There is no "normal" way an individual can relate to these things(, or relate to the world at large). Social media is more a financially backed mind-altering alien invasion than some extension of human social life. And yet, people regularly shame each other or themselves about it. Or they provide prescriptive statements as if its about how many cups of water you should drink a day. Its all just a silly circle of normativity on top of a framework that just more or less sells and delivers ads.
Just kind of reflect on your impulse here to be mean to this person, or to poke holes in their story, show their hypocrisy. Why? Whats really at stake here? Is this really something like a moral failing? Do you counter them with a more normal way to be a person? It is precisely bad faith, in Sartre's schema, to act like you know, to forget the ineffable uncertainty of being human and to act like, actually, we are all users, and there are good ways to be one or not, or good places to be a user or not.
To find superiority at all in yourself for your particular consumption or social habits is, if you reflect honestly for a second, the truly shameful thing. We are all figuring it out.
>Social media is more an financially backed mind-altering alien invasion than some extension of human sociality.
It's worse than that, which is why OP is upset.
Social media is more an financially backed mind-altering alien takeover of human sociality.
It's like poisoning the water supply. People can't just say "well, the water's poisonous; obviously the smart choice is to stop drinking water." People need water. People need people. And when your people are socializing on social media, your water supply is poisoned.
Love the description, but what's the solution on an individual level?
I've missed social events in the past and then bumped into someone and they've said something like 'why weren't you at x? Didn't you see it on social media?', nobody asked me directly, so i wasn't aware / didn't go.
Some acquientices and a few friends have a group chat, they meet up about twice a year, but all year round they are posting memes and general nonsense, mostly from the people I barely know, so i put the chat on mute, but then I miss out on the meet ups i've attended for many years, since i didn't even know they where happening, it's just assumed everyone is reading the thousands of messages and huge intrusion of time from everyone all the time.
I feel like it's altered the very way we socialise and not just that, they way we learn about new stuff (most marketing is social media or internet based these days).
this is not meant to be judgmental (of you or your circle of friends), but if nobody asked you directly, would that not send a signal to you that maybe they are not that interested in hanging out?
I personally don't have many friends, but among the few that i have, it is unlikely that they would fail to notify me in person if there was an event that we would mutually enjoy (and vice versa). Are you talking here about more distant acquaintances/coworkers than friends?
These aren't super close friends, from my understanding all the arrangements are done in the group chat, when i saw one of these people in the street they stopped me directly to ask if i was in the group chat, since i hadn't come to the event.
Social media, to me, is groups. Different groups that I associate with. There's family. There's close friends. There's youth sports, which I'm actively involved in. There's funny "I know what I have" groups, poking fun at people wanting way too much money for things.
It is what you make of it. If you make $16/hr and you follow people who post short videos from their yacht, you're gonna have a bad time. If you drive a 1991 Ford Taurus and you follow people who have $4M in vehicles, you're going to have a bad time. If you can't fucking stand your Aunt Suzy with her hot takes, yet you have her listed as a close relative, you're going to have a bad time.
If you coach youth sports and you follow a few local area to fringe area groups, you will find camps/clinics/tournaments, keep up to date in the goings on, and have a good time. If you enjoy working on cars and you follow a few groups related to tips and tricks in that genre, you'll have a good time. If you really want to get into gardening, but don't think you can do it yourself, you can find a local group that does stuff in various community gardens, which will give you a push (in either direction) to help your curiosity about gardening.
Thank you for posting this. Restored a little bit of faith in humanity for me. It just felt like people were being needlessly cruel to someone who is clearly struggling.
Just kind of reflect on your impulse here to be mean to this person, or to poke holes in their story, show their hypocrisy. Why? Whats really at stake here? Is this really something like a moral failing? Do you counter them with a more normal way to be a person? It is precisely bad faith, in Sartre's schema, to act like you know, to forget the ineffable uncertainty of being human and to act like, actually, we are all users, and there are good ways to be one or not, or good places to be a user or not.
To find superiority at all in yourself for your particular consumption or social habits is, if you reflect honestly for a second, the truly shameful thing. We are all figuring it out.