Is It Time To Forget Social Media?

In 2008 I joined a movement.

It started with an upload of some data and snippets of my life to Facebook to get started and then logging in. And this was quickly followed by a Twitter profile. Then the posting of my first tweet.

The digital banter had started and I was hooked.

So I kept diving in.

We all kept tweeting and playing and watching the global and often witty screen driven repartee. Then the iPhone made its mark.

Gave us our portable publishing machines. The text messages became photo sharing and then we recorded our lives in full HD video.

And then the addiction went to a whole new level.

For years it was a fun and frivolous Wild West. Few filters and no algorithms of consequence. It was an innocent game of considered sharing and playful innocence.

But then things changed.

In the beginning it felt like an equal exchange. We were working together.

Our information is now used to make money. Without our permission. 

The bad actors used it to separate our humanity for their own greed and means.

Lies override truth.

Sharing became narcissism.

Open platforms allowed cyber bullying.

Then they brought in the machines. Started charging us to reach our followers. 

They have scaled the disease of more. Corporate and global greed disguised as innovation and caring. At a commercial level, the robots are now making it difficult to even place an innocent Ad as AI rejects or blocks the very reasonable submission.

But if you have millions of dollars in your back pocket and disinformation to spread then the door is wide open. 

We now need to reconsider that relationship. Because it is not working for the good.

Just for the social media mafia brotherhood.

It is time to change the game.

Or we may slowly go insane.

A Social Media Love Affair

Social media

We fell in love with you

There was a promise of new

Embracing a changing world view

An openness and an honesty of shared experiences

Loaded onto the smart platform

A future

Human nurture

Where we were free to reveal our lives to a waiting world

Not filtered by the moguls

Bribed by the gatekeepers

Paying the advertising ghouls

Begging the writers

The PR machines

Until the gate’s locks were changed

Driven by the unbidden need

Greed

To make more money controlled by the technology machine

That has no morals

Except to maximize dollars

How much do you need

When is it enough

We used you

In innocent bliss

Created pithy tweets

Posted family photos

Shared our travels

But there was an agenda

Put into the blender

The seed

Of primal need

It was something we missed

Hidden in the ether

Of power

Of money making

Power baking

We were innocent fools

Tools

Now you are using us

That was not what we signed up for

You made us the product

Stole our information

Mined our data

Dived into our personal lives

Pretending it was free

But there was always a cost

You sold

Our inclinations

Our intimations

Affirmations

To the highest bidder

To harass us

Bombard us

With disinformation

Fake news

We thought you were the muse

At our side

To get our voices and art out

The truth

Absolute power corrupts

You aren’t a small god

Posing as a demigod

But a monster in the mist

Twisted and amiss

It was

Disguised as free speech

Unfiltered

With abdicated responsibility

Don’t look here

Nothing to see

Hiding behind the skirts of exciting and new

We are tempted into the web

The robotic rabbit holes

That don’t make me feel whole

But make me less

As the highlight reels of others

Polished

Makes me feel a mess

Not good enough

Not quite right

Not a success

In the name of what?

Unbridled capitalism

Raw greed

A money making machine

Wrapped in a package of caring ambiguity

Hoping we would continue to play your game

It’s complicity

Why do you push back

Against considered control

Responsibility

Because you call it innovation

Sorry that’s not enough

We are heading towards abomination

A social experiment that threatens

Our village

Our community

Our democracies

Our self worth

So where to now?

It’s gone to a whole new how

You’ve built the robots

The algorithms

To scale your rape and pillage

The global village

Wrapped in caring

Sharing our secrets

It’s becoming tough

And I’ve had enough

I’ve turned off all my alerts

Silenced the annoying interruptions

Of the social media disruptions

That are no longer invited

Your commercial needy love is now unrequited.

For a decade

I was amused

Now I am just feeling abused.