Now Let Us (Faintly) Praise Social Media
Used judiciously, it can be a good thing.
Years ago, William F. Buckley, the aristocratically brilliant, charismatic, and oil-money rich founder of what was then the modern conservative movement, said a conservative was someone who “stands athwart history, yelling Stop!’
I remember reading that in the pages of National Review, the magazine he founded, and scornfully thinking of people who wanted to stop progress, like the old Kentucky farmer who parked his buggy in the road to thwart Model T.
Well, comrades, as a 74-year-old part troglodyte I can tell you that the day when you, too, will be ready to yell “Stop!!” cometh for us all, or almost all. On his deathbed, dying of cancer at 89, Stan Ovshinsky, the great inventor, wanted nothing more than to get up and start another technology company.
But most of us reach a saturation point. I am fighting a presumably doomed battle against AI, which wants to take over every facet of our lives. Of course I’m a hypocrite; I have echo dots who go by Alexa, and occasionally I’ll ask one the forecast or how badly the Detroit Tigers lost last night, or maybe the capital of Slovenia.
But I do NOT want to ask a computer to do my thinking or writing for me, even if — no, especially if — it could do it better.
However, I have become a partial convert to social media, mostly Facebook. I have no interest in looking for sexual assignations online, (or anywhere else) seeing how long I can choke myself before I pass out, taking the Tide pod challenge or buying Bitcoin.
But I do like communicating with people and seeing how they think and what they think about these days. Facebook may have begun as a dating app of a sort for college kids, but today it, or at least my corner of it, is populated largely by people over fifty rediscovering each other, communicating and sharing ideas.
I mention this, because several well-educated and internet savvy folks have told me they would never dream of going on social media, which they envision as some sort of disinformation hell where people can personally attack you.
Well, you can find that if you want to, but you can also block obnoxious or abusive people, and I cheerfully do. I no longer use the former Twitter, because of who owns it. I post my columns on Bluesky and Threads. I don’t really understand the Bluesky audience, but on Threads I am always getting pictures of impossibly cute people who tell the world they are trans and ask if people would date them. Or of people talking about their dead dogs and asking if they should get another one.
Alas, I’m not a sociologist. But I do get my kicks when people read my columns and posts and thank me for telling or showing them something they didn’t know.
My world and profession has always been one of learning interesting and important things and sharing them, on whatever platform that works, and I am grateful for all those who read me wherever. Thank you.
And by the way, eating Tide pods is a very bad idea, no matter who asks.
So appreciate this column Jack. It is said that Face Book is now used primarily by dinosaurs like me. Instagram which used to pictures and relatively little text has been taken over by political pundits, wellness gurus and cooking recipes. (I still post my nature pics there) Substack is touted as the new news commenters and I enjoy following some folks there. The younger generation appears to like Tic Tok and other platforms I have never heard of. I won’t go near X for the same reason as you. I use FB primarily to keep up with friends and family. But I also use the Block, Mute and Delete button with great zeal when necessary.
I am very conflicted by everything WRT Substack, Bluesky and Facebook. On Facebook, I have >3,000 "Friends," and I can post my thoughts there and get hundreds and occasionally thousands of views and interactions. I post things here or on Bluesky, and get dozens, if I am lucky. Given that I am trying to provoke thought, Substack seems distinctly lacking. Unlike Facebook, though, it does not use content I am creating to generate clicks and thereby revenue for an obscenely rich man for whom I have no respect or affection whatsoever.
As for Buckley, he was as arrogant and condescending as he was intelligent. Perhaps more so. One of the first working definitions of "backpfeifengesicht" I ever identified.
FWIW, the "professional" social media site LinkedIn was someplace I frequented when my employment prospects were actually still relevant. It persistently suggested attractive woman after attractive woman (that I did not know and with whom I had little in common) as people I should "connect with." So frequently that I began referring to it as "LinkedUp."