Over the past year, I have noticed a few people in my life starting to bring social media talking points and expectations into real life interactions, perhaps because so many people are having most of their interactions on social media. On some level social media seems to reinforce an illusory sense of knowing how the world works, or how…
Over the past year, I have noticed a few people in my life starting to bring social media talking points and expectations into real life interactions, perhaps because so many people are having most of their interactions on social media. On some level social media seems to reinforce an illusory sense of knowing how the world works, or how it is supposed to work, which can make people more rigid and brittle in their expectations than they might otherwise be – usually manifesting as an expectation that people will agree with / praise / condemn appropriately according to the talking point. It takes a bit of gentleness and patience to re-introduce nuance and complexity in these conversations, but being there in person makes it so much easier.
Synchronicitously (if that is a word), I was struck by this comment while reading American Cosmic over lunch: “It’s as if our imaginations have become exterior to ourselves, existing out there in our media, and our media then determines what is in our heads. […] Cognition occurs within a network that extends into the environment.” A timely reminder that we transfer a lot of our imaginative and cognitive capacity to networked technology and environments designed to prey on our emotions.
Social media is a huge displacement of energy. One of the things that is finally driving me away is the incessant demand to research and then get performatively angry or sad about everything that is happening in the world, when most of the things I have the power to influence in a beneficial way are offline, invisible, seemingly unimportant when filtered through the gaze of social media (unless of course I pour my energy into presenting it correctly – which takes us deeper into the vicious circle of displacement).
I remember when it suddenly became a 'thing' for people to bring up memes they had seen in real life conversations. It felt so much like that awkwardness when someone will quote a line from a television series and expect everyone in the conversation appreciated or even knew what they were referencing...
Over the past year, I have noticed a few people in my life starting to bring social media talking points and expectations into real life interactions, perhaps because so many people are having most of their interactions on social media. On some level social media seems to reinforce an illusory sense of knowing how the world works, or how it is supposed to work, which can make people more rigid and brittle in their expectations than they might otherwise be – usually manifesting as an expectation that people will agree with / praise / condemn appropriately according to the talking point. It takes a bit of gentleness and patience to re-introduce nuance and complexity in these conversations, but being there in person makes it so much easier.
Synchronicitously (if that is a word), I was struck by this comment while reading American Cosmic over lunch: “It’s as if our imaginations have become exterior to ourselves, existing out there in our media, and our media then determines what is in our heads. […] Cognition occurs within a network that extends into the environment.” A timely reminder that we transfer a lot of our imaginative and cognitive capacity to networked technology and environments designed to prey on our emotions.
Social media is a huge displacement of energy. One of the things that is finally driving me away is the incessant demand to research and then get performatively angry or sad about everything that is happening in the world, when most of the things I have the power to influence in a beneficial way are offline, invisible, seemingly unimportant when filtered through the gaze of social media (unless of course I pour my energy into presenting it correctly – which takes us deeper into the vicious circle of displacement).
I remember when it suddenly became a 'thing' for people to bring up memes they had seen in real life conversations. It felt so much like that awkwardness when someone will quote a line from a television series and expect everyone in the conversation appreciated or even knew what they were referencing...