Antisocial Media
“The way we see each other is important. And the way we see each other is being molded and affected without people understanding...”
Welcome.
Also, goodbye.
Aaaaaand, hello.
If you’re here, reading this, odds are good that you already know me. Or, at least, you think you do.
You’ve probably been friends with me on Facebook, or followed my channel on YouTube, in which I semi-regularly livestreamed away our Saturday mornings talking about pop culture and showing off my toys like that spoiled 10-year-old kid in everyone’s class whose parents bought him ALL of the G.I. Joes.
I’ve spent close to four years doing that YouTube livestream, and nearly a full decade shooting unboxing videos, and almost TWO whole decades oversharing and doomscrolling on Facebook.
And, after all that time, I’m finaly figuring some things out.
I think I’ve known all along that, when it comes to “socializing” on social media, you’re never really getting to know anybody. Everything that I put on my Facebook page has been strained through some sort of filter. You’re getting to see a highlight reel. You’re not interacting with me so much as you’re interacting with my PR rep.
But what I’m finally starting to see has less to do with what I post, less to do with what my friends post, and everything to do with what Facebook is urging me to see.
I’m catching a lot of podcasts from people like Sam Harris and Neil DeGrasse Tyson and reading articles in Wired that are leading me to one unmistakable conclusion: Every single one of us with a smart phone and one or more social media accounts is being subjected to a system designed to be addictive, to feed that dopamine need to the point that we want more and more and more.
They’re gaming the same sort of system that goes into the making of slot machines – just giving us that occasional, tiny little drop of what we want to see, bubbling up out of all the sewage comprised of the raw waste that they WANT to feed us.
It’s a mix of love and hate, measured precisely to keep us engaged on the platform. And it’s causing us to disengage from each other.
Well, I’m done with it.
Social media had a good start, based on the optimistic premise that it could unite everyone from afar, allowing for constant updates from friends who are no longer close, providing opportunities to make new friends, new connections. And for a while it might have done just that.
But it’s become something icky. And I refuse to participate. I’m taking back my time, and taking back my life.
I’m doing that by getting out of the house, and getting into people. Actual people, not their digital representation. I’ll be walking through parks and hiking up trails and eating in pubs and biking ‘round town and flying all manner of places.
I’ve walked away from making fresh YouTube content. I’ve been clear about the reasons for that in my livestreams on the channel, and you can listen to them there, if you haven’t already.
Similarly, I’ve recently deactivated (but not deleted) my Facebook page. This is only temporary, as a means to break the habit. Once I’m confident that I’ve conquered the need to doomscroll, I’ll reactivate it, but only as a means of sharing posts on this blog, or in the gallery. Nothing more.
This whole idea means that I’ll be making sacrifices. Along with shedding myself of the content that Facebook forces onto my timeline, I’ll also be losing track of everyone else’s daily happenings. And that makes me sad.
But I’m really hoping that some of you will witness what I’m trying to do here, and do it yourselves if you can. Because I really do feel that, in light of current events, what we really all need is to be more Antisocial.
So that’s the first post in my new blog, which will make up one part of my creative outlet, and most of which will be paired with photography, I hope. These will include fresh shots with a camera that will be my constant companion wherever I go (think street photography, nature photography, portraits, etc.). I’m gonna document my adventures, big and small.
I’ll also be adding images to the gallery that are both new and old. So the gallery will likely be terribly organized at first. You’ll see images from my days as a community photojournalist, new portrait work, and probably a lot of toy photography from my days doing that both professionally and as a hobbyist. (And, in direct contravention to what I’ve stated in my final livestream, there may even be some fresh toy photography in the not-to-distant future. Maybe.)
I’m hoping to be fairly consistent with this, now that I’ve reclaimed my time. I hope you’ll join me here. Thanks for popping in!
