Becoming Anti-Social

Social networks, though, have since colonized the web for television’s values. From Facebook to Instagram, the medium refocuses our attention on videos and images, rewarding emotional appeals—‘like’ buttons—over rational ones. Instead of a quest for knowledge, it engages us in an endless zest for instant approval from an audience, for which we are constantly but unconsciouly performing. (It’s telling that, while Google began life as a PhD thesis, Facebook started as a tool to judge classmates’ appearances.) It reduces our curiosity by showing us exactly what we already want and think, based on our profiles and preferences. Enlightenment’s motto of ‘Dare to know’ has become ‘Dare not to care to know.’

-- How Social Media Endangers Knowledge | WIRED

This is something that I've been grappling with lately. I embraced social networks when they began, even at one point running my own local social media marketing company. I saw a great potential for social networks, in that anyone would have the tools to tell their story.

But in the last couple of years, I've retreated from using and engaging with social media. I stopped using Facebook a couple of years ago. This year, and especially in the last few months, I've backed away from Twitter. It both cases, the pattern was the same: I stopped sharing, and then I stopped engaging altogether. I stopped sharing because of a lack of response to what I was sharing, or because of some limitation to the platform, and then I stop engaging with other people's content. And then there's no reason to visit the site anymore.

So, in its place, I've decided to start blogging more. I'm hoping that by putting more thought into what I'm sharing, I can create something better, something more engaging.