💾 Archived View for loomcom.com › gemlog › the-social-media-apocalypse.gmi captured on 2023-07-22 at 16:19:58. Gemini links have been rewritten to link to archived content
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This past Monday, I deleted my Twitter account. It felt good. It felt really good. It felt the best.
The chaos at Twitter with Elon Musk in charge has made huge waves in my little social circles and many of my friends have abandoned ship, so I'm not alone. It almost feels like a social media apocalypse.
But I consider this a good thing. It's time to shake things up, and in some ways this has been a long time coming. I've been feeling more and more soured on social media in general over the past few years, watching as the spidery fingers of neoliberal capital twisted their way into every nook and cranny of the experience.
And hey, look: I'm a capitalist, I have nothing against making an honest dollar. This may come as a shock to those who assume that I am a hard core communist based on my last paragraph, but in fact I am all for private enterprise. It's just that I am also all for living an authentic life free from the brainworms that unrestrained neoliberalism has wrought, and I feel like social media has been so thoroughly consumed by the almighty dollar that it has become irredeemable. It's entirely about engagement solely for the sake of generating more ad revenue, without any regard for social or societal consequences. Consequences be damned, you must increase shareholder value! In short, there is not a shred of authenticity left, so we must break free to try to make our own authenticity once again.
Whew. OK, that's a lot to take in, I know. And most importantly, it's just one random guy's opinion. Take it all with a huge grain of salt. Make up your own mind. I'm not here to convince you, or even to try to sway you. I'm just saying what I've come to think, and by golly I might be completely wrong. But I'm glad I said it.