I will simply come back! It doesn’t have to be for any of us a forever decision. That’s not what the book is called. It’s a call to arms for now!
A call for change.
I did a pros and cons list and it felt a bit like the chapters in Deuteronomy where God lays out the positives and the negatives of obeying or not obeying His commands. I’ve always wondered why the negative list is longer, but then I did my own lists regarding social media and got the same scenario! The reasons to leave were many more than the reasons to stay. I think God was saying back in the day that life is less complicated if you just obey me; (I also believe it is still the case today, but that’s for another blog!) and, I believe, in 2020, life is less complicated without the snare that is social media. Here are my two lists.
Reasons to stay: Friends; influence; keeping up with your kids and family.
Reasons to leave: You and I are a product that is sold to advertisers; it owns you; it fills your newsfeed with what you believe; they advertise to you what you have searched for; they are watching you; they own your photographs; it dictates your thoughts; it makes you mad; it makes you want to argue your point; it interrupts you; it distracts you; it takes so much time; It can make you fake nice; it makes you addicted to ‘likes’; it makes you addicted to comments; fake news; it makes you think on things you never would have if you hadn’t seen a certain post; it makes you sad.
I know there are many more, that list took no time at all to come up with.
Before I go on, it’s worth saying that all of the contributors of the social dilemma program are former employees, CEOs, presidents, engineers etc… of Google, Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest and the like, so they were in it (the system) and now they are out. If they are out, they are worth listening to, add to that the fact that none of them allow their kids on social media – that should make us give them our attention.
I know that some of us reading this will wish we could delete and go off grid. I know this to be true because my daughter has just deleted and she had people saying to her they wish they could! The fact that we think we can’t is proof of what all the Larniers of this world tell us and that is, we are addicted to social media; it is a drug; they designed it as such. Every time you get a ‘like’ you get a small dopamine hit. What??? I hear you cry. Read the quote below from the first president of Face book, Sean Parker:
“We need to sort of give you a little dopamine hit every once in a while, because someone liked or commented on a photo or a post or whatever… . It’s a social-validation feedback loop … exactly the kind of thing that a hacker like myself would come up with, because you’re exploiting a vulnerability in human psychology…”
Here’s Chamath Palihapitiya, former vice president of user growth at Facebook:
“The short-term, dopamine-driven feedback loops we’ve created are destroying how society works… . No civil discourse, no cooperation; misinformation, mistruth…. I feel tremendous guilt. I think we all knew in the back of our minds—even though we feigned this whole line of, like, there probably aren’t any bad unintended consequences. I think in the back, deep, deep recesses of, we kind of knew something bad could happen… . So we are in a really bad state of affairs right now, in my opinion. It is eroding the core foundation of how people behave by and between each other. And I don’t have a good solution. My solution is I just don’t use these tools anymore. I haven’t for years.”
‘I just don’t use these tools anymore!’ ‘I feel tremendous guilt’
The most extreme consequences are the levels of self harm and suicide that have increased by 150% and 70% respectively in teen and pre-teen girls (The social Dilemma) Many stories like the one mentioned at the beginning of this blog.
Part of the Netflix program shows a young girl posting a photo of herself. She doesn’t get as many likes as she would like so she deletes it and does another one with filters…. This gets her friends going with likes and heart emojis etc….
I don’t know about you, but, I am very grateful that social media wasn’t around when I was a kid.
More evidence:
“We’re being tracked and measured constantly, and receiving engineered feedback all the time. We’re being hypnotised little by little by technicians we can’t see, for purposes we don’t know.” (Jaron Larnier)
And one more:
What ads are most likely to have a certain effect on you, what news, what cute cat pictures mixed into the feed of news you are getting from family members? (Jaron Larnier)
Doesn’t it send a shiver down your spine when you think that every time we are on social media or google, (yes, google!) our actions are being watched? Actually down to the point of how long you spend looking at an image– yes, really. Watch ‘The Social Dilemma’
Addiction is the only reason why we would stay connected to something so sinister as pointed out here by Jaron.
Addiction is a big part of the reason why so many of us accept being spied on and manipulated by our information technology,
They have us believing we can’t live without it. For some, that’s more the case than for others. There are people I know who have literally joined facebook just so they can watch church and they don’t do anything else. But for others, even me, it’s a battle to delete because of what I do on there. The reasons to leave though are shouting louder to me at the moment and so I will find a better way!
Jaron and the speakers on the social dilemma documentary are fighting for change. And they want us to be part of the solution. The ONLY way that things will change is if people delete their accounts. This, they say, will give space for the bods at Silicon Valley to create something better.
No one set out to create the bad side of social media, but nevertheless unless we delete, nothing will change. What the ex-builders of social media are predicting during the next 20 years if we don’t change it, isn’t good! Watch ‘The Social Dilemma’
One of the main reasons to delete your social media accounts is that there isn’t a real choice to move to different social media accounts. Quitting entirely is the only option for change. If you don’t quit, you are not creating the space in which Silicon Valley can act to improve itself. Jaron Larnier
I’m pretty sure none of us would say we are addicted to social media, I certainly would have said I wasn’t, but the more I’ve studied this, the more I’ve come to realise, I was addicted. Unless you’re a robot, you can’t post a photo or a comment and not check on it later or every 10 minutes to see the likes or comments and if you haven’t had many likes or comments it affects your mood! If you happen to see someone’s post and it’s negative, you can spend hours talking about it, thinking about it, wanting to make your point against it.
I don’t know if you’re aware but everyone has a different newsfeed. The people that are watching you, fill your feed with what they know you will react against or like.
What’s the alternative? What about my friends? Well, you don’t have to give up on your friends, phone, email, text. What about influence? Get your own website, record podcasts. What about my kids and family? Phone, email, text.
Sure, it’ll take more effort to stay in touch. A bit like climbing a hill. But it’ll be worth it because we won’t be being spied on and our data won’t be used to sell to advertisers. Let’s climb the hill and set ourselves free from the snare of social media. Of course, I’m not telling you what to do, I’m just presenting you with some of the facts that I have found so compelling that I need to act.
So this is what I’m going to do. If you want to keep in touch, my email address is debbie.bullock50@outlook.com you can subscribe to this blog so you’ll get an email every time I write. For BRAVE, we can do YouTube LIVE, I’ll be doing podcasts and we have a YouTube channel that you can subscribe to – just go on YouTube and search for John & Debbie Bullock. We managed perfectly well before it and we can do it again! I will end this with one of the many one liners that made me smile in Jaron’s book.
“To free yourself, to be more authentic, to be less addicted, to be less manipulated, to be less paranoid … for all these marvellous reasons, delete your accounts.”
…..at least temporarily. D x