Rhetoric like this is interesting to me because it so precisely mirrors what I heard growing up about alcohol. I had a large group of friends whose families were very religious in a religion that was very anti-alcohol. They had reached a critical mass where they didn’t know anyone who drank alcohol (or admitted to it, anyway) other than stories of severe alcoholics that got passed around the community. These stories were emphasized and amplified for them every Sunday. They truly didn’t believe that moderate or occasional alcohol consumption was possible, because to them the only thing they knew about alcohol was the part about addicts whose lives had been destroyed.
Even from a young age I thought it was strange how much they bounced these stories back and forth off of each other and how good they were at finding more stories about celebrities or local figures who had problems with alcohol to support their case.
It was also fascinating how self-congratulatory it all become. They weren’t simply sharing stories to earn each other away from a trap, they were sharing stories to reaffirm their own superiority as people who saw through the sham and wisely chose against it. The worse they made it sound, the more superior they could feel about being on the outside.
I get the exact same vibes when I read internet posts like this, which take the situation to such an extreme that they think comparisons like this are accurate and profound:
> Zuckerberg is probably worse than Escobar
Then there’s the idea that social media can’t be used for socializing, and anyone claiming otherwise is lying:
> Social media being a place to connect and maybe even run a small business is like 1% of it. It’s a place for attention seeking people filling their loneliness with fake connections and content
Yet many of us are out here using social media to keep up with friends without spending 99% of our time doing this fentanyl-like addiction that everyone tells us is inevitable.
I’m not saying that people don’t get addicted to social media, just as there are people who get addicted to alcohol (obviously). I’m merely pointing out that, like alcohol, the vast majority of people who participate aren’t degenerate addicts who lose control. This weird rhetoric about Zuckerberg being worse than Escobar or implied calls for government to treat it like drug dealers are fodder for the self-congratulatory people who want extra validation for their decision to stay off social media (defined in a way to exclude Hacker News, Reddit, and other social sites), but they’re hardly accurate. It’s weird to see these hyperbolic takes being so popular on, oddly enough, social commentary sites.
To your drinking analogy, imagine there was a version of alcohol that had all the positive effects (being drunk is fun and silly, makes social interaction flow a bit easier, etc) and none of the negative effects. But then a company called Drinkbook comes along and their version has all the same positives but also many, many drawbacks. They become a huge company and kill off all the smaller producers, and everyone uses their version :)
That's effectively what happened to social interaction on the internet. We had all the connection before, but none of the addiction. So I just don't buy the argument that the hyper addictive variants of social media are a net good.
Thanks for sharing that insight. When I read the original comment I felt like I was an outlier for thinking how beneficial I’ve found social media on a personal level. If used with intention then there’s a wealth of learning and knowledge that the algorithms help deliver.
Of course there are many people who use social media purely for distraction. Which if used chronically is going to have an overwhelming negative impact.
In social media’s current for profit model it benefits from negatively impacting people. Which is a shame given if it wanted to, it could focus on the wellbeing of all its users.
An example I can give is the Reddit app that used to give a warning if a user used it for over a certain amount of time. These days it encourages it’s users to stay engaged with badges.
Zuck directly controls the algorithm to his own ends, he is much worse than Escobar, he is actively destroying the minds of children. You are defending him bc you don't want to believe that we are in the dystopian nightmare we all feared.
I believe, you are a specific minority actually. What the OP described “gal flipping between FB/Insta” is actual reality around me when I am outside and look around me. Young and adult, all are flipping, the younger they are more TikTok/Insta, older they are more FB/X.
Even some of my family members who preached the bad of smartphones and internet are addicted to Facebook/Youtube and mindlessly scroll away while I observe the insanity.
It is sad and unimaginable for those of us who can resist the claws of the addiction, but for the rest 99%, it is just escaping the boredom/loneliness/social disconnect.
Social media wanted to connect people to genuine interactions over long distances, instead it has created a whirlwind of addiction media supply. Most people’s feed are very insignificant portion of their real connections and dominant following of content farms, celebrity gossips, meme, media misinformation, polarisation and of course 66% of ads trying to sell them something related to the most common trend of their feed at that hour.
You don't need to be a degenerate alcoholic to see negative health effects from drinking alcohol. Alcohol hastens obesity by being high in calories, impairs sleep quality, damages your brain/liver and may be a carcinogen.
The point being, social media can be bad for your health even if it doesn't ruin your life.
Even from a young age I thought it was strange how much they bounced these stories back and forth off of each other and how good they were at finding more stories about celebrities or local figures who had problems with alcohol to support their case.
It was also fascinating how self-congratulatory it all become. They weren’t simply sharing stories to earn each other away from a trap, they were sharing stories to reaffirm their own superiority as people who saw through the sham and wisely chose against it. The worse they made it sound, the more superior they could feel about being on the outside.
I get the exact same vibes when I read internet posts like this, which take the situation to such an extreme that they think comparisons like this are accurate and profound:
> Zuckerberg is probably worse than Escobar
Then there’s the idea that social media can’t be used for socializing, and anyone claiming otherwise is lying:
> Social media being a place to connect and maybe even run a small business is like 1% of it. It’s a place for attention seeking people filling their loneliness with fake connections and content
Yet many of us are out here using social media to keep up with friends without spending 99% of our time doing this fentanyl-like addiction that everyone tells us is inevitable.
I’m not saying that people don’t get addicted to social media, just as there are people who get addicted to alcohol (obviously). I’m merely pointing out that, like alcohol, the vast majority of people who participate aren’t degenerate addicts who lose control. This weird rhetoric about Zuckerberg being worse than Escobar or implied calls for government to treat it like drug dealers are fodder for the self-congratulatory people who want extra validation for their decision to stay off social media (defined in a way to exclude Hacker News, Reddit, and other social sites), but they’re hardly accurate. It’s weird to see these hyperbolic takes being so popular on, oddly enough, social commentary sites.