Stop Looking At Each Other

 Sherry Ning at Pluripotent, Stop Looking At Each Other:

We often compare social media to Orwell’s surveillance state of 1984, but here’s what’s different about our telescreens: our screens do not exist to monitor us, but for us to monitor others. There is no totalitarian state behind our screens enforcing social order; instead, the screens turn us into the supervisors of each others’ behaviors.

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When you chat with a stranger in real life, it’s usually one-on-one and they get to know you as much as you get to know them in real time. They spend as much attention on you as you spend on them. Social media relationships are parasocial — by definition, abnormal — because one million people are “getting to know” one person and that one person must pretend they are friends with one million people.

Most bloggers have this temptation at (ahem) a reduced level. I wonder if the 100 people who eventually read each post in a month are affecting me in ways I do not see and might want to look at harshly. My daughter-in-law has a million followers on TikTok and over all platforms, she may hit two million. I have no idea how this affects her, and neither does she.

I think different generations, different personalities, and both sexes get into trouble about this in different ways.  Those of us who grew up without social media are immune to a lot of these temptations and always will be.  With CS Lewis, I am thankful for temptations I am spared, because I don't do that well with the ones that do come to me. My father, who had many vices and knew it, once said to me "I'm glad I didn't grow up in this era, because I might be pushing a needle and spoon if I had."

Thanks to Rob Henderson for the link