Social Control Media Does Not Improve Reach, It Wastes a Lot of Time
Social Control Media is something that
techrights.org has avoided all along (dodged the
bullet), but I myself - as an
individual - spent 13 years in sites like
identi.ca (the first one that I adopted due to peer
pressure from Tony
Manco). Looking back, a lot of effort/energy/time was spent
publishing in "microblog" form what could otherwise be properly
explained - in length! - in an article or a blog post.
Sadly, based on persistent trends, many people still think that no presence in Social Control Media necessarily means invisibility. It is not a truism by any stretch of imagination. Instead of writing meaningful stories people spend time grunting and drooling or merely staring at miniature interfaces where they "collect" so-called 'friends' and click on things such as "favourite" in pursuit of reciprocity and perceived legitimacy/popularity. Like LLM slop, it leads to a feeling or a sense of progress, productivity etc. But it's mindless nonsense, albeit potentially addictive. Some folks are still hopeful that the media's debate about health effects of such interfaces will lead to reflection, whereupon more people will quit using "apps", "spyphones", and centralised hubs of quips with rage-bait (adrenaline rush, maybe even endorphins).
There have been studies on how much time gets spent in classrooms, for example, playing with gadgets instead of learning (clue: the latter is the real purpose of these classrooms!). Or how much times per day (on average) people stare at their skinnerboxes, depending on their age group, demography etc. There are younger people (generation Z for sure) who spend several hours per day playing "games" disguised as social activities in digital spaces. They will not pick up social skills and tact. They will not gain any real popularity, only project a false perception/self-assurance of it (competition over who clicks more, not who socialises and builds strong, lasting bonds).
The mental health crisis will prevail as long as the "pushers" find enough "users" and manipulate them via their oligarchs-owned media; they try to tell us some "happy stories" about how people find lost pets in Facebook or reunite with friends in some other crappy "platform"; as if nobody has a telephone anymore. The Vatican speaks of a magnificent humanity; it's not an anti-industrialist message, it's a reminder that we're human beings, not avatars in some private database of GAFAM or TikTok (Fentanylware). Our "worth" isn't to be measured in "likes".
Don't be part of the herd. The term "herd mentality" implies not conjoined or aggregated minds but minds that stopped working, typically or subconsciously out of fear of retribution (groupthink defies dissent or differentiation). █
Image source: Person interacts with a digital display, receiving notifications on a handheld device