This resonates deeply with my recent experience. In September last year, I made the decision to delete my Twitter account, the one social media outlet that I was most active on. The decision was mainly driven by privacy concerns, as companies continue to tweak their terms of use and find legal loopholes to not only use your data, but own it, too. Following the genocide in Gaza, I realised I have no shared values with many social media mutuals. That prompted me to do a cleanse, and also be intentional about how I use social media, and who I let into my real and virtual 'circles', if you will. I would describe myself as a consumer more than a producer of content at this stage, but I certainly intend to 'disconnect'. Thank you for sharing your experience. It's helpful to read a mindful and thought out roadmap to reclaiming our real spaces.
Glad to know this strongly resonated! I remember the time when you first deleted Twitter I was so sad as I gathered lots of resources from you through your tweets. I have had a similar feeling about my friendships at the start of the COVID pandemic and currently as someone who still continues to mask in indoor and crowded spaces since I live with elderly who are high risk and have lost multiple close family members to COVID. While it did lead me to reassess how I interact with them, I have not cut them off either as there are still things about the friendships that I do still value. This and Gaza both had me assess how apathy can show up universally in all of us without minimizing the major consequences apathy can have on humanity. I find it hard to hold both truths at the same time but find it to be important to continue spotting apathy within myself so I can address it.
What a lovely read, thank you Reema. Your post and reflection questions have helped me see that I can be more mindfu and intentional about the ways I interact on social media platforms. Thank you for sharing your insights.
While social media help democratization( so to speak ) media outlets , and truly enable us to hear voices ,otherwise would have gone unheated , this comes at expenses of novelty and academic rigor , some bloggers circulate populist content that encourages sentimental impulses , rather than rational judgment and reflection , I believe nations become more vulnerable to nationalistic ideology and populist discourse at time of great turmoil and disturbances and paradoxically those are the very times that one should sticks to rational and critical thinking , speaking from a personal experience ( my home country is undergoing one of the worst civil wars ) social media sadly encourages hatred speech ,xenophobia , intolerance , and all the sort , this contents enjoy high popularity and viewership , moreover there is a tendency to criminalize and demonize the more rational content . in conclusion academic rigor vs public
engagement and participation will remains an open question
Thank you for your insights as always Osman. I sometimes find it hard to hold both truths about how on one hand social media brought democratization and space for voices often marginalized in mainstream media but at same time brought about polarization in multiple countries with grave consequences as you have named. I guess there are no clearcut answers like many things in human experience.
I will revisit this post, Reema, as it is near and dear to my heart, as the expression goes. You have presented this so thoughtfully and I did smile when you spoke about missing the intellectual community in Boston. My daughter lived there for a number of years and having moved several years ago, she echoes your sentiment. I will simply say this - while I enjoy some things about social media and have found some excellent group experiences that are hosted on FB, I realize that when I look back at my life prior to its evolution, there was no need for it in my life. It is not to say there are not entertaining and connecting pieces, but I am currently thinking about deleting what does not sere me. I also separate out social media and the way I think about it from Zoom and ways in which we can, yes, connect with family and friends that were not available to us before. The impact on children is a whole other topic, an important one.
I am glad this post spoke to you Dawn! And what a small world! I can resonate with how you separate things like Zoom from rest of social media. I think for me what feels more exhausting is scrolling through multiple things calling my attention at once which feels so different from a focused conversation or reading one article and stopping there.
This resonates deeply with my recent experience. In September last year, I made the decision to delete my Twitter account, the one social media outlet that I was most active on. The decision was mainly driven by privacy concerns, as companies continue to tweak their terms of use and find legal loopholes to not only use your data, but own it, too. Following the genocide in Gaza, I realised I have no shared values with many social media mutuals. That prompted me to do a cleanse, and also be intentional about how I use social media, and who I let into my real and virtual 'circles', if you will. I would describe myself as a consumer more than a producer of content at this stage, but I certainly intend to 'disconnect'. Thank you for sharing your experience. It's helpful to read a mindful and thought out roadmap to reclaiming our real spaces.
Glad to know this strongly resonated! I remember the time when you first deleted Twitter I was so sad as I gathered lots of resources from you through your tweets. I have had a similar feeling about my friendships at the start of the COVID pandemic and currently as someone who still continues to mask in indoor and crowded spaces since I live with elderly who are high risk and have lost multiple close family members to COVID. While it did lead me to reassess how I interact with them, I have not cut them off either as there are still things about the friendships that I do still value. This and Gaza both had me assess how apathy can show up universally in all of us without minimizing the major consequences apathy can have on humanity. I find it hard to hold both truths at the same time but find it to be important to continue spotting apathy within myself so I can address it.
What a lovely read, thank you Reema. Your post and reflection questions have helped me see that I can be more mindfu and intentional about the ways I interact on social media platforms. Thank you for sharing your insights.
I am glad this spoke to you! Your posts have been a gift for me so I am glad that I can gift this to you!
While social media help democratization( so to speak ) media outlets , and truly enable us to hear voices ,otherwise would have gone unheated , this comes at expenses of novelty and academic rigor , some bloggers circulate populist content that encourages sentimental impulses , rather than rational judgment and reflection , I believe nations become more vulnerable to nationalistic ideology and populist discourse at time of great turmoil and disturbances and paradoxically those are the very times that one should sticks to rational and critical thinking , speaking from a personal experience ( my home country is undergoing one of the worst civil wars ) social media sadly encourages hatred speech ,xenophobia , intolerance , and all the sort , this contents enjoy high popularity and viewership , moreover there is a tendency to criminalize and demonize the more rational content . in conclusion academic rigor vs public
engagement and participation will remains an open question
Thank you for your insights as always Osman. I sometimes find it hard to hold both truths about how on one hand social media brought democratization and space for voices often marginalized in mainstream media but at same time brought about polarization in multiple countries with grave consequences as you have named. I guess there are no clearcut answers like many things in human experience.
I will revisit this post, Reema, as it is near and dear to my heart, as the expression goes. You have presented this so thoughtfully and I did smile when you spoke about missing the intellectual community in Boston. My daughter lived there for a number of years and having moved several years ago, she echoes your sentiment. I will simply say this - while I enjoy some things about social media and have found some excellent group experiences that are hosted on FB, I realize that when I look back at my life prior to its evolution, there was no need for it in my life. It is not to say there are not entertaining and connecting pieces, but I am currently thinking about deleting what does not sere me. I also separate out social media and the way I think about it from Zoom and ways in which we can, yes, connect with family and friends that were not available to us before. The impact on children is a whole other topic, an important one.
I am glad this post spoke to you Dawn! And what a small world! I can resonate with how you separate things like Zoom from rest of social media. I think for me what feels more exhausting is scrolling through multiple things calling my attention at once which feels so different from a focused conversation or reading one article and stopping there.