Social Media Isn’t Evil; People Are Careless, Cruel, and Stupid

...and shortsighted. But who saw this coming?

This story is as old as kindergarten, when that one hateful little brat would shadow other children for the purposes of observing minor infractions they could report to the authorities, in this case, the teacher. Most commonly, it was for saying Bad Words, followed by Expressions of Unacceptable Attitude.

While most teachers would say, “No one likes a tattletale,” in the late 1960s when I was coming up, no one today questions the character of the adult who pores through years of social media to find that one phrase, that one expression, even that one association—liking a Tweet by a Designated Evil Person, for instance—in order to ruin someone’s life. 

To extend my metaphor, the targeted child doesn’t just miss recess. Any infraction is enough to get him expelled from school entirely. Which, when you think about it (and you shouldn’t have to), is putting deplatforming, unemployment, and loss of income mildly.

As the saying goes, guns don’t kill people, people kill people. So it is with social media when things get mean. It’s people going after people. What part of the “social” in the “social media” did you miss?

Where every turn is a wrong turn.

As I write this, YouTube is in the news because one “journalist” working for a dying clickbait site managed to get several content creators shut down. Given the rapidly turning political tides, this does not bode well for the dying clickbait site, which already doesn’t enjoy much goodwill, given its trollish notoriety. Meanwhile, YouTube and all the other social media sites have all but grabbed the sign that says “Duck Season” and screamed, “It’s duck season! Shoot me now!” There has been such a sloppy arbitrariness to many of the deplatformings, several law offices no doubt have another pot of coffee on as they prepare for the harvest of monetary settlements to come. And then there’s the possibility of the U.S. government getting involved.

This is small comfort to those fighting to get their livelihoods back while the “journalist,” like the creature who promoted the University of Virginia rape hoax for Rolling Stone, will likely move on quietly to another job. (These people are assiduous at taking care of one another and keeping each other employed, which contributes greatly to their resilience.) So what’s the lesson for the rest of us?

We’ll just have to do the best we can. Like the classroom tattletales of days gone by, these creatures can turn the most innocuous thing you’ve said into a Grand Manifesto of Most Abhorrent Evil Intent, so don’t sweat too much of what you say. The terrorists win that way, after all. Most importantly, as a matter of policy, never apologize, especially if you suspect you may have said something to offend someone. It sounds counter-intuitive, but apologies are always taken as admission of guilt. The hostilities are thus escalated, never mitigated. 

Part of what makes these monsters so evil is how they use the best qualities of good people against them. And these monsters are monsters, by the way. They’re not here to right injustice or make the world a better place. They’re here to hurt people. Ruin people. Because they can.

That said, I recommend keeping all anger in check. As the saying goes when dealing with obstreperous children, “Remember, you’re the grownup.” Most everything you see in the media, including our beloved Internet, is designed to get a rise out of you. When enough of us meet these outrages with a stone face and say quietly, but firmly, “Enough,” is when this madness stops.

As I read the chan boards and Facebook pages dedicated to slagging on the current culture, it occurs to me that many, many more people are lurking for the entertainment as I am. What could they possibly be thinking of all this? How will they make decisions on what to buy, whom to buy it from, whom to hire, whom to vote for, etc., based on what they’ve seen?

For my part, I can’t wait to find out.

There’s always a sunny day, if you’re up early enough for it. The clouds still close in by 11 a.m. around here.